'He's very realistic': Portsmouth boss' strong message as he addresses Colby Bishop form concerns
Colby Bishop has scored 57 goals for Portsmouth since joining from Accrington in July 2022
John Mousinho admits Colby Bishop will ‘want to improve’ his current Pompey form.
Yet the head coach is confident the popular striker will bounce back from a goal-scoring dip to inspire the Blues.
Bishop has scored once in eight appearances and also missed a penalty during a low-key start to the season for the prolific former Accrington man.
Undoubtedly, he has been impacted the most by the ongoing absence of the injured Josh Murphy, who again remains a doubt for Saturday's visit of Middlesbrough.
Nonetheless, the 28-year-old’s form has been questioned by some of the Fratton faithful after another blank against Watford in Wednesday night’s 2-2 draw.
Although Mousinho is convinced Bishop, as ever, will come back fighting and firing in goals.
Portsmouth boss: He always comes back and proves everyone wrong
He told The News: ‘In terms of goalscoring, Colby is always going to be disappointed with not scoring. He has proven time and time again that he’s got the ability to come back and put the ball into the back of the net.
‘For my very first season here (2022-2023), there were question marks over him with a short barren run he had towards the back of the campaign and he ended up with 24 goals. Then he got 21 goals in the promotion season.
‘In a lot of ways, he probably bettered that last year. Not in terms of sheer numbers but managing to score 11 goals in a season where he had open-heart surgery.
‘Colby will want to score more, I am sure he will want to improve upon his form at the moment as well, he’s a very realistic young lad and knows exactly where he needs to improve.
‘Certainly there are a lot (of players) at the minute we can ask a bit more from. There are plenty of areas of improvement and plenty of things we can do better. There are certain things we can do as a team as well to help him more.
‘There is never any question in my mind how good Colby is, the contribution he’s had to this football club and what he will do going forward.
‘Any time there has ever been any doubt in his contribution and playing ability, he comes back and proves everyone wrong, I have seen it time and time and time again.
‘There’s no issue, anyone can break down performance and criticise individuals or the team, but, certainly in Colby’s case, he has proven how big a player he is for us and how important he is for the football club.
‘Ultimately, I know he’s going to keep doing it for many years.’
No recognised centre-forward as back-up
Pompey opted to face Watford on Wednesday night without a recognised centre-forward among the substitutes as Bishop featured for the entirety of the 2-2 draw.
While Thomas Waddingham has a torn thigh and is out for up to three months, Makenzie Kirk was dropped from the squad following successive appearances off the bench.
The Scottish striker had been earmarked as competition for Bishop, following his deadline day arrival from St Johnstone for a fee of around £500,000.
Instead, Mousinho favoured versatile attacker Florian Bianchi as the centre-forward back up to Bishop, should the need arise against the Hornets.
‘I don’t think that would be particularly fair’
Pompey’s head coach added: ‘We didn’t bring him in as a centre-forward, but Florian played 90 per cent of the time last season as a centre-forward for Swansea when he was on the pitch.
‘We took the view on balance that, should something happen to Colby early on, if we wanted to make the change we would do with Florian.
‘That’s rather than chucking Makenzie in at the deep end. I didn’t think that would be particularly fair on him having just come over from Scotland recently.’