Life without Matt Ritchie: Portsmouth boss John Mousinho on solving his ongoing right-wing headache
Pompey have named five different starters on the right wing so far this season
Pompey are still auditioning to fill the troublesome right-wing position vacated by Matt Ritchie.
And, having employed five different players in the role during their opening eight fixtures, John Mousinho is demanding a challenger step forward to seize the opportunity.
Callum Lang, Terry Devlin, Florian Bianchini, Adrian Segecic and Mark Kosznovszky have all started on the right flank this season, with mixed results.
Certainly Mousinho’s choice has been impacted by injury to Lang and another contender in Harvey Blair, who is still rehabilitating after tearing his hamstring in the final game of last season.
Portsmouth boss: ‘We are looking for someone to really step up’
Nonetheless, the head coach is adamant he possesses ‘loads of options’ for the problematic position - he just needs someone to claim it.
The head coach told The News: ‘The right wing has been a position we had been looking to strengthen over the summer and we brought in a couple of players who can play there in Florian and Minhyeok.
‘Segs has had a spell out there as well and Callum (Lang) actually performed very, very well, certainly in the Oxford game, in the short time when he played in that position.
‘Franco is the other player we’ve brought in who we haven’t seen anything of yet, while Harvey is waiting to make his first appearance of the season and can operate on the left or right.
‘We’ve had to chop and change a bit, but there are loads of options. It’s just up to the players to actually grasp that and take it on board and make it their own.
‘Clearly with the injuries we have at the minute, we were doing all the preparation work for Ipswich and there was Murphy, Franco and Harvey missing. We didn’t necessarily have a huge amount of options to go with on the right and decided to go with Mark.
‘To be fair to Mark, he did a really good job playing out of position and it was a tough shift for him.
‘Terry Devlin has done a good job there as well, it’s just about trying to fit in what we think is best for the gameplan at that time and we’ll go from there.
‘We are looking for someone to really step up and make that slot their own. We’ve got various different options there, it’s up to whoever wants to grab the bull by the horns and take the shirt for themselves.’
Segecic’s right-wing impact
Segecic started on the right wing in successive matches earlier this month following the recruitment of Conor Chaplin, who took the Australian’s number 10 slot.
He also deputised there mid-game against Norwich following Lang’s second-half hamstring tear, in the process scoring his first Fratton Park goal in the 2-1 defeat.
Certainly the 21-year-old could return to the role against Watford on Wednesday night (7.45pm) with Chaplin available again, having been ineligible to line up against parent club Ipswich.
‘We probably see that as his position’
He added: ‘Segs had a really good start to the season playing as a 10, he actually scored when he was playing off the right against Norwich, although he didn't come from that position, and he has looked really lively when moved out there.
‘A couple of games recently he probably has not been quite at it in terms of his performance levels, but we signed Segs really as a 10.
‘So we probably see that as his position, but he has that flexibility.’
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