John Mousinho pinpoints where ex-West Brom and Chelsea man John Swift fits into his Portsmouth starting XI
The former Chelsea midfielder has become Pompey’s second signing of the summer
John Mousinho has pinpointed where he wants John Swift to play in his Pompey starting XI.
And the head coach is banking on the Blues’ second summer signing reproducing the creativity which has conjured up an impressive 66 goal contributions over the last six Championship seasons.
Swift’s arrival as a free agent from West Brom plugs one of the two vacant central midfield spots, which had become a transfer window priority to fill.
The 30-year-old will now compete with Marlon Pack and Andre Dozzell for a starting spot, although Mousinho has specifically earmarked the number eight position for the newcomer.
Swift is currently being brought up to speed on the training pitch, hence not being involved against Woking and Farnborough earlier this week. It remains to be seen whether he could feature against Crawley on Saturday.
Regardless, Mousinho knows exactly where to employ the former England under-21 international once he becomes available for match duty.
Portsmouth boss: John has the quality to link play from there
He told The News: ‘We are really, really excited about John. We have brought in a player with undoubted Championship pedigree, who has scored goals wherever he has played.
‘John doesn't just add quality, he adds the work-rate that sometimes people don’t see. To get a player with that calibre this early in the pre-season on a free is really good business.
‘We have known he was going to be available since the back end of last season and, for a while, I think he probably knew it wasn’t going to happen at West Brom. So we have been tracking him for a long time.
‘We’ve really kept an eye on him and spoke to him as soon as we knew he was going to be available. He had a lot of interest elsewhere, but thankfully decided to sign for us.
‘John is probably going to play best for us as an eight, that left-sided eight. He can play as a 10 as well, but we obviously have Adrian (Segecic) and Langy in that position and sometimes the 10 - in terms of the way we play it - is slightly more of a forward player.
‘With John, he really has the quality to drop down from that eight position, he has the quality to link play from there.
‘I think he can play a variety of different positions, but probably for us, the eight is where he will play.’
36 goals and 30 assists over the last six seasons
Over the last six seasons, consisting of spells at West Brom and Reading, Swift has totalled 36 goals and 30 assists in the Championship.
Last term represented a disappointing campaign in terms of such figures, with three goals and one assist in 36 league outings, marking his third and final season at The Hawthorns.
Nonetheless, there were 21 goal contributions in 2021-22 (Reading) and 15 goal contributions in 2022-23 (West Brom) during particularly productive years.
And Mousinho is hopeful the 30-year-old can replicate such impressive numbers following his Fratton Park switch.
‘Very, very difficult to play against’
Pompey’s head coach added: ‘You look at the numbers he has posted over the last 10 years playing in the Championship.
‘Last year he didn’t score as many, but when we looked at the physical statistics, on the ball he is still right up there in the league.
‘Certainly earlier in the season when we played against West Brom (September 2024), he was very, very difficult to play against, almost impossible to work out what we were going to do about him.’