The ‘exciting’ change coming for Portsmouth in wake of sealing Championship survival

And the Blues boss has spoken of the ‘really exciting prospect’ of the Blues’ footballing identity evolving, after remaining in the division with two games to spare.

Mousinho has overseen a powerful charge to safety from his team, with top-seven form being produced since the start of December after a tough start.

The head coach actioned a switch in approach at the start of November, as he ditched a possession-based game for a high-octane pressing approach which delivered an upturn in results.

Mousinho wasn’t too proud to change his ways, unlike others in football who’ve paid the price for sticking rigidly to an expansive game.

The adaption has not been without difficulties, however, especially as some teams have sat deeper at Fratton Park and been difficult to break down.

That’s where Mousinho sees room for development, but feels the evidence has already been there to see in some of eye-catching passages of play seen at Norwich last week.

Mousinho said:‘Tactically we’ve spoken about how we want to win games and we’ve spoken about their being a change next season.

‘So although we don’t want to get ahead of ourselves, we are naturally thinking about how we may want to play next year.

‘We’ve seen a lot more of that in the past weeks. You look at a couple of goals we scored against Norwich, that was much more how we want to build from the back.

‘We don’t want to be relentless in terms of going pass, pass, pass, pass.

‘The first Norwich goal Nico finds Freddie (Potts), Freddie finds a pass between the lines and we get the ball quickly wide to Matt and he delivered the ball into the box.

‘Sometimes we’ve been guilty of going too direct and it being too easy to deal with, but when you can do both we become a really exciting prospect.’

Pompey boss’ plan for recruitment and pre-season

In terms of how Pompey’s game idea moves on, Mousinho is already planning ahead and considering the building blocks which need to be put in place for it to work. That means looking toward transfer and the right players to implement the plans, as well as how to prepare for changes in pre-season.

Mousinho added: ‘In terms of the evolution I’m thinking constantly about how we do that next season. What do we have to put in place in terms of recruitment? What do we have to do in terms of the training programme for pre-season?

‘If you leave it until next year you will just find yourself way behind.’

YOUR NEXT POMPEY READ: ‘He plays where he wants’ - humble Terry Devlin reveals best Portsmouth role and future position plan