Philosophy or Pragmatism?

Tuesday nights calamitous performance at Cardiff gave everyone more questions than answers, as once again Pompey fell short of expectation.

It was a disastrous evening for John Mousinho’s side, who himself had to admit post-game he was relieved the score was kept respectable.

The Saturday previous in England's capital, Pompey got over the line and registered their first 1 in the win column. It was scrappy, a game devoid of quality from both sides but it was grit and determination that would see the Blues home.

Fast forward three days to the Welsh capital and any feel good factor had completely evaporated within the opening 13 minutes.

Pompey are conceding way too many shots on goal, consistently in every outing. 22 at Leeds, 30 at the Riverside Stadium, 19 at home to The Baggies, 20 in that sobering experience in Stoke and 24 last night. There has been the odd outlier, with clean sheets at home to Luton & Sheffield United presenting far better defensive reading.

Defending of course starts from the front and the press this season hasn’t been nowhere near to the high standards the manager demands. Mousinho’s men were one of the best in the division without the ball last season and it appears this squad is struggling to carry out instructions, albeit against far more tactically and technically astute defenders, who are extremely comfortable receiving the ball.

So with the gaffer's first line of defence not clicking, teams are finding it easier to progress the ball, therefore making the midfielders jobs far more difficult than it had been last season. That being said, the manager has always deployed two holding players screening his defensive unit.

Far too often, this screening is non-existent. Once again, you could point to the press being the issue. With the ‘engine room’ asked to support a high intensity, high energy game, when not executed, spaces appear. Or is it a personnel problem, are those being asked to do the job not have it within their capabilities at this level.

Opposition teams have been able to take aim from in and around Pompey’s 18 yard box too frequently, posing the question as to how the defensive ‘screeners’ have allowed this to take place.

Obviously, conceding too many shots on goal whilst not looking like creating chances at the opposing end means you will not win football matches.

Pompey have lacked creativity and spark in most contests this season, which has been masked by ‘moments’ that have been presented to them this season. The sole win of the season is prime evidence of this, in a game where Pompey created little, two moments from Callum Lang where the difference.

Put bluntly, Portsmouth have been toothless coming forwards at times. The side have struggled all season to progress the ball through midfield and feed the forward players like they did with so much success last season. In whatever formation has been implemented by Mous, The Blues have always played a 10. A position known for dynamism and creativity, something that anyone who has played that role so far has failed to bring.

The debate is raging over whether the club have recruited enough quality to compete in this higher division. Up to this point, Pompey have fallen short. But there is still 35 league games to play, so all hope is not lost.

Tactically, the manager must be at a crossroads - stick to your principles of play and philosophy, or change to adapt and overcome the challenges that this squad face having made the step up to the second tier.

In modern day coaching all head coaches have a defined approach, a model of how you see the beautiful game. In an ideal world, that approach brings you success, as it did last season. But football is a ‘results business’ and it is ruthless.

If you look up Pragmatism in the Cambridge dictionary it reads:

The quality of dealing with a problem in a way that suits the conditions the really exist, rather than following fixed theories, ideas or rules

Does the manager need to adopt a more pragmatic approach moving forwards? Do Pompey need to sit deeper? Be harder to play through? Play on the counter?

Or does the manager double down, Work hard everyday to improve his side within the philosophy that his brought his success in his early managerial career?

Most recently we have seen Burnley enter the Premier League, to quickly return to The Championship. Vincent Kompany stuck to his guns till the end, perhaps to the detriment of his clubs results. Even now, if you look down the M27 there is a manager that is sticking to his beliefs, despite his team still searching for their first win.

John Mousinho is an extremely intelligent football manager and one of his team’s great qualities in winning League One was the ability to adapt and overcome in game challenges.

I truly believe the manager will get it right this season. Whether that is getting better at Plan A, or taking a more pragmatic approach to get the job done.