'Not an out-and-out centre-forward': Portsmouth boss on why ex-Stoke and Luton man is right fit for goal-shy Blues
The striker has made seven League One appearances for Luton this season after returning from injury in November
By John Mousinho’s admission, newcomer Jacob Brown isn’t a ‘traditional out-and-out centre-forward’.
But he is convinced the former Premier League striker possesses the goalscoring credentials to give Pompey a greater cutting edge.
The 27-year-old is in the frame for his Blues debut on Saturday, with Colby Bishop absent for up to four weeks with the ankle injury he sustained against West Brom.
Brown has made just three League One starts for Luton this season, having returned in November from a long-term injury.
Pompey’s deadline day signing has twice trained with his team-mates this week and goes straight into their squad for the Championship clash with high-flying Preston.
And Mousinho believes the former Stoke man’s attributes will provide a very different attacking threat to the sidelined Bishop.
‘He can definitely play as a lone striker’
The Blues head coach told The News: ‘It’s an interesting one, I don’t think Jacob is a traditional out-and-out centre-forward, but he’s a forward that can play across the front line.
‘He’s played a lot on the right, he’s a 10 and a 9 as well, so he’s got that versatility. They are the three positions I think he can play.
‘Jacob gives us a different option to Colby. First of all, his movement is very good, his athletic ability is very good, he has scored goals when he’s got going, particularly early on in his career when he was flying in the Championship with Stoke.
‘He links the ball very well and, at the age of 27, is an experienced player who can lead the line in terms of that press. He can definitely play as a lone striker.
‘You look back 18 months ago, he was playing in the Premier League in a side which was unlucky not to stay up and was one of their big signings at the start of that season. So if we can get him going again and keep him injury-free then I think we have a real asset.’
Joint-second lowest Championship scorers
Last weekend’s 3-0 success over West Brom was only the second time Mousinho’s men have scored more than two goals in a game this season.
They still remain the Championship’s joint-second lowest scorers with 27 from 28 games, with only Sheffield Wednesday (18) having netted fewer.
Bishop’s injury effectively puts Pompey back to square one for the moment, with Brown and Makenzie Kirk their only striking options.
Still, Mousinho insists putting the ball into the back of the net hasn’t been Pompey’s main issue this season - rather it’s the inability to create sufficient goal-scoring opportunities.
‘We’ve been missing the creativity in the final third’
He added: ‘The issues with goals a lot of the time this season is the fact we’ve got the ball into the final third pretty well for the most part of the season and then our quality, our delivery from those points, hasn’t been good enough to create enough opportunity.
‘If you look at some of the underlying statistics behind our season, we haven’t been missing chance after chance after chance, but I think we’ve been missing the creativity in the final third and maybe the quality to get the ball into the box for better opportunities.
‘Colby is a good example. His goalscoring record obviously isn’t what it has been over the past few years, but I know he isn’t missing chance after chance. We’re maybe not creating enough for him.
‘It’s a case of making sure that, regardless of who plays up top, regardless of who we’ve got in the side in terms of goalscoring capability, we need to create more.
‘We did it for the first time in a long time against West Brom, where we created enough to score three goals. That weekend was the first time we properly did that.’