Former Portsmouth winger makes 'concerned' squad admission amid Leeds United praise

Pompey played out a dramatic 3-3 draw against Leeds at Elland Road in their first game back in the Championship and while they received plenty of praise for how they competed toe-to-toe with last season’s Championship play-off finalists, one former Blue has spotted a key area of weakness.

The perceived weakness then became more apparent in last night’s 1-0 defeat to Millwall with Pompey head coach John Mousinho utilising Jordan Williams in the central defence role in order to rest Conor Shaughnessy for fear of injury.

Former Pompey winger Lee Sharpe has since spoken out of his concern that while the Blues showed a huge amount of promise against the Whites on Saturday, the lack of squad depth could prove their undoing.

Sharpe spent six months on loan at Pompey in the 2000/01 campaign, making 17 Division One appearances for the Fratton Park side. The winger spent the majority of his career with Manchester United, appearing 193 times for them in the league, scoring 21 goals. He then went on to sign with Leeds, Bradford City - where he would then go on loan to the south coast - before signing with Exeter City, Grindavic and Garforth Town.

The former winger - who also has eight England appearances to his name - has said that while his old club can show they can ‘mix it’ with the promotion favourites, a lack of squad depth is the ‘season concern’.

Speaking to Highest Payout Casino the ex-Blues man said: “Portsmouth’s squad depth for this season concerns me, I don’t think it’s good enough to challenge the top teams in the division but mid-table is a good aim for them in my mind," he said.

"John Mousinho will want a performance like last Saturday’s result against Leeds every week. Obviously, it isn’t that easy with the number of fixtures they will have in the Championship this season and with all the travelling that entails. They might not have the squad depth required to keep that level up. It only takes a couple of injuries and the level drops.

"But we have seen teams come up from League One and follow up by being at the top of the division, so if they can get a good run of form going early on this season then an upper table finish could well happen. They've shown how they can mix it with a promotion favourite already."