'Real trouble': John Mousinho warns of Portsmouth changes at Lincoln following defensive debacles
The Blues have lost both of their opening games to the 2026-27 campaign by a 3-1 scoreline
John Mousinho is weighing up making defensive changes after conceding six goals in Pompey’s opening two games.
The Blues boss is still fuming over the nature of defeats to West Ham and QPR, having led both games, only to slump to 3-1 losses after an alarming team capitulation.
The central-defensive partnership of Regan Poole and Conor Shaughnessy, plus goalkeeper Nicolas Schmid, are under the greatest threat heading to Lincoln on Saturday (12.30pm).
Albeit purely because alternatives are available, with summer signings Benjy Arthur and Daniel Bielica pushing for selection against the Championship newcomers.
While Mousinho believes all six goals were ‘preventable’, he is refusing to solely single out his defence for responsibility.
Regardless, the Blues boss is mulling over ripping up his team just three matches into the 2026-27 season.
‘You’re going to be in real trouble’
Mousinho told The News: ‘Whether you concede three goals in short succession or whether you concede three goals over 90 minutes, if you concede three goals every game then you’re going to be in real trouble.
‘It was the nature of the way we conceded them, I don’t look at those goals and think they weren’t preventable - they were all preventable.
‘When you look back at any goal, there’s elements of really good play from the opposition, which you can’t do anything about. Clearly in those six goals you’ve got some good players doing good things, but we can defend those a lot better.
‘Not just from the back five’s perspective, but from the entire 11 as well, the way we press, the way we recover, the way we try to stop things at source. I don’t think we’ve done that well enough over the first two games at all.
‘Then, if we do concede, or something goes against us, we’ll just have to be much better with dealing with that and moving on very quickly - which we didn't do in either game particularly well.
‘We are considering every single position at the moment. In a good way we do that every single game. Not just from a form point of view, but also from a game-to-game point of view.
‘If you think things are going to suit our side better than maybe they did last week, we’ll pick a side which we think is capable of beating QPR, and is capable of beating Lincoln. I have done it many times in the past, even when we’ve won games.
‘It's always about the next game. Form does come into it, but it’s much more about who we think is in the best position to go at Lincoln.’
Lack of left-back alternatives
With Connor Ogilvie undergoing a second operation on his knee last week, it means Zak Swanson continues as the sole left-back option at present.
The former Arsenal man only returned to match action in the friendly at Wycombe last month, along with Ebou Adams, and the pair are currently still feeling their way back to match fitness.
Mousinho added: ‘There are elements where we know we’re not quite there with certain players yet in terms of their fitness and coming back from a couple of long-term injuries, just making sure we get up to speed with the pace of the game.
‘For the first two weeks of the season we can forgive that and, from now, we’ve had those individual conversations this week. It’s now really time to step up ourselves in terms of making sure we’re at it and making sure we are bang on it in every aspect of our game.
‘And I don’t think that’s just the back five, that’s everybody on the football pitch. We need to make sure we sharpen up and really go from being 80-90 per cent there to being on top of our game.’
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