Portsmouth boss on why Blackburn could be 'career turning point' for popular ex-Arsenal man
The long-serving Pompey man has now started at left-back for five-successive matches
Zak Swanson’s Blackburn performance can prove to be a ‘career turning point’, according to John Mousinho.
The Blues boss is convinced an eye-catching showing in Saturday’s vital 2-1 triumph represents a coming-of-age moment for the former Arsenal man.
Lining up at left-back for a fifth straight match during the ongoing absence of Connor Ogilvie, Swanson’s display was even more impressive considering he’d passed a fitness test on a back injury the previous day.
Mousinho has often questioned the 25-year-old’s ‘consistency’ during his time at Fratton Park, both in terms of performances and his availability.
And the head coach believes the versatile defender’s Blackburn outing can signal the beginning of escalating his displays to another level.
Portsmouth boss: Hopefully it was a turning point in his career
Mousinho told The News: ‘With Zak, absolutely it’s about consistency.
‘I thought he was good against Swansea and was disappointed to have to take him off with a back injury, but he was back again against Blackburn.
‘It’s consistency, whether that has been with injuries or performance-wise - and that is probably the frustrating thing with Zak. The thing is, he comes in and performs well.
‘I was actually really pleased that he played after his Swansea injury, hopefully it was a turning point in his career.
‘Zak could definitely have looked at his injury and gone “I’m not going to be fit to play” against Blackburn. He actually wasn’t 100 per cent, he had a fitness test on Friday morning. Yet he pulled himself through and played as well as I’ve seen him play.
‘He’s such a good player, we’ve seen it time and time again with Zak, so let’s see more of it.’
Joined Pompey in July 2022
Swanson has made 93 appearances and scored five times since being snapped up by Danny Cowley from Arsenal in July 2022.
Yet the right-back’s progress has often been checked by repeated injury issues, most recently a heel injury suffered last season.
Regardless, his 32 outings in 2024-25 represented his most appearances in a Blues season, offering hope those injury problems were behind him.
Sure enough, Swanson has been named in all 21 of Pompey’s squads this season, consisting of 11 starts and that stunning goal against Millwall.
Having battled for the right-back spot with Joe Rafferty, Jordan Williams and Terry Devlin over the last three seasons, it’s now as a full-back on the left flank where he is catching the eye.
‘He’s good enough to play pretty much everywhere’
Mousinho added: ‘Zak was very good against Millwall and needs to keep that level of consistency going because maybe there were a couple of games where he hasn’t.
‘You could always turn around and say left-back isn’t his position, but I think Zak is a good-enough player to pretty much play anywhere, to be honest.
‘He showed that on Saturday when we moved him to centre-half at the very end. So he’s got to keep on top of himself with that.’