John Mousinho's intriguing playing style pledge as he plots evolving Portsmouth into Championship force
With their Championship future at stake, practicality triumphed over principles - but Pompey fans have been told to expect a different playing style next season.
It was November when the winning formula which inspired the Blues to be crowned League One champions was ripped up by John Mousinho in favour of focusing on a method to avoid relegation.
Introduced at Hull when Pompey were languishing at the foot of the Championship, the high-pressing, more direct approach has subsequently dragged them five points clear of the drop zone.
The short-term tactic has presented Pompey with a fighting chance of retaining their hard-earned status at this level with seven games remaining.
And Mousinho is plotting evolving his team’s playing style once more next season - hopefully to flourish in Championship football.
The head coach told The News: ‘I would be very, very surprised if our playing style doesn’t change between now and next season, regardless of league position.
‘Football is constantly evolving tactically anyway and, while we don’t want to follow the crowd, we want to keep up with what we think is the best thing to do.
‘Probably, in order to progress as a team, we might need to tweak that further as we go along, but it won’t be wholesale changes. There might be games where we want to have a bit more impetus in possession and build in a different way.
‘At the minute, we are doing things in a certain way because the priority is to stay in the Championship. However, there's always room for change, we constantly evolve as a side, we always have done during the two years I’ve been here - and I think it will continue.
‘Ahead of Hull we had two choices. We could keep doing what we were doing and not winning games or we could try to change it - and that’s what we did. The boys took that on really well, particularly the out-of-possession work.
‘I looked at it as a new manager coming in and thought what would I do with this group? The answer at that time was we were shipping far too many goals, looking far too open at the back and not pressing with enough structure and organisation. So that’s what we wanted to focus on.
‘I don’t know what would have happened if we hadn’t changed, I might not be sitting here talking to you now, who knows.
‘The changes have gone a long way in helping us pick up some points. Even after that Hull game - whether it is noticeable or not - we’ve tweaked a huge amount in terms of the way we’ve played, a bit of formation, a bit of personnel and we’ll continue to do that.
‘All we are ever going to be concerned with at the football club is winning games and trying to do that in whatever way we can.’
Matt Ritchie the catalyst
Pompey had collected just eight points from their opening 12 matches when they headed to Hull in November.
Mousinho chose Matt Ritchie to be the figurehead of the new playing blueprint, handing the energetic midfielder only his second start of the season.
Mousinho added: ‘To be honest, when you talk about my (playing) principles, look at the way we went about our business last season. We ended up dominating games in terms of possession, but a lot of teams naturally sat off, whether it was at Fratton Park or away from home.
‘When teams sit off deep, the best option for us most of the time last season wasn’t just to crash it forward, it was to play and build through lines. We had players good enough to do it.
‘We were never afraid to go more direct when sides pressed us. Peterborough were a really good example away from home, we were happy going more direct. Bolton were one of the best pressing sides last year, we didn’t try to relentlessly play through the lines against them.
‘We always felt the best option was to look at games individually and look at opposition individually, trying to work out how best we could expose them, particularly with a centre-forward like Colby up top, you can do it.
‘We haven’t changed that philosophy a huge amount, just the situation in games has changed. Championship sides are all extremely athletic, they press a lot more aggressively, are probably more organised and better defensively. So we must find different ways of coping with that.’
Your Next Pompey Story: Pompey boss' strong message to clubs eyeing prized asset