Portsmouth boss John Mousinho on why Charlton axe can finally bring the best out of struggling Colby Bishop
The striker has failed to scored in his last 15 appearances for the Blues
John Mousinho reflected on his decision to drop Colby Bishop and admitted: We needed to lift the weight off his shoulders.
The out-of-form striker was among six changes for Saturday’s trip to The Valley, dropping to the bench along with Jordan Williams and Adrian Segecic.
Ultimately, the fixture was abandoned after 12 minutes played, following the tragic death of an Addicks supporter, and must now be replayed at a later date.
In terms of Mousinho’s team selection, it represented the second time Bishop had been omitted from the Championship starting XI this season, with no sign of his 15-game goal drought ending.
However, having loyally stuck by the struggling 29-year-old, in addition to a lack of striking alternatives, the head coach felt it was time to take him out of Pompey’s team.
‘We need to reset Colby a bit’
Mousinho told The News: ‘It’s an interesting one, not an easy decision for me considering what we’ve had with Colby for the last three years.
‘He has been one of our outstanding players, scored a bucket-load of goals, brilliant last year in terms of what he did for the football club.
‘It was just a decision we made based on what we thought Charlton were going to do and reset Colby a bit and give him a little breather.
‘It has been a bit unfair that we’ve just kept going with him and kept going with him. There has probably been a chance to bring him out and give him a breather, to find his feet, we spoke about it on Friday and got on with it.
‘Colby was there on Saturday, with the boys, ready to come on, ready to make a difference.
‘When you are asking him to go and go again and just find something from nowhere, physically first of all it gives him a breather, it just lifts the weight off his shoulders.
‘That’s probably what we have seen with Colby in the last few weeks, he has taken everything on board, he wants to score goals, he wants to contribute - and he’s desperate to do it. So I’m just taking him away from that.’
Callum Lang named as centre-forward
For the first time in his Pompey career, Callum Lang was asked to operate as a centre-forward in Saturday’s starting XI.
With Conor Chaplin and Minhyeok Yang recalled to join Josh Murphy in the attacking three behind him, it represented a very different attacking quartet.
It’s a position Lang featured in during his time at Wigan, scoring goals, yet, until Charlton, he had primarily been utilised as a number 10 or on the right wing.
Regardless, Mousinho was comfortable with the 27-year-old offering a very different goal threat to Bishop, albeit the match subsequently abandoned after 12 minutes.
Pompey’s boss added: ‘We know everything we know about Callum, I don’t think he’s going to play particularly differently, whether he’s playing as a nine or 10.
‘But certainly he’s a different player to Colby and we thought that would maybe suit the game on Saturday.’