'We have improved': John Mousinho agonises over Portsmouth's glaring weakness
In Pompey’s 4-1 FA Cup defeat to Arsenal, three of the Gunners’ goals were scored from corners
John Mousinho reflected on yet more set-piece woes and insisted: ‘We’re working harder than ever to rectify them.’
Pompey’s long-standing Achilles heel was ruthlessly exposed yet again, this time by Arsenal in Sunday’s FA Cup clash.
The Premier League leaders scored from three corners in their 4-1 success, having fought back from falling behind to Colby Bishop’s third-minute opener.
The first was an Andre Dozzell own goal following a left-wing corner, while the second two were both Gabriel Martinelli headers from right-wing corners as the Brazilian helped himself to a hat-trick.
Pompey have now conceded a staggering 18 goals from set-pieces in the 2025-26 campaign as they battle to remain in the Championship.
The warning was there - no club in Europe’s top five leagues has registered more than the Gunners’ 22 goals netted from set-pieces this season.
‘There has been an improvement’
Mousinho told The News: ‘The issue with the set-plays is just showing that level of aggression to go and win that first contact and head the ball. We don’t think we got the set-up wrong, we prepare properly for everything else.
‘Arsenal are, in a very positive way, predictable in terms of what they are going to do, but we didn’t have that level of aggression to go and make first contact.
‘I think we have improved on set-pieces this season. Take Sunday out of it, there has been an improvement over the past few weeks, we’ve had some very, very good performances in terms of defending against set-plays.
‘Maybe this is a blessing in disguise because we really must focus on it going forward.
‘We have two options. There are players in the building who need to step it up and make sure we show that level of aggression - but also maybe looking at it as a real factor in terms of the way we recruit in January.
‘We work more on set-pieces in training than we ever have previously. We need players to make sure they are willing to win that first contact and clear the ball - and we just didn’t have that against Arsenal.’
A change in Pompey’s set-piece coach for 2025-26
In a dual role, he also replaced Joe Prodomo as set-piece coach, allowing Prodomo to focus on goalkeeping coach duties.
Mousinho was also formerly a set-piece coach at Oxford United, combining the position with playing for the U’s, before his appointment as Pompey head coach in January 2023.
Disappointingly, two of Sunday’s goals from corners were scored with Conor Shaughnessy and Regan Poole on the pitch together, the Blues’ best centre-half pairing.
The third arrived in the 72nd minute, when Martinelli headed home Noni Madueke’s right-wing corner to complete his hat-trick.
By that stage, Shaughnessy was no longer on the pitch, with Connor Ogilvie having replaced the Irishman in the centre of defence.
Mousinho added: ‘We went a goal up, we didn’t need to concede that first corner and then, as soon as we did, we conceded a goal. Maybe there was a little apprehension from set-plays.
‘We have players in the building who have to step up and deal with it better - and we’ll have to look at it in terms of recruitment in January.’