View: Portsmouth revel in 88% Swanson finding his Championship A-game
Portsmouth revisited the agony of the early days of this Championship season on Boxing Day, losing to a 95th-minute decider at Watford.
The ruthlessness of the division reared its head again at Vicarage Road, though this time one could argue it was more the fortunate officiating from a home perspective than any especially poor Pompey performance.
The main man who deserves the utmost credit for John Mousinho’s men is a gradually improving Zak Swanson, who can hold his head high having put in not only a busy defensive shift, but also chipped in with a key goal which gave the Blues the lead.
Pompey must lick their wounds quickly ahead of the final game of the calendar year at Bristol City on Sunday [29 December], an opponent they swept aside at Fratton Park earlier this month.
Zak Swanson a shining light for Portsmouth at Watford
Swanson trained for a long time at Arsenal’s London Colney, an area shared with Watford – and a return to nearby his footballing home yielded a rare goal and a stern performance.
In opening the scoring for Mousinho’s men, he far outweighed an xG of just 0.03, stunning Tom Cleverley’s hosts. He also offered six passes into the final third as he looked to get forward on the sporadic occasions Pompey broke in numbers [Fotmob].
The same data indicates Swanson made 16 defensive actions on a busy afternoon, winning 88 percent of his eight ground duels – losing just one – and using his positional sense effectively with five interceptions.
Though none of his five long ball attempts were executed, that was a mere blemish – this season when on the pitch, that passing range from his Arsenal upbringing has impressed with a 45.5 percent long ball accuracy – superior to most fellow full-backs in the Championship this term.
Crucially in this league, the 6’3” defender has been dominant in the air when he has played. Swanson has won 70 percent of his aerial duels in the Championship [Sofascore].
This feat is averaging 2.24 headed duels won per 90 minutes [FBRef] – better than 95 percent of his fellow full-backs in the past year, across both the Championship and League One.
Swanson is not a mainstay in the team, and his progress has not been helped by continuing injury setbacks and the surprisingly adept form of Devlin for much of the past two months.
However, the 24-year-old demonstrated against a difficult opponent in Watford that he can be a viable long-term option with the adequate level of coaching alongside him.
In other Portsmouth news, several Under-15 players got their chance with the U18 squad over Christmas.
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