View: Mousinho cannot repeat mistake with 71% Devlin in Portsmouth v Coventry
Portsmouth host Coventry City at Fratton Park on Saturday in a game that has taken on far more importance on the back of the heavy loss to Derby County last time out.
While it is safe to say no Portsmouth player covered themselves in glory in the 4-0 defeat on 13 December – perhaps Freddie Potts aside – some performed worse than others.
The backline in particular struggled as a unit, with Tom McIntyre struggling as he came into the side for his first start in over a month.
It was arguably the display of Terry Devlin that was of most concern to John Mousinho, though, and he should think carefully about who he selects at right-back versus Coventry.
Terry Devlin struggles in Portsmouth loss to Derby County
All four Derby goals should have been dealt with better, with Devlin at least partly culpable for a couple of them.
For the first goal, Devlin was caught in two minds as to whether to close down Nathaniel Mendez-Laing down the Derby left or hold his position inside the penalty box.
In the end he did not really do either, and Mendez-Laing was given far too much time to tee up Kane Wilson for the first of the home side’s four goals.
Indeed, Devlin made just one tackle in his 45 minutes on the field before being taken off [WhoScored], while he failed to make a single interception and completed only 71 per cent of his passes.
Devlin’s poor touch directly led to Derby’s third goal, meanwhile – one of two unsuccessful touches – and the less said about his positioning for the fourth goal the better.
Having also offered next to nothing in an attacking sense – he registered just one cross – it was no surprise to see Zak Swanson come on at the interval.
Swanson registered a couple of crosses during his 45 minutes on the field and, while it is true Derby stepped off with the game already won, he coped a lot better with the home side’s wide players.
As per FBref, Devlin is in the bottom 16 percentile of all full-backs in the Championship and the 14 divisions most similar to it in terms of quality for tackles per 90 minutes (1.39).
It goes without saying that the defensive side of the game is something Mousinho needs each of his defenders to be strong at.
Doing the basics is key, and unfortunately too many Pompey players have struggled to do that this season – Devlin being the most recent example.
In terms of expected goals against, Pompey’s figure stands at 30.5 and they have shipped 34 times [FBref] – the third-worst return in the league.
Mousinho does not need telling that his side desperately need to improve at the back. The starting point for that is to leave Devlin out against Coventry.
In other Portsmouth news, Jay Sadler’s patience has finally paid off for the women’s side after what happened at the weekend.
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