‘Certain expectations’: Portsmouth boss fires no-nonsense warning to players as Birmingham City, Wrexham and Hull City lie in wait
Pompey begin three games in eight days at St Andrews tomorrow in the Championship - with the Blues boss making a clear demand over finding key missing attributes against the big spenders.
John Mousinho has demanded his Pompey players rediscover the attacking intensity which has seeped from their game.
And the Blues boss has reminded his men of ‘certain expectations’ he and his club’s fanbase expect of them, as they aim to inject some impetus back into their season at Birmingham City.
Mousinho: ‘Certain expectations from Pompey fans’
Mousinho was left frustrated by a lack of aggression to his side’s game in their 1-0 reverse to Stoke City last weekend, as they lost their fourth home game of the season.
Those attributes were the cornerstone of their success last season, with Pompey second only to Swansea City when it came to the intensity of their press. This season, however, they sit ninth in the Championship table when it comes to the metric (passes per defensive action) which measures that approach.
Mousinho pointed to a difference in attacking personnel as a factor in that shift, but, ahead of three games in eight days, made it abundantly clear any new faces need to find the same levels of graft.
He said: ‘There’s a bit of it which is about personnel and having players used to the way we play, so they absolutely know what we’re trying to do.
‘When we rolled out Murph, Langy, Colby (Bishop) and Matt (Ritchie) last season, there was a certain point where we knew exactly what we wanted to do. That intense and aggressive press was natural to all of them.
‘We’ve had to adjust a fair bit this season, out of the four of them two are unavailable, Colby’s played and Matt’s moved on. So that’s been an adjustment and something we’ve need to get a lot better at and make sure we’re a bit more intense and aggressive.
‘Some times it’s not natural, but we need to get that into their game because there’s certain expectations from me and certain expectations from Portsmouth fans.’
While Mousinho is searching for a formula to create more chances, the Pompey boss has been encouraged by defensive strides made by his team this term. The Blues have shipped 13 goals from 12 Championship games, making them the ninth most resilient side in the division at present.
There is a clear need to marry that with greater attacking threat, even if the data does show a side creating chances. Pompey’s poor return of 10 finishes comes from an expected goal (xG) total of 15.25 - suggesting they aren’t making the most of their openings.
Pompey search for balance amid defensive improvements
Mousinho added: ‘I’ve never looked at any game and felt we haven’t created anything.
‘We’ve always had chances in games but we haven’t ever looked like opening the floodgates, apart from maybe Watford, where we’ve looked like scoring three, four or five.
‘It’s an interesting spot for us to be in, because we look relatively solid and don’t look like conceding a huge amount of goals.
‘We’d always like to be better going the other way as well. We like to be solid defensively, but also be more adventurous attacking.
‘There was Bristol City away and Derby away last season where we tried to press sides high up the pitch and got completely done at the other end. So we have to get that balance right and, at the same time if we are to progress a side, we have to match the two up.
‘The important thing is to start from a solid base, keeping clean sheets and conceding fewer goals. But then it’s about how we build on that and, at the moment, we’ve fallen short.’