'Sensible thing to do': Portsmouth boss John Mousinho defends substitution decision after supporter criticism
The midfielder has picked up three bookings in nine appearances this season
John Mousinho defended his decision to substitute Ebou Adams at St Mary’s and insisted: You have to be sensible.
The midfielder was enjoying a fine match upon his starting XI recall and was instrumental in the sending off of Cameron Bragg, with the Southampton player having fouled the Pompey man for each of his two yellow cards.
With Adams himself on a booking, Mousinho opted to bring off the former Derby man in the 65th minute as part of a triple change, with Odin Bailey effectively replacing him.
The decision drew criticism from sections of the Fratton faithful, disappointed to be without their best outfield player on the day as the south-coast derby ended in a 1-0 defeat. But Mousinho has explained his reasoning.
‘I didn’t want to take that chance’
He told The News: ‘There was a real feeling I had on the day that there was a danger with the lads on yellow cards.
‘If you look at the refereeing as a whole, first of all I look at Ebou’s booking. I can't for the life of me understand why he has been booked in the first place, I thought it was a very, very strange decision.
‘So Ebou is now walking on egg shells and there’s a couple of challenges in the second half he had to pull out of. When you’re in a derby and we have the expectation of Southampton catching us on the break, you might have to foul occasionally and might have to take that second yellow - and I didn’t want to take that chance.
‘Every time there was a challenge that went in, the Southampton bench were very very vocal and strong in numbers asking for yellow cards.
‘The referee didn’t send Finn Azaz off when it was a clear red card in my opinion, so I was weighing up the balance of all of that and thought the best decision was to protect Ebou.
‘Cyle Larin got booked for asking for a booking. Every time there was a foul, there was a clear want from the fans and Southampton staff to even things up, so we had to be careful there.
‘You have to be sensible with these things.’
Three bookings in nine appearances this season
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Adams has been booked three times in his nine appearances this season.
He was given yellow cards in just three of 16 Blues outings last term, although arrived from Derby in January with plenty in the bank, putting him on the verge of a two-game ban after nine bookings.
However, Adams managed to avoid a suspension by escaping being carded in six successive matches to beat the deadline.
Mousinho added: ‘It’s one of those things we spoke about with Ebou last year, he was on nine bookings for a long time. Whether that took an edge out of his game I don’t know, it was around the time where we went on a difficult run of games and didn’t win many.
‘The way Ebou plays and gets involved in everything, there is probably some element of it that, if you are going to take a booking, make sure it's for a bookable offence.’
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