'Blatantly obvious': Portsmouth boss John Mousinho on the playing style change which is firing Blues towards safety
The head coach on the tactical tweeks which have reaped 11 points from 15 games - and potential safety
John Mousinho has revealed changing Pompey’s playing style has been pivotal to the remarkable transformation taking them to the brink of survival.
The Blues head to Premier League-bound Coventry on Tuesday night (7.45pm) tantalisingly close to securing their Championship stay for another season.
Mousinho admits he was forced into a tactical rethink following last month’s 6-1 humbling at QPR which left Pompey winless in six matches and spiralling towards League One.
Subsequently Implementing a more direct approach to their play, the head coach also opted to grind out results at Norwich and Middlesbrough by killing the game and frustrating the home sides.
As a consequence, the Blues have reaped 11 points from 15 matches since the international break, rocketing them into 18th place, seven points clear of the relegation zone.
And Mousinho is delighted that the tactical tweaks have made such a crucial impact during the business end of the season.
‘I just want to take the pressure off the lads and simplify things a bit’
He told The News: ‘We haven’t changed things fundamentally, but we have talked about maybe being slightly more direct early on - and sometimes that filters into being a bit more direct for 90 minutes.
‘Ironically, Saturday was such a scrappy game, a really poor game of football, but when we actually scored, the build up to us winning the corner was actually getting into our shape, playing some really good football. Colby found Segs around the corner for that really good chance off and we won the corner.
‘There’s still plenty of opportunities for us to play, I just want to maybe take the pressure off the lads and simplify things a bit.
‘We had the conversation after QPR. What was blatantly obvious to me is we can still be incredibly ruthless in both boxes, like we have been over the past few games, but also play good football between that.
‘It’s just that it’s sometimes difficult to get the balance and the mentality right. If we are going to be properly ruthless on the front foot, then maybe we have to be a bit more direct.
‘Early on at QPR, I thought we could play around their shape quickly. I don’t think we got it hugely tactically wrong, but whatever message I gave to the players meant we were too slow and played in front of them too much - and that was 100 per cent my fault.
‘Norwich was a good start, we decided to go a bit different. We were very deliberate, slowing the game down, we didn’t want to invite pressure.
‘Oxford we completely went the opposite way. We wanted to go on the front foot, we wanted to play, we wanted to absolutely kill them by playing football and we did that for 17 minutes before the sending off.
‘There has been a mixture since then. Middlesbrough was much more Norwich-like, Ipswich was closer to Oxford, but with a bit more defensive display, and Leicester was a bit of a scrappy one.’
Portsmouth can secure Championship safety on Tuesday night
Even defeat at Coventry on Tuesday night could be enough to secure Pompey’s Championship survival, should Oxford United also lose.
Curiously, Pompey are three points short of matching last season’s points tally of 54 as their positive end to the campaign continues at pace.
Mousinho added: ‘Against Hull and Sheffield United, we weren’t clinical enough in the final third and we didn’t take advantage of those set-pieces which we created.
‘They were obviously big, frustrating days, I thought Derby was pretty similar as well, but what’s changed? I don't think a huge amount has changed since then.
‘We haven’t been on the receiving end of scoring from set-plays and maybe a couple of refereeing decisions here and there. It’s always a strange one to try to get the right balance.’