Pompey boss John Mousinho gives the latest on Manchester City midfielder Alex Robertson's injury, transfer window news and previews Leyton Orient.
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00:00 Jon, obviously we'll start off with the news that Alex Robertson has just come out and
00:04 he's got his hamstring injury, which means he's unlikely to play again this season.
00:08 Yeah, a real blow and not the news that we were expecting, or not the news we were hoping
00:12 for anyway. We knew it might be relatively significant from the way that he walked off
00:15 the training pitch and yeah, really disappointing because he was in such good form, he'd been
00:20 such a good performer through the season and we really feel unfortunate for Alex because
00:25 of the progression we thought he would make here. He's back at Man City now getting treatment
00:29 and a real bit of laughing for everyone involved.
00:33 Is that hit now for him, do you think he'll come back?
00:36 Well, this season, probably not. I think there's every chance that he gets back and he's fit
00:43 and he's outside and he's probably training but I think the severity of the injury means
00:47 that he would be very lucky to be available for any games this year. If he is then it's
00:53 a bonus but we're making sure that Robert gets the best possible treatment first and
00:57 foremost and gets back nice and strong and fit and we don't know if it's going to be
01:00 this year.
01:01 Is it possible to pinpoint the reasons why it occurred?
01:03 You can look at a million different things when you're looking for injuries. We'll obviously
01:06 have a full rundown of what we think we possibly could have done different or done better but
01:13 you can look at, honestly and I've done it myself with injuries, you can look at a thousand
01:18 different things. You can look at training minutes, the position of your car seat, orthotics,
01:23 your back, how your neck felt in the morning. All of these things we do have to take into
01:27 account but I think if you go on a real hunt to try and pin down too many things you can
01:32 find a thousand different reasons as to why it happened. We felt obviously that he was
01:36 good enough to go into training on a Thursday. He's pretty much trained every single session
01:40 so far this year. He's been available for the majority of the games. He's played 90
01:45 minutes for a lot of them. He didn't have a huge workload over Christmas because of
01:48 the fact that when he did play I think he came off in at least three of those four games.
01:55 We obviously will have a look and review from our end but injuries unfortunately happened.
01:59 I want to think that it's not severe when your hamstring goes like that. There's always
02:05 things you look at. Maybe it's not something that acutely happened. Something we'll have
02:10 to look at with Robbo a bit further down the line and just make sure everything is aligned
02:15 and make sure that he progresses further in his career without having those injuries again.
02:18 Have you spoken to him?
02:19 Yes, he's obviously disappointed. He's really down. He wanted to play here for the rest
02:24 of the season. He was in great form. I think the positivity around him was justified. He
02:29 just wants to play football so unfortunately for him he's not going to be able to do that.
02:33 In terms of his loan now, is that cancelled?
02:35 No, we don't have the power to cancel the loan. It doesn't actually make a difference
02:40 to us. There's obviously the finance involved in it because we're obviously paying for
02:44 him but in terms of our ability to bring in another loan it doesn't really impact that.
02:50 Financially as well, you've still got to pay for the rest of the season I suppose, don't you?
02:55 Yes, but not to be flippant with money but one of the benefits of the ownership and the
03:02 way they're backing us at the moment is that the owners have been really clear about saying
03:07 if Alex is injured and the loan isn't terminated then we're not going to look at that money
03:12 and say that's part of your budget that's eating up if we want to do something else
03:15 then the availability is there to do it.
03:18 And for the squad as well, you're clearly a popular lad around the place.
03:21 Yes, really popular lad. All the lads are really. There's never been an injury where
03:25 the lads haven't been upset about it. Everyone's obviously rally round Robbo. We've got to
03:31 get on with it unfortunately. We've got to make sure that we do everything we possibly
03:34 can to go and win games on the pitch but I think any of these lads that end up with any
03:40 injury, whether it's short term, long term, I think there's always a reaction from the
03:44 lads and that's a disappointment.
03:46 In terms of other players, Josh Oluyemi, how's the situation with him in the Finnish club?
03:52 Yes, nothing's finalised at the moment. We're just working to make sure that both parties
03:57 are happy with the terms that Josh departs on and everything's amicable. I think the
04:03 big news for us at the moment or the big game for us at the moment is just to make sure
04:06 that Josh progresses in his career and moves on. I think this is the best possible way
04:10 for him to do it. I think if he has an opportunity to go elsewhere then we can do everything
04:14 we can to make that happen for him.
04:15 You mentioned that amicable. He came up to us earlier and shook our hands as well. Big
04:19 smile on his face. He wants to move on there and do well and get regular football hopefully.
04:24 Yes, it's just obviously about opportunities and Josh's opportunities here this year have
04:27 been limited and with how well I think Will's done it's very difficult for Josh to see that
04:34 progression at this football club. We don't want to clog anyone's future up. I'm sure
04:38 Josh will go on and have a great career and that's what it's about for us, making sure
04:41 that he progresses further down the line and goes and is a success for himself.
04:46 Any idea when the time frame when that will be completed?
04:48 I think within the next week or so hopefully.
04:50 In regards to the game as well, it's obviously been a blip at the moment. How have you guys
04:54 come through this now?
04:55 I think that we've got to make sure that we stay calm and stay focused on what's made
05:01 us a decent side up to this point this season and don't panic and don't throw the baby out
05:05 with the bathwater. I think that's the most important thing is to focus on performance,
05:09 make sure that we perform well. The majority of the time this year when we perform well
05:13 we've got results off the back of it and that's where we're going to focus this weekend.
05:17 I think that even over the last five games we haven't won as many games as we would have
05:21 liked to have won but there were a couple of losses in there particularly where I thought
05:25 we actually deserved to win the game, Bristol Rovers and the weekend in particular. Of course
05:29 we've got to do better and address a couple of those issues, particularly in the final
05:32 third where we're not putting sides to bed and we're not putting their keeper under enough
05:38 pressure. It's not just the finishing, I think it's the way that we create and how much we
05:43 waste some opportunities in the final third as well. So that's been a big focus of us
05:47 in training this week, making sure we get into areas and we create a few more chances
05:51 and actually test the goalkeeper.
05:53 Those four games you haven't won, you've actually dominated them still haven't you?
05:56 Yeah and that's why there's no panic setting in here. If you look at those, certainly we
06:02 dominated the game against Fleetwood, I thought we were disappointing in the second half there.
06:06 It was after the game and now still disappointed with the way we played. Bristol Rovers I thought
06:13 we deserved to win the game to be honest. Exeter I didn't think we deserved to win the
06:17 game, I thought we were a bit poor and a bit low on energy that night and the other day
06:22 against Cheltenham, I think if you play that game another hundred times we win it, the
06:25 majority of it. But we obviously have got to address a couple of those areas where we
06:30 haven't put the ball in the back of the net and a couple of moments of madness that have
06:33 led to Cheltenham scoring and then being able to hold onto the lead. We know that any side
06:37 we play against at this level, they're more than capable of punishing us.
06:40 And how is confidence at the moment?
06:42 Yeah confidence is fine, it's one of those things where confidence picks up the minute
06:46 you score or confidence picks up the minute you win a game. We have to be a confident
06:49 side going into the game over the weekend, we're still top of the league, we're still
06:53 in a really, really fantastic position. I think obviously if anyone had offered us this
06:57 position at the start of the year or a few points earlier in the season I'm sure we would
07:01 have taken it. So we've got to take the perspective there. Things have come at a time when if
07:06 it's spread out, if those losses and those draws are spread out at a different time in
07:10 the season I think no-one's worried about it. Of course we've got to address the fact
07:13 that they've happened now and they've happened all at once but the positive for us is that
07:16 we're still in a really, really strong position having not won as many games as we would have
07:20 liked to have in the last five.
07:22 Thank you very much.