Portsmouth boss reveals plan for coping with loss of Manchester City starlet in January

John Mousinho believes Pompey have the depth to cover for the loss of Alex Robertson in the new year.

And that means the Blues will likely avoid the temptation to recruit a new midfielder in the transfer window.

Mousinho is facing the prospect of potentially losing Robertson to an international call-up in the new year, with Australia in action in the Asian Cup. It’s a similar prospect for team-mate Kusini Yengi, with the Pompey boss weighing up a potential move for a new striker with Colby Bishop facing a stint on the sidelines.

That will not be the case in the middle of the park, however, with head coach believing he’s well stocked in that department.

He said: ‘The Asian Cup It’s one of those things and something which falls in a year which doesn’t particularly suit league football. It’s a positive and a negative at the same time. You want Alex do well and you want him to have recognition, but you don’t want to lose him at the same time.

‘We’ll see, we’ll see how it goes and go from there. We’ve got that (squad planning). If you look at where we are at the minute and where we are in terms of strength.

‘We lost Joe Morrell but Marlon was one who came back into the fold last week and slotted in seamlessly, considering how long he’d been out. He was excellent coming back in and steering us to a win. So Marlon is back in competing and Ben Stevenson is probably the unluckiest man in Portsmouth at the minute, in terms of not getting the playing time he deserves.

‘Joe’s been suspended, so we have players there straightaway at the top end of the league. Then there’s Tom Lowery returning as well, so there’s plenty of stiff competition in the middle of the park.

‘We haven’t employed Terry (Devlin) as a deeper midfielder, but I feel he has the ability to do that as well. So there’s plenty of solid competition for those spots.’