John Mousinho's clear stance over futures of Portsmouth fringe players ahead of crunch talks
Key talks are set to take place in the coming weeks over the futures of John Mousinho’s squad.
John Mousinho has stressed he doesn’t want to make ‘reactive’ decisions when assessing the futures of some members of his squad.
But the head coach explained his delight over his fringe players stepping up to the mark and impressing in Saturday's 3-1 triumph over Stoke City.
After Pompey secured their Championship survival earlier in the week, the Blues boss made wholesale changes at the Bet365 Stadium over the weekend, with the likes of Hayden Matthews, Josef Bursik, Luke Le Roux and Harvey Blair all handed rare starts.
And they grasped their opportunity with two hands, with Matthews, Le Roxu and Blair all playing significant roles in the victory.
Talks are set to take place in the coming weeks with all members of Mousinho’s as the Blues begin their preparations for next season.
While the head coach was pleased with Saturday’s showing, he’s made it clear decisions over his players’ futures will be looked at based on the campaign as a whole with crunch discussions on the horizon.
Pompey boss set for crunch talks over players’ futures
Speaking to BBC Radio Solent, he said: ‘What we don’t want to do, we don’t want to be reactive off the back of one game.
‘We see these players day in and day out, so the decisions that we make and how we build the squad for next season is based upon the whole season and not just today (Saturday’s win over Stoke).
‘But if you put in a good performance, it stands you in good stead to go forward for the rest of the year.
‘The lads have given themselves that opportunity where we look at that and can really assess it over the next week or so.
‘The point I always want to make is whenever you put on a football shirt, whether it’s Pompey or any other football club, you’re always playing for your future, you’re always playing for something.
‘There’s someone watching in the stands, there’s me watching, the fans have travelled in their numbers today for essentially a dead rubber which is absolutely outrageous the support we got, so there’s always something to play for.
‘I think the best professionals and the best players in the game manage to do that regardless if we’re playing a five-a-side at home, at the training ground, here, they get themselves ready for the game and they know that every single thing they do day in and day out impacts their future.’
Why Pompey boss rolled the changes at Stoke
Mousinho made five changes in total at the Bet365 Stadium, with the likes of Marlon Pack, Nicolas Schmid and Conor Shaughnessy dropping out of the squad entirely having played key roles in the survival battle in recent weeks.
And with safety already secured prior to Saturday’s trip to the Potters, the head coach explained why it was the right time to hand his fringe players a much-needed run out.
‘We’ve had the same over the past couple of seasons, two games to go and we’ve been able to secure what we’ve wanted to secure.
‘Having done that, it was a case of Regan (Poole) needed a rest, Shocks (Conor Shaughnessy) is feeling his calf, Marlon (Pack) has been playing on about four different injuries and he’s been so pivotal to us so it was lovely to bring him out and very similar with Ebou (Adams).
‘It’s very useful for me, I can see how the boys perform in a different environment and sometimes there’s probably some nervousness from me when you’re thinking about throwing one of the young lads in for a certain game.
‘They had to grasp their chance today, that was the really important thing.
‘It wasn’t a free hit for us, it was an opportunity for players to go and grasp their chance with both hands and they all did it.’