John Mousinho handed Portsmouth sack verdict amid Championship struggles - he's 'not immune to criticism' | OneFootball

FLW's Portsmouth fan pundit has his say on the question marks being raised over John Mousinho's future in the dugout.

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

Portsmouth have been on a barren run of form with their 3-2 loss to Hull City at the weekend making it six Championship matches without a win.

In the midst of six league games without a win, Portsmouth boss John Mousinho has unsurprisingly come under fire, with four of those six results being losses, which currently has Pompey sitting in 20th place on 14 points, and four off the drop zone.

After taking the reins at Fratton Park in January 2023, Mousinho is now two years into the job with it being his first managerial role. Over the course of that period, it has mostly been positive as he guided Portsmouth to the League One title in 2024 and cemented a comfortable 16th place in the Championship last season at their first time of asking, five points clear of the relegation places.

The 39-year-old, in just shy of 150 games in charge of Pompey, has clocked up a win percentage of 42% and is averaging 1.5 points per game, highlighting the decent job that he has done. However, fast-forward to now, and if proceedings continue as they are, it may not be long until he's ousted out, given the poor form they've shown over the last couple of months.

With there being a growing disconnect between the fanbase and the manager, it raises the question about whether Portsmouth now need to be seriously thinking about Mousinho's future if performances and results don't pick up soon.

With Mousinho subject to plenty of criticism via social media following their 3-2 loss to Hull City at the weekend, Pompey fans have certainly been making their feelings heard about the manager's tactics.

For Football League World's Portsmouth fan pundit, Miltos, he believes that the manager has made some questionable decisions in recent weeks.

However, he maintains full faith that Mousinho is the right man for the job.

Miltos said: "Let me start off by saying I don't think John Mousinho should be sacked. I genuinely believe he's the man for Pompey.

"The overreaction that I've seen, especially on social media, after the game on Saturday has been, for the most part, totally unjustified.

"However, having just said that, I don't think he's immune to criticism. I don't think he's immune to people raising questions over the way that we've been playing over the past period.

"I think there are a lot of things from a tactical point of view that are a tad questionable and a bit baffling. Stuff from a tactical perspective and stuff such as not subbing players on early.

"It feels like even in games that we are chasing, we are behind, or are seemingly looking to get a win, we just don't attack them enough. We don't sub attacking players in, or we leave them very, very late.

"Characteristically on Saturday, when we subbed our only attacking sub in the game, Yang Min-hyeok, after the 80th minute, and after we had conceded our third goal.

"Similarly, in the game against Wrexham, where I thought the second half was our best performance of the season, but we didn't make any substitutions until around the 80th minute when we brought on Marlon Pack and Zak Swanson.

"Now, there are a lot of arguments about whether we have enough depth and quality in our attack to make more substitutions, but it still feels like, in terms of what we've got at our disposal right now, we just don't make the most of it.

"Other stuff, such as keeping Colby Bishop on for 90 minutes and having him play essentially every game, no matter his form. Look, I've made my feelings clear about Colby Bishop in the past. I feel that he is a brilliant player when he's fit and firing, but right now he's just not.

"I don't know what's up with Colby Bishop, but he's not delivering at the moment. He needs a break. He needs competition that we don't have right now. But keeping him on for 90 minutes when clearly he's not really helping the team out, is not ideal."

The Christmas period will be telling of John Mousinho's future at Fratton Park

The Christmas period is always the busiest time of year when it comes to the footballing calendar, with games coming thick and fast, every three-four days in many cases.

The heavily congested schedule, on the one hand, gives Mousinho and his group of players very little time to regroup and work on the tactical elements that are going wrong, but on the other, the constant flow of fixtures will mean that many points are on offer for Pompey to get back on track.

No game is easy in the second tier. Therefore, if Mousinho can foster that fighting spirit within his players, and go back to the basic principles that led the club to the Championship in the first place, then FLW's Portsmouth fan pundit, Miltos, believes Mousinho and his men will be just fine for the second half of the season.

Miltos said: "There are other things as well, from a tactical point of view, that certainly don't make John Mousinho immune to criticism, but I genuinely also think that he will turn things around as he has done in the past.

"Now, say that results continue to be like this, come December, come Christmas, then obviously there will be conversations. That's natural of how things are going and a month in football is a long time.

"But I genuinely, genuinely believe this is beyond wishful thinking right now. If we revert back to something that works for us, playing-wise. If we go back to a style closer to what distinguished us, and made us standout last season with our high-pressing, attacking brand of football that won us a lot of games, especially on home soil, and we get our identity back, I feel that we will be alright.

"If we can get through this period until January by picking up the maximum amount of points that we realistically can, and then also strengthening that in the January transfer window, I think that we will be fine with John Mousinho at the helm."