Gaffer: Portsmouth tough choices mean dropping Tom Naylor and going 3-5-2 against Coventry

I want to leave Anton Walkes out, but wouldn’t play Ross McCrorie at right-back even though he did a good job at Sunderland, so I’m tempted to go with a 3-5-2 against Coventry.

That will allow McCrorie to be the man in central midfield sitting in front of the defence, with Ronan Curtis wide on the left, running all-day long and tracking back.

Then, up front, we would have a strike pairing of Ellis Harrison and John Marquis, you’d have to say we’ve more chance of scoring by playing two forwards.

Dropping Walkes is not a difficult decision, he just hasn’t been up to it. He couldn’t cross a ball to save his life in the last couple of games and was very ropey at Sunderland.

What is a tough choice is dropping Tom Naylor from the 3-5-2 and keeping Ben Close in there. Thankfully I’m only doing this for the paper!

Close has been banging in some amazing goals, and does seem to go missing at times, but he would get my nod and it’s a good problem to have.

I would also keep Andy Cannon in there, he’s a strong little lad who has been brilliant over the last couple of matches, really impressing me.

Ahead of this game you would hope Pompey have been working on set-pieces, they are professional footballers, they must improve on what we witnessed at the Stadium of Light.

On one occasion in the first half, Curtis hit a free-kick straight out of play, it didn’t get near anyone.

Coventry are a good team who made it hard work for us last season, but I can see us winning it 2-1.

We didn’t disgrace ourselves against Sunderland, a draw would have been fair result, and Marcus Harness is going to be a good player this season.

Pompey: MacGillivary, Burgess, Downing, Brown, Harness, Curtis, McCrorie, Close, Cannon, Marquis, Harrison.