John Mousinho on the leading contenders to be Portsmouth's first-choice left-sided centre-half - and one is right-footed

The Blues currently have five centre-halves on their books – Sean Raggett, Conor Shaughnessy, Ryley Towler, Regan Poole and Haji Mnoga.

However, Towler represents the only left footer, thereby naturally coming under consideration for operating on the left-hand side.

According to Mousinho, the 21-year-old faces competition from Shaughnessy in that particular position.

Indeed, the summer recruit from Burton lined-up on the left in friendlies against Europa FC and the Rocks, despite being right footed.

Ahead of the season’s opener against Bristol Rovers on August 5, Mousinho will assess which of Towler or Shaugnessy will get the nod to start.

But he is convinced having a left footer on the left-hand side of his central defence is not a necessity.

Pompey’s head coach told The News: ‘The two main options there at the moment are Ryley and Conor Shaughnessy.

‘Ryley is the natural choice as the left footer, while Connor Ogilvie also provides excellent cover there. I know he did a stint last season and on Friday played there at Gosport.

‘Conor Shaughnessy is right footed and versatile – and can definitely play left-sided centre-half as well.

‘He played there for Burton and also for us the other night against Bognor. In addition, he’s very comfortable on the ball, that’s one of his strengths.

‘For the majority of last season he played in the middle of the park for Burton, including against us at Fratton Park. I know sometimes you can stick centre-halves in there to do a job, but he was there not only for his physicality, also for the fact he can play.

‘As a right-footed centre-half myself who played left-sided centre-half for the majority of my career, I do think you can be quite flexible, it’s just a different way of playing out from the back.

‘You don’t necessarily need to be genuinely two footed to play there, centre-halves can have really good partnerships even if both are right footed or both left footed.

‘As a comparison, look at some of the great partnerships, Chelsea back in the day had John Terry and Ricardo Carvalho were both right footed. While for England there were Sol Campbell and Terry, and Rio Ferdinand and Terry.’

Currently, that leaves Raggett, Poole and Mnoga vying for the right-sided centre-half spot in Mousinho’s team.

And although Raggett and Poole have both operated on the left before, he believes they are more comfortable on their natural foot.

He added: ‘Regan has actually been there quite a bit for Lincoln, even playing left-side of a three.

‘Sean fits quite naturally on the right and regularly played there for me, although I wouldn’t ever rule out him on the left.’