'His best game in a Portsmouth shirt': Boss lauds Fratton favourite's performances in new Blues role
John Mousinho felt Christian Saydee’s Luton performance was his Pompey high - then he spectacularly surpassed it.
An impressive two-goal haul at Middlesbrough left the head coach applauding the attacker’s finest performance in a Blues shirt.
Asked to operate at centre-forward for the second match running, Saydee produced a powerful, strong-running display with a welcome cutting edge as he caused plenty of problems in last weekend’s 2-2 draw.
Having largely operated behind the striker since arriving from Bournemouth in the summer of 2023, it was a rare glimpse of the 22-year-old leading the line.
And Mousinho is convinced Saydee can continue at centre-forward for Pompey.
He told The News: ‘I thought he was really good against Luton, the best game he had played in a Pompey shirt.
‘But I will probably revise that and say Middlesbrough was, once the dust settles!
‘Chris’ problem has probably not been scoring enough goals throughout his time at Pompey. He scored his first league goal for the club when we beat Oxford in March, which was a massive goal for us, then he scored against Wycombe.
‘So those aspects of his game are really improving. We know what a handful he is, it’s getting the right balance between who plays as a 10 and who plays as a centre-forward - and on Saturday you could see what a difficult time he gave two really, really experienced centre-halves.
‘He holds the ball up really well, he causes issues, he brings players into play, and that’s what we expect from centre-forwards, not just scoring goals.
‘We definitely think Chris can play as a centre-forward, that’s why we played him there at Middlesbrough, that’s why we played him there against Luton.
‘We thought he could link the play really well and be that focal point of the attack - and he has done it really well.’
Saydee now has six goals in 46 appearances for the Blues, although just 21 of those have been starts.
And Mousinho is adamant the ex-Bournemouth man isn’t solely judged on his goals output.
He added: ‘Scoring is a really good attribute, but if you look at the top Championship centre-forwards and any centre-forward at the top level they do much more than that.
‘Their all-round game is brilliant, no team can really afford to carry that traditional number nine that just scores.’