Pompey boss John Mousinho talks to The News ahead of the Blues' trip to Millwall in the Championship
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00:00So Jon, obviously looking ahead to Millwall, what's the status of the squad at the moment
00:06in terms of injuries?
00:08We trained with I think 24 or 23 outfield players today, so we're back up to some decent
00:16numbers. We've got quite a few that have come back in over the last couple of weeks. I think
00:22in terms of the headlines, the big headline ones, Cass is back in full training. Other
00:27than that, the short-termers that are back in and returning. We haven't got the long-termers
00:34back yet, but they're very, very close to returning to training. The likes of Connor
00:38Shotnessy and Rob Atkinson. So they've taken a step in the right direction, been out on
00:42the grass every day for the past couple of weeks and not quite ready for the weekend,
00:45but we've got a pretty healthy squad to pick from at the moment.
00:49This time last week you were saying that Yenge could be out for 10 days, but it wasn't that
00:52bad. Has he come back ahead of schedule then?
00:54No, because he picked up the injury for Australia prior to, when I said 10 days, it was from
01:02the time he picked up the injury. He's bang on schedule.
01:06Was he back in training on Monday then?
01:08Cass was back. Cass trained on Saturday morning, small session on Saturday morning, back in
01:13full training on Monday.
01:14So in contention for the game this weekend?
01:16Yes.
01:17So suddenly the injuries are coming back for the run-in?
01:21It always happens. It'll be a completely different picture, I'm sure, at some point, but that's
01:26the way it seems. Feast or famine sometimes. It's been like that this season. We've looked
01:31at situations where we've left four or five out of squads. We've looked at other situations
01:35where we've called up players from the academy to fill the squad and there doesn't really
01:38ever seem to be anything in between. So I think, touch wood, hopefully we get a decent
01:43report this afternoon that everybody's come through today's training session, which I
01:46think they have, and we'll go again on Friday. And then after Friday, we'll hopefully have
01:50a decent enough squad to pick from.
01:52You've had a number of success stories with the players this season, one of which has
01:57been Zac Swanson. How do you regard his performances this term?
02:00Well, I think Zac's really established himself as a player that has been able to, first of
02:05all, play games at this level. And that was probably a question mark, first of all, around
02:09him making sure that he maintained his fitness for a long period of time. And Zac had never
02:13played at the level before, so what would the step-up look like for him? And I think
02:17that certainly in terms of the step-up, he's made that well. I think he's had some very,
02:22very good performances this year. He's been very solid. He's been very steady, very, very
02:26reliable. I think there's plenty he can add to his game, particularly going forward. And
02:30then on the former, in terms of his ability to get through games and get through the season,
02:36he's improved. I think he's still got some work to do there in terms of athletic development,
02:40but he's definitely improved a huge amount. If you look at the record when I came in for
02:46the first six months of that, I think, 22-23 season, Zac played the first two games that
02:50I was here and then he was unavailable for the rest of the games that season. He had
02:54his injury issues last year, although he played a really good part in the tight winning side.
02:59Certainly in my time here now, this has been his most successful season in terms of minutes
03:02available and in terms of the games played.
03:04I think you said before that you've always seen him as a potentially championship player.
03:09It's just the injuries, isn't it?
03:10Yeah, that's why we wanted to keep him. That's why we worked hard to keep him in the summer.
03:16I don't think there would have been everybody from the wider fan base thinking Zac Swanson
03:23is an absolute banker to go and play in the championship, but we see it day in, day out.
03:26I knew he had the ability and I think he had to get through a couple of issues with a few
03:32bits that he had physically, which he's done really well. He's a different profile physically
03:36now and there's still work to do with that. I think we can still work with Zac doing that.
03:41Even if you look at the last few weeks, just getting through games, doing 90 minutes at
03:46the weekend was good progression for Zac. Sometimes we've had to take him off on 75-80
03:50minutes, but he got through the game at the weekend really well. I think we're in a much,
03:53much better spot with Zac than we've ever been. I've always been a very, very big Zac
03:58Swanson fan and so I'm thrilled that he's actually proven himself at the level.
04:02How has he improved his robustness? Is that through following a plan from your team or
04:06is that himself?
04:08Both really. He's the one that's got to follow the plan and we've spoken about what it looks
04:13like from the medical department and the sport and exercise science department for him to
04:17get fit and stay fit. A lot of that started with the rehab from the issues that he had
04:20last season and the rehab that he did in the summer because he came back slightly late
04:25from the injury that he picked up, I think in the Barnsley game at the back end of last
04:27season. So he came back two or three weeks late into pre-season, into the training group
04:33and he's had to follow a bit of a stricter physical programme off the pitch and I think
04:40that's really helped him. He's done it, he's put together a few different bits here and
04:44there and he's got to keep going and like I said, I still think there's more to come.
04:48Is this the best you've seen him play to Pompey as well at the moment?
04:50Yeah, I think so. I think he played the first three games when I was here and he did well
04:57in two of them. Probably the third one wasn't his best moment away at Peterborough. But
05:03that's improved, I think he's improved a lot. That was a really good benchmark actually.
05:06So he played against Peterborough I think, Mason Clarke gave him a really difficult time
05:11on the day and then I think six months later we played Peterborough at home. He started
05:15off with a shaky moment I think at the front end where we ended up conceding the goal and
05:20then after that I thought he was superb and then he did the same away at Peterborough
05:24as well. It's not just Peterborough his performances have been good against but he's also come
05:28through a lot of big, big tests this year against some very, very good Championship
05:32left wingers and I think that's credit to Zach in how much he's improved.
05:35Another one is Sean this year who you expected to, it was Josh Murphy. Where does he stand
05:40in terms of wingers at this level?
05:43I don't know, I certainly think he's right up there. There's some very, very good wingers
05:47operating at this level. I think if you offered me a swap deal for my choice of wingers in
05:52the league I don't think I'd take any and that's obviously a big statement of how
05:56highly we rate Murph at this football club and how highly I rate Murph. I think he's
06:00been excellent for us this season and there's a huge amount of pressure that he puts on
06:07his own shoulders to really make sure that he continues to stay in the form in the latter
06:12stages of his career. I say latter stages because he's 30 now but I still think there's
06:17plenty more left in the tank and I think that's of massive benefit to us. I don't think he's
06:21got a huge amount of miles on the clock and I think he's still got a few more years left
06:24and performing at the level he's performing at the moment, he needs to keep kicking on
06:27and keep improving himself.
06:29Bare in mind the calibre of his performances at this level, are you concerned that clubs
06:32might show an interest in him?
06:34Not really, if it happens it happens and we'll deal with that if and when it comes. The only
06:39focus I've got at the moment is the next seven games and I know for a fact that barring any
06:43injury and hopefully we keep Murph fit, we've got Murph for the next seven games. There's
06:48absolutely no rumours, murmurs, anything from Murph, anything from anybody else about anything
06:53otherwise so if it pops up in the summer it's a lovely compliment to the work that Murph's
06:57been doing and if that happens we'll deal with it but as far as I'm concerned we've
07:02just got these next seven games to deal with and Murph's extremely happy here.
07:05Because he signed a three-year contract with an option so you've obviously got him well
07:08under contract anyway so...
07:09Yeah contractually no problem, no issue whatsoever so again as far as I'm concerned I think Murph's
07:16thriving here as well, I think that's a really important point for him that we give him I
07:20think everything hopefully that he needs to perform at this level and he's thriving here.
07:24I think he's playing the best football of his career and we want to keep pushing on with that.
07:28You've spoken before about showing a bit more pragmatic with the way you play football since
07:32the whole game really and results have had a big upturn but you've said a few times that
07:37it's not necessarily how you want to play football, do you see that changing again in
07:40the future?
07:41I think that we have to look at where we are this season and we've had to do that on multiple
07:47points and adjust our playing style. I think in order to probably progress as a team we
07:54might need to tweak that further as we go along but it won't be wholesale changes, we'll
07:58make tweaks and there might be games where we want to have a bit more impetus in possession
08:04and build in a different way but at the minute I think we're doing things in a certain way
08:09because we've got the priority, the priority is to try and stay in the league but there's
08:13always room for changes, we will constantly evolve as a side, we always have done over
08:16the two years that I've been here and I think it will keep up.
08:19Was it a difficult choice to tweak it and change it to this?
08:22No, I think we had two choices, we could keep doing what we're doing and not winning
08:26games or try and change it and that's what we did and I think the boys took that on really
08:30well, particularly the out-of-possession work that the lads have been doing and a little
08:34less of a focus on in-possession but that was the big message. I looked at it and thought
08:40well if I was a new manager coming in what would I be doing with this group and the answer
08:45at that time was well I'd look at it and go we're shifting far too many goals and we're
08:48looking far too open at the back and we're not pressing with enough structure and enough
08:51organisation so that was what we wanted to focus on.
08:54If you hadn't changed it what would have happened do you feel?
08:56I don't know, I might not be sitting here talking to you now but who knows, I think
09:01the change has gone a long way to helping us pick up some points and even after that,
09:05even after the whole game whether it was noticeable or not, we've tweaked a huge amount in terms
09:09of the way that we've played, a little bit of formation, a little bit of personnel, playing
09:13style from game to game and we'll continue to do that. All we're ever going to be concerned
09:17with at the football club is winning football games and we'll try and do that in whatever
09:21way we can.
09:22Is that flexibility tactically important? Because a lot of managers wouldn't have changed
09:27that, wouldn't stick to their principles and that be it until they got the sack.
09:30I think it is, I think it's really important. To be honest my principles as well, if you
09:34look at the way that we I suppose have gone about our business last season, we ended up
09:39dominating games in terms of possession and we wanted to do it but a lot of the time teams
09:43sat off, so teams naturally sat off whether it was at Fratton Park or whether it was away
09:48from home. So when teams sit off deep, the best option for us most of the time last year
09:54wasn't just to crash it forward, it was to play and build through lines and we had players
09:57that were good enough to do it. So we were never ever afraid last year to go more direct.
10:01When sides pressed us, Peter were a really good example away from home, we were happy
10:05going more direct. Bolton were one of the best pressing sides in the league last year,
10:08we didn't try relentlessly to play through the lines against Bolton. We always thought
10:11that the best option was to look at games individually and look at opposition individually
10:17and try and work out how best we could expose them. Particularly with a centre forward like
10:20Colby up top, you can do it. We haven't changed that philosophy a huge amount, just the situation
10:26in games I think has changed because sides in the Championship are all extremely athletic,
10:30they press a lot more aggressively and they're probably more organised and better defensively
10:34so we have to find different ways of coping with that.
10:37So next year presumably, if you stay in the Championship, it could change again then?
10:41Yeah, I would be very, very surprised if things don't change between now and next
10:46season regardless of league, league position and I think football is constantly evolving
10:53tactically anyway and we want to try and not follow the crowd but keep up with what we
10:57think is the best thing to do.