‘You have to change’: Portsmouth boss’ hunt for settled formula goes on ahead of key Swansea City and Blackburn Rovers clashes
John Mousinho made six changes at Charlton Athletic and acknowledged the hunt for a consistent starting line-up is continuing.
John Mousinho admitted he’d like to find a settled formula as he continues to shuffle his Pompey pack.
But the Blues boss made no apology for continuing to make changes in personnel and formation, as his side struggle for Championship form.
Pompey boss wants settled Championship formula
Mousinho made six changes to his his starting line-up at Charlton Athletic on Saturday, though a number of those were enforced through injury and suspension.
The Pompey head coach did opt for a different dynamic up front, however, as Callum Lang replaced Colby Bishop, with Conor Chaplin brought in behind the Scouser. Meanwhile, John Swift was the chosen option to anchor midfield with Marlon Pack with Andre Dozzell suspended, as Mousinho opted for squad members with confidence in possession.
Mousinho acknowledged limiting changes would be his preference, with that often the case in his side’s better Championship moments.
He said: ‘It would be nice if we could (settle the team down). In certain areas we managed that when we were good last year.
‘We weren’t consistent last year, we just won our home games, so were probably inconsistent. We lost our away games and won our home games, that was week in, week out.
‘We never settled on a back four, and that was not through injury. There were a couple of positions we settled on, which we haven’t quite been able to do this season. Our front four was settled last season and we had Freddie (Potts) in the middle of the park.
‘I don’t know, I’m just comparing to last season, but it would be nice to have that consistency and settle things down.
‘It's now in my third full season, that first year we didn’t have that consistency at all. I would’ve liked to, but we didn’t have that.
‘Across the back four, the only one who played the majority of games was Conor Shaughnessy. Everything else in front of that pretty much chopped and changed.’
Mousinho: ‘If things aren’t working you have to try to change’
Although there has been a pattern of changes this term from Pompey, Mousinho feels there’s been elements of continuity about his side.
He also pointed to the team selection against Bristol City being one which most people supported, when the team-sheets went in 75 minutes before kick-off. At the same time, though, Mousinho feels repeating the same thing when it isn’t working isn’t a logical approach.
‘One of the things we didn’t want to do after Sheffield United was chuck the baby out with the bathwater, because we thought for 40 minutes we were absolutely fine. The red card changed it after a positive performance against Millwall, so we wanted to keep most of those things.
‘We tweaked the team selection, but there wasn’t too many surprises when we went into the game with an enforced changed with Willo (Williams) coming in for Terry Devlin.
‘Then it was Langy (Lang) coming in which made a lot of sense. The other was Kos (Kosznovszky) coming out of the side for Marlon (Pack). There wasn’t wholesale upheaval, but at the same time if things aren’t particularly working then you have to try to change them.’