Gaffer: Brett Pitman has Portsmouth's best footballing brain - and must start against Burton

It’s time to hand Brett Pitman his first start of the season. As the best footballing brain at the club, it would be silly not to play him.

He should actually be playing every week, we know his ability in this league, you can’t argue with the goal-scoring facts.

When he came back towards the end of last season, he had a 10-15 minute substitute spell at Charlton and stayed in the team for the rest of the season.

I think there’s a bit of animosity between him and Jackett, which has affected his selection. Although I don’t disagree with taking the captaincy off him, it was the timing which was wrong.

The big issue is how to replace Marcus Harness, who has been a great replacement for Jamal Lowe, and we’ll miss him against his former club.

I was at Blackpool and, when he went off injured, having given us the lead, we weren’t very good, such was his influence.

Harness is our only player with the skill to beat a man at present. I love Ronan Curtis, but you can tell his confidence is down, he is being too hard on himself and I’m hoping he can recapture his form.

Elsewhere, let’s start putting players into their actual positions, which means James Bolton at right-back and Christian Burgess in the centre of defence.

Tom Naylor’s best position is as a defensive midfielder and for home games he must play with Ben Close, with Ross McCrorie alongside the skipper for tough away games.

This fixture feels like a must win, especially as we need to catch up on everyone else because of our game situation.

I think we’ll beat Burton, I’m going for a 2-1 win and a Pitman double – that can then kick us on and finally get the season started.

Pompey: MacGillivray, Bolton, Burgess, Downing, Haunstrup, Naylor, Close, Evans, Pitman, Curtis, Marquis.