Pompey boss John Mousinho previews the Championship trip to West Brom on Saturday.
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00:00I don't really know, to be honest. It's nothing that we do deliberately. Whenever we speak
00:12about things at half-time, there's a big focus around what we're going to do in the second
00:16half and how important the start is. So it's not like we've changed the message. We haven't
00:20been saying go out and play any differently or not talked about the intensity that we
00:25need coming out in the second half. But I think the execution has just been a bit better.
00:29We've been a bit smarter about how we do things. The third goal yesterday comes from
00:32us keeping a really decent line from a free-kick. It was something that was really critical
00:36of us away at Wickham when we conceded the second goal from just being really sloppy
00:41from a set-piece. So we defended the set-piece properly. We decided to set up and go a bit
00:45longer and dominated the physical battles at the top end of the pitch. Without doing
00:49anything spectacular, we found ourselves with the ball in the back of the net from a corner.
00:52Just doing the basics really well. It's not just the start of halves, it's all through
00:55the game we need to do that.
00:56Jordan Williams received a lot of praise last night for his performance, but equally through
01:00this season we've seen Zaps Watson and Terry Devlin also getting a lot of credit for their
01:05performances. Is that right-back area probably the most difficult selection you have to make
01:09weekly or is that now William Shurton?
01:11No, I think it's still a really difficult selection for us every week because of the
01:14fact that all three players are so different. So we just pick the right-back from day-to-day
01:18based on who we think is best to suit that game. And it gives us a nice luxury and a
01:23nice selection headache I think that we don't necessarily have ever across the pitch.
01:27Yeah, going across the left-back though, Conor Owens seems to be the only available option.
01:30He seems to really be producing some top-class, consistent performances.
01:36Yeah, exactly is that really. I think if you look at the performances that stick in my
01:41mind over the past couple of days, he was excellent against what I think is Ben Doak,
01:45probably the best winger in the league, if not certainly up there with one of the best.
01:49Really, really kept him quiet and we saw Doak's quality on Tuesday night when he scored that
01:55goal, put it in the top corner against West Brom up at the Riverside. So he's done that.
01:59I think he did it again last night against Moran. Again, an excellent player who's caused
02:03us lots of problems and caused us a lot of problems up at Stoke as well. So really,
02:08really pleased with Conor's contribution against those wingers, but also then going forward and
02:11taking them the other way and having that goal-scoring contribution, which ever since
02:15he's been here, I think apart from last year, to be honest, I think in my first season here,
02:19I think he got about five or six goals and yeah, probably wanted a few more last year,
02:24but he's back on it this year in terms of goal-scoring contributions.
02:27Are there any plans to add more depth in that area of tips at the moment?
02:30Nothing at the moment. I think it's a really difficult one for us to properly nail down.
02:36We've got priorities elsewhere on the pitch and when we talk about the markets we're in,
02:41if we're in the loan markets, we don't want to have a squad that's overinflated with loans.
02:45So at the minute, we're keeping an eye out if anything pops up, but nothing looks likely.
02:51Tom Waddington's now in the building, obviously he's come from the A-leagues,
02:54so not a lot of football fans have seen much of him. What kind of attributes and qualities
02:58do you expect him to bring? I think he's, well, I know having looked at him and obviously having
03:04seen him in the building now, that he is very good athletically in terms of a centre forward.
03:09Six foot six foot one, mobile, athletic, he's quick as well. So off the ball works incredibly
03:17hard, he's pressing stats in terms of what we see from the A-league are really, really high and
03:21physical data is really high as well. He's tidy enough on the ball, that's definitely an area
03:26in terms of back to goal and making sure that he links play and improves upon that. That's
03:30something that we want to work on, but what he's managed to do in his short time playing
03:34sort of playing professional football as well, is have an effect on the goal scoring chart. So he's
03:40scored plenty of goals and he's been really effective there. So a huge amount to work on,
03:43but in terms of the centre forward profile that we're looking to bring in, there's a lot of
03:46problems there. And off the pitch with the Australian contingent that are already here,
03:50it must make things a lot easier for you to settle in? I think so, he's walking into a
03:53dressing room straight away with the likes of Jacob Farrell, the likes of Kasimi Yengi and
03:58I think it becomes a very natural place to settle into anyway. Culturally, I think the two countries
04:05have got massive similarities, certainly in terms of sports as well. So I think that makes it
04:10slightly easier sometimes for players coming from different countries that are a lot closer. So I
04:14know it's a long, long way away, but culturally it's a good fit, I think. And that's one of the
04:18reasons we do like to bring the Australian players over. On to West Brom on Saturday,
04:22Tony Mowbray in his infancy going back to the club, does it make it harder to prepare your team
04:27analyse-wise, what can you expect from West Brom? Maybe, maybe. We've only got one game to go off
04:34in terms of what to expect, but who knows, we have to make sure that we're adaptable. But
04:40certainly don't expect it to deviate a huge amount from that. I thought the performance
04:43against Middlesbrough the other night was pretty good from West Brom. I thought they got slightly
04:46unlucky, they got caught on the counter for the second goal. There's plenty of scope to change,
04:50but yeah, we have to make sure that we're adaptable and we're flexible and we're willing
04:56to adjust to the situation. And any new availability selection-wise, players coming back into Saturday,
05:03is it very much as you were for the weekend? I think it'll be as you were for the weekend.
05:07We're going to take a view on Connor Shot and see tomorrow, but the likelihood is we'll probably
05:11leave him out in the Travelling Squad, give him another weekend to make sure he's fully at it
05:16for next week. And Marco Mane is the other one that's close, but he's not quite ready yet. So
05:20he did about half the training session today. We pulled him out as was planned, did a bit of
05:24running at the end, so we'll build him up to full training before we get him back in. But apart from
05:27that, everything's the same. Thank you. Why are Pogby so good at home and can that be replicated
05:32away from home? If I had the answer, then that's obviously my job. That's obviously my job. So
05:38without joking, that's what we need to try and get better at. And part of it is a bit of a,
05:45that's not the answer if one wants to hear, bit of a mystery at times, because we've been really,
05:49really good at home. I want us to take that away from home. I want to take that confidence and
05:53that positivity that we have away from home. And to be honest, we've done that at times,
05:57and we've done it in patches. We've just never really sustained that pressure that we can put
06:02teams under at home. Part of it's the crowd and part of it's home familiarity. There is a big
06:07disparity in home away results this year in the Championship, I think more so than there has been
06:12for the past 10 or so years in terms of away win percentages. But yeah, we need to be better. We
06:17need to be better away from home. It's certainly something that's not lost on us and hopefully we
06:21can start the weekend. Your pressing style, is it better suited for home games, do you think?
06:26Maybe we just take a bit more confidence from being able to do it at home. And that's something
06:30that we have with the crowd behind us. Sides play a slightly different way. Yeah, I think that's
06:37maybe something to take into account. We also want to be aggressive away from home. We think
06:42we're much better when we're on the front foot and we do press sides and make it difficult for
06:45them. I think when we've executed the press properly away from home, then we've looked like
06:50a good side. If you look at the whole game, I know we didn't win it, but Hull, Plymouth,
06:55QPR, some of our better performances, even Watford, we've managed to do it. And just the
07:00ones where we don't make good enough decisions, we don't execute things quite as well as we should
07:04do, we've been unpicked at times. So when you started off saying that you wish you knew the
07:08answer, obviously you've been analysing it and trying to work it out yourself.
07:12Yeah, of course. As much as sometimes we raise our eyebrows after home games and obviously enjoy
07:19them, we think, right, what do we need to do? What do we need to instil in the boys to give
07:24them that confidence away from home as well? Because ultimately, you know, Stoke, what a
07:28perfect example, right? It's pretty much, if you take Tom Cannon out the side, it is pretty much
07:35the same side that we played up at their place four or five months ago and got beaten really,
07:40really badly at 6-1. So yeah, we've got to try and convince the lads, you're playing the same
07:45set of players, you're not playing the stadium, you're not playing the history of the club,
07:49it's just 11 versus 11 and we have to try and be better at the certain things we're doing.
07:53If a lot of the time it doesn't, we're just full of confidence at home and we need to really take
07:57that, particularly after those two home wins, you know, bag it up and take it up to the Hawthorns.
08:02With the Fixtures, as they are, playing three games a week,
08:06mid-week as well, is there a case of perhaps rotate players for West Brom?
08:10There's definitely a case. We've got to be careful because we want to go and do as best we can up at
08:15West Brom and get a result. I think that's the most important thing that we try and build on
08:18and the decent position we put ourselves in. And there's that, but then there's also the fact that
08:23we have to protect first of all against injuries, fatigue and, you know, freshness in terms of
08:27performance. Sometimes having that freshness coming in does increase the performance. So
08:31we've got to get that balance right. We have to get that balance right. And when we've done it in
08:35the past, it hasn't necessarily worked and paid off, but I do think we're in a better spot as a
08:40squad at the moment. And that's ultimately the point of having a squad. And when people have
08:45stepped in recently and started games, they've come in and done really well. So we need to
08:48be able to do that if we make more than one change, if that's what we decide to do. So yes,
08:54it's definitely a factor, one that we'll weigh up over the next day or so and come to a conclusion
08:57on team selection. Is it a case of being realistic because you've got Millwall at home on
09:02Tuesday night and then compared to West Brom away and winnable games and then...
09:07Yeah, it comes into it. The evidence would say otherwise, obviously, but we see every game as
09:13a winnable game. We haven't actually sort of lived up to that this season with the away games, but
09:18we do see every game as a winnable game and we think we can go up to West Brom and make a real
09:22fist of it. I think to a certain extent, the pressure is completely off. Portsmouth up there,
09:29the pressure is going to be on West Brom to go and get a result. I don't know if sometimes,
09:33again, if that works for or against us. I think when we've had these highly pressurized games at
09:37home, we've been very good. So maybe that's part of the answer is that we try and really increase
09:42the pressure internally to make sure that we do put in the performance and get a result.
09:45But yeah, all of those factors we take into account as we did over that Christmas period
09:49as well. I think we just have to make sure that we're not naive, first of all, to make sure that
09:55we don't have that sort of worst case scenario where we injure players unnecessarily.
10:00And presumably, Rob Atkinson's part of the equation there about
10:03where they keep giving him first team starts at the moment.
10:05Yeah, we'll weigh that up with Rob. Rob's output last night in terms of physicality was really
10:14good, but not too high. So it wasn't too high because I think we controlled the game in the
10:18second half. It wasn't a basketball game, it wasn't end-to-end. We didn't allow ourselves
10:22to be opened up in the channels too much, which really helped protect our centre-backs.
10:25So that from a physical standpoint was really pleasing. I thought that's one of the reasons
10:29that we left Rob on and we kept him there for the 90 minutes, whereas on Saturday we thought
10:33and the game had opened up a little bit more and we needed to get him off and get fresh legs in
10:38there. So it was slightly different last night. But yeah, definitely a consideration as well.
10:41But yeah, we'll have to see and make the decision tomorrow.
10:44Will Thomas Waddington be involved in the squad at all Saturday?
10:48He'll definitely come and travel with us, whether he's involved in the squad or not.
10:52We have to get the final permission to make sure that can happen from the league.
10:56And then on squad selection, it will be on squad selection after that, but he'll be up there with
11:01us. Has he trained today for the first time?
11:02He trained today, yeah. He trained today for the second time, I think. I'm trying to think
11:08if Tom trained on Tuesday as well, or Wednesday. Tuesday, Tuesday.
11:14The reason why he wasn't involved yesterday, is that because of registration?
11:17Yeah, yeah. So not at all yet.
11:20And in terms of injury as well, can we shock and see, is he going to be back in the squad
11:23at all this weekend?
11:24Shock's probably not for West Brom. We're still going to make it. We're going to make
11:27a late decision on when tomorrow. I think really with where we are, we've got strength and depth
11:33at centre-half in the squad, so we've got the four competing for those spots at the minute.
11:38We want shock's back in, don't get me wrong, we want him back into the squad, we want him
11:42competing. But we think for the sake of an extra weekend, with the amount of games coming up,
11:45we might just give him that. So shock's has trained all week, I think this will be his
11:51second full week's worth of training, or third full week's worth of training, which
11:54I think once we get to Monday next week, I'll be a lot happier about throwing him into first
11:58team action.
11:59And Regan Paul?
12:00Regan's not quite there yet, he's still a couple of weeks away from getting back on
12:03the training ground, so Regan's a bit behind.
12:05So you're obviously trying to get him back. Is he collecting new injuries in training?
12:11No, the hamstring has just niggled and stayed there for a bit longer than we thought, and
12:17he's felt his calf a little bit on that side as well. It's all a consequence of the knee
12:22surgery that he's had. These things definitely happen when you've had knee surgery and everything
12:25else is knocked out of balance. The ACL is stronger than it's ever been, but you have
12:29a hamstring graft on that side, it affects the calf, it affects the hip, all these sort
12:32of things. So, yeah, just a few things that we need to get right with Regan before he's
12:36back and he's back in full training.
12:39When are you looking for him, realistically?
12:41I think a couple of weeks before he's back in full training.
12:43So are these fresh setbacks, or is it just a continuation of the issue?
12:47More a continuation of the issues and just things not quite clearing up as quickly as
12:51we would have hoped. It's more a consequence of the fact that Regan was out for so long.
12:57When was the last time he trained?
13:00Before the Norwich game.
13:03He hasn't come back in training and got re-injured.
13:05I suppose you've got to be careful with him as well, of course.
13:08Yeah, definitely. Another one of those where we've had centre-backs that are out for a
13:12while and we need to keep on top of them. Regan's one of them. We have to be careful
13:16with him because of the nature of the injury.