View: Callum Lang must step up for Portsmouth against Coventry City
Portsmouth will need Callum Lang at his best against Coventry City in the Championship on Saturday.
Frank Lampard will take his players to Fratton Park on 21 December, with the Coventry boss recently praising the “character” of the Portsmouth ground.
However, once the whistle blows, all niceties will go out the window, and John Mousinho’s side will need to battle hard to bounce back from their miserable 4-0 defeat at Derby in the Championship on Friday [13 December].
It was a real shock result considering that Portsmouth looked to be building some momentum heading into that clash, while Derby had won just one of their previous 10 fixtures ahead of kick-off at Pride Park Stadium.
Therefore, Mousinho will hope his players put things right on Saturday and make it three wins from their last five in the Championship, and with Coventry sitting 15th in the table, the home side have every chance of doing that.
However, they will need their key players at their best, especially Lang, who certainly didn’t perform as he would have liked against Derby last time out.
Callum Lang must step up for Portsmouth v Coventry City
Lang remains Portsmouth’s top scorer in the Championship this season with five goals. However, only one of those goals has come in the last eight matches.
As a result, Mousinho will want to see the 26-year-old performing as he was at the beginning of the season again, when he scored four goals in his first seven Championship outings.
And even if he doesn’t score, the Portsmouth boss at the very least will want to see Lang perform much better than he did against Derby.
As per Sofascore, while the Englishman did play one key pass at Pride Park Stadium, his overall passing accuracy was just 55 per cent, and only one of his three crosses were accurate.
Meanwhile, the one dribble Lang attempted was unsuccessful, while he also gave possession away 12 times despite only having 27 touches of the ball, and failed to register a shot at goal despite playing the entire 90 minutes in the East Midlands.
Defensively he was just as poor, winning just three of his seven duels overall.
It was a performance which didn’t reflect Lang’s quality or his importance in the Portsmouth squad, and Mousinho will need to see much more from the player against Coventry City.
Otherwise, the Portsmouth boss wouldn’t be out of order for considering dropping Lang.
In other Portsmouth news, the club are leading the Championship in one area after a Fratton Park stat was revealed.
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