Portsmouth boss responds to Wayne Rooney calling out side’s fading intensity in Plymouth Argyle reverse

And the Blues boss insisted his team have the levels of fitness to maintain the intensity of their pressing, as they look to resolve their issues this term.

Mousinho’s stance comes as Plymouth boss Wayne Rooney highlighted what he viewed as his opponent’s ‘aggressive’ approach running out of steam, as the Pilgrims snared a 1-0 win at Home Park.

Pompey impressed with their pressing in a strong performance, let down by not making more of the promising opportunities which came their way in Devon.

The dynamic of the match changed as the night wore on, but Mousinho broke down why he believes that was not about the physical challenges of applying his game idea.

He said: ‘I don’t think we faded in terms of the intensity of our physical output.

‘The only thing which got us a bit was the goal. Right up the goal it may have look like we’d faded, but that was because Plymouth stopped playing out from the back.

‘The game then slows down, everyone squeezes up to the halfway line and it becomes about second balls rather than us pressing, pressing, pressing like the first half.

‘Looking at the physical data, we didn’t fade as the game went on.

‘The only thing was our reaction to going a goal down was it was such a kick in the teeth we maybe, mentally and emotionally, didn’t react as well as we could have done.

‘We didn’t really have that drive at the back end of the game to get back into it. That’s the only thing I can really think of.

‘The way the fixtures have fallen when we had the back-to-back away games for the second time in a couple of weeks, it’s a tough ask for the lads.

‘My take on that is we finished the game against Hull strongly and against Plymouth the game wasn’t fluid anymore. In four minutes of added time, the ball was in play for 59 seconds.

‘The game dies and Plymouth killed it. They take a long time on a throw, the player goes down injured, player goes down to do his laces and keeper takes ages.

‘If you score late on at home you kill the game and, if the referee doesn’t speed it up, it’s very difficult to find momentum.’

Mousinho opted to make one change at Plymouth from Saturday’s 1-1 draw at Hull City, with the Pompey head coach seeing a group now more adept at applying the approach he demands.

The Blues boss feels certain players building fitness and having options returning to the fray, is behind that progress.

Mousinho added: ‘We’re fitter than we have been previously and we have built into it well.

‘A lot of that is about getting injuries back, players playing consistently and consistent football.

‘We’ve never had that and we’ve normally had to make more than one change. So getting that consistency as a side and players’ fitness up to speed is really important.’