‘Not been quite at it’: Portsmouth boss’ honest call on skipper with midfield roles ‘up for grabs’ against QPR and Cardiff City

But the Pompey boss underlined the Buckland boy’s continuing importance to his side in the Championship this term.

Mousinho acknowledged spots are ‘up for grabs’ in the middle of the park, as his team go to QPR looking to arrest their winless start to the campaign.

Pack has been a pivotal member of the head coach’s starting XI, as he lifted the League One title last term and then started every league game so far this term.

Mousinho feels the 33-year-old’s form has been variable of late, but Pack is far from the only player in that category

He believes the homegrown talent is the first to take responsibility for his displays with starting berths continually under review.

Mousinho said: ‘If we look across the board at some of the performances we’ve had, we’ve had some excellent performances from the side and Marlon - and some where, by Marlon’s own admission, he’s not been quite at it.

‘I don’t think he’s the only one at all, though. I spoke to Marlon after the Stoke game and his take was you could have changed any 11 of the players. He will always be honest about that, but Marlon gives us a huge amount in the middle of the park.

‘There’s a lot you don’t necessarily see and fans don’t necessarily see, with the leadership he brings.

‘Again it’s a really interesting point of view because any position on the pitch is always up for grabs, and that (midfield) is no different.

‘Marlon has done a huge amount for this football club and captained the side to winning the league last season. I think he’s done plenty to justify his position in the team this season too, but we are always looking at that with Marlon and the sixes to make sure we’re on top of that.’

It appears to be be four players competing for the two pivot roles in Pompey’s starting XI at present, with Pack vying with Abdoulaye Kamara, Andre Dozzell and Freddie Potts for playing time. Owen Moxon appears further down the pecking order, after not making the past six squads.

With three games in seven days against QPR, Cardiff and Sheffield Wednesday coming up and Pompey still searching for a victory, Mousinho explained he’s hunting for the right formula centrally.

He added: ‘I think people were pretty honest about the fact that if we’d made 11 changes for Oxford it wouldn’t have been unreasonable.

‘We’re not going to do that because there’s been really good stuff in the build-up to that game, with Sheffield United the weekend before one of our better performances of the season, with largely the same team.

‘There’s always going to be questions when you don’t win games and don’t win for nine games at the start of the season. There will be questions over every single position, that’s something we have to do as coaches.

‘There was a lot of change in those positions last year and we managed to work it in terms of getting the balance.

‘There’s been some games when the balance has been excellent and some games when we’ve not been quite at it.

‘We’ve got options in those positions and players competing for those spots so it will be interesting going forward, particularly with three games in a week.

‘Abdou provides something really different and that is something we’re working on. He’s still really young and raw in a lot of aspects of his game and what we want to develop with him, but when the time’s right we’ll see Abdou starting in a Pompey shirt.

‘With Freddie, to be as competent, calm and composed as he’s been in three of his first four games is really pleasing.’