Finding answers to the Colby Bishop conundrum with Portsmouth’s Championship survival at stake
One Championship goal from open play in 31 games tells the story of Colby Bishop’s season. Pompey writer Jordan Cross explores the big talking point among the Fratton Faithful, with second-tier survival at stake.
In a season of necessary ‘calculated risks’ with squad planning, it’s the decision which continues to garner the most attention with justification.
From the comfortable vantage point of hindsight, the call not to recruit a Championship-ready No9 to compete with Colby Bishop now looks a gamble which has not paid off.
Why Pompey took the striker risk - and what happens now
It’s a move which is totally understandable, however: A decision taken to keep a team formed from relegation playing and transfer budgets, out of those Championship positions. What’s the logic investing a significant portion of budget in a high-level striker, when only one fits into your preferred formation?
When that choice was made, few would have seen Pompey’s top goal scorer for each of the past three seasons toiling so desperately as he has.
Saturday’s Hull City blank makes it a single Championship finish from 31 games in open play, for the man who did so much to put John Mousinho’s side in the second tier - and then keep them there after heart surgery.
So a lack of established alternative has hurt Pompey, no doubt.
Thomas Waddingham, a talent perhaps viewed as closer to being ready to feature than many realise, has missed most of the season. Mackenzie Kirk, recruited at the end of the summer window, has shown promise but is still firmly in the work-in-progress category.
January offered realistically the last chance to remedy that situation, with Jacob Brown arriving late in the day from Luton Town. There was another No9 sought, however, with the striker remaining at this club despite Pompey making their move.
The player in question was one of three targets focussed on along with Dundee’s Luke Graham and Sheffield Wednesday’s Svante Ingelsson.
Just as the price went up with Graham after a starting bid of £1.5m, so the same occurred with the striker in question - to the point Pompey walked away. The free agent market was considered, but not utilised.
The summer will hold the answers over this wisdom of not reaching an inflated asking price, but, for Mousinho, there are more pressing matters to address.
And when it comes to the pathway to finding a firing front man for his side, it’s not one awash with options for the Pompey boss.
Mousinho has given up on putting a return date on Waddingham, as he apparently nears the end of his rehabilitation from a quad injury. When he does arrive, throwing the Aussie into a Championship survival bid seems a high-stakes manoeuvre.
Likewise, the view from the football operation over Kirk looks to be the same, after two sub cameo appearances in 11.
Beyond that, the options appear to be Conor Chaplin, who hasn’t had an extended run of games as a centre-forward since he was at Barnsley six years ago.
Another, in Mousinho’s eyes, appears to Millenic Alli who has briefly been utilised in the position after his January arrival. Doing so now would deny Pompey their only out-and-out option on the left flank, however, after Josh Murphy’s season-ending injury.
Bishop has shown decent form in his all-round game of late, which couldn’t always be said among his travails in front of goal this term.
The 29-year-old gave two of the division’s most physical defences a going over at times, in the impressive back-to-back wins at Charlton and Millwall - something noticed and commented on by both sets of fans. That remains pivotal to Mousinho’s preferred 4-2-3-1 formation, with a lack of viable alternative options.
Championship fate could rely on Bishop and final 12 games
But if providing a focal point to Pompey’s play is key, so is supply to Bishop’s game - something which was below the required level against Hull.
It’s an issue Mousinho touched on in his post-match assessment, with the view his side were too pedestrian in the pace they moved the ball at to get into wide areas.
The loss of one of the game’s best crossing exponents in Josh Murphy has hurt Bishop, no doubt. But as much as his team-mate’s supply needs to help him, so he needs to help himself.
There was again examples of crosses flashing across the box not being attacked on Saturday. If his Bishop’s goal return is to improve, that cannot continue.
The expected goals (xG) attest to not enough being created in terms of quality against Hull (1.02) from 22 shots, but Bishop’s three goals this term comes against an xG of 7.67 (and non-penalty xG of 6.09).
That tells of the £500,000 signing’s fallow campaign, but it’s now about finding an effective Pompey No9 for the final 12 games.
The suspicion is Mousinho will keep faith Bishop is that man: The demand is he does everything required to now justify that decision - Pompey’s Championship fate could rely on it.