Exclusive:The ‘long-term issue’ Portsmouth midfielder must fix amid standout Championship emergence
The Comoros international has huge boots to fill - but has now shown his Championship potential for Pompey.
Iyad Mohamed is being groomed to become Marlon Pack’s long-term Pompey successor.
John Mousinho believes Mohamed is the man to take on the huge task of filling the Blues captain’s boots, as he makes an impressive Championship emergence.
Mousinho: ‘We’ve been trying to find that younger version of Marlon’
And Pompey’s head coach believes Mohamed is now in a position physically to show he can make the second-tier grade, after a breakout period for the Comoros international.
Mohamed has been central to his side’s upturn in fortune, starting the past four games and helping Mousinho’s side to three wins and a draw along the way.
The 25-year-old has needed to be patient, after his arrival from Portuguese side Casa Pia for a fee between €300,000 and €400,000.
But after three cameo appearances Mohamed is making his mark, with Mousinho explaining the midfielder has been brought in to succeed Pack moving forward.
The Pompey skipper is showing his continuing influence starting 10 of the past 11 games, but Mousinho made it clear Mohamed is the one being lined up to take over the Buckland lad’s key role.
He said: ‘Iyad has shown he’s ready, we knew he’d be involved particularly with the games coming thick and fast.
‘We signed him because we felt he could impact the Championship, it was more about getting him physically up to speed more than anything else.
‘He’s primary position is a six, though he can play anywhere across the midfield.
‘He’s a physical six and pretty good on the ball, pretty good technically as well.
‘What we’ve been trying to do for the past couple of years is find that younger version of Marlon, that long-term replacement.
‘We had it Fred (Potts) for a season, but then lost him and have since being trying to find the solution to that long-term issue. I think Iyad can give us that.’
Mohamed’s fortunes have rapidly improved after fleeting Pompey appearances over the first couple of months of the season.
Mousinho puts the player now being ready to make a mark down to being able to find match exposure across the last international break.
That provided Mohamed with the game time he wasn’t able to pick up at club level with Championship points at stake.
Mousinho added: ‘Iyad played three games when he went away with Comoros and hadn’t had any minutes before that coming into the season.
‘He hadn’t had a pre-season so it was one where we were trying to get him up to speed as quickly as possible, but without having the match exposure it’s a bit of a vicious circle.
‘We wanted to give him the match exposure, but he probably wasn’t ready for it because he’s not had any match exposure.
‘So getting him those minutes when he was away was really good.’