John Mousinho ‘may have to take Colby Bishop action’ after latest penalty miss
Portsmouth are still licking their wounds after losing 2-1 at home to Norwich on Saturday.
The Blues went two goals down early in the first half, but were given a penalty after a foul on Florian Bianchini toward the end of the game.
However, Colby Bishop’s tame effort was saved by Norwich goalkeeper Vladan Kovacevic.
Adrian Segecic pulled one back for Portsmouth late on, but it wasn’t enough to prevent the loss.
Andrew Moon weighs in on Colby Bishop penalty debate
Bishop had a poor game against Norwich, although he’s currently Mousinho’s unchallenged first-choice striker.
Pompey fans are debating whether he should be the penalty-taker though.
Bishop has now missed four of his last six penalties, and it’s getting to the point where Mousinho must be considering replacing him.
Andrew Moon, who commentates on Portsmouth games for BBC Radio Solent, has weighed in on the debate.
Speaking on his weekly ‘Who Needs Mourinho’ podcast, he suggested that Mousinho might be forced into action if Bishop misses his next spot kick.
He said: “I think you’ve got to think about it. He’s scored six of his last ten. That’s 60 per cent. You’ve got to be hoping to score 80 per cent. So, he’s a little bit short of that.
“You want your centre-forward to be the man to take the ball. I don’t think anyone will want to take it off him. I think he’ll stay for now, but if he was to miss another one, then there is going to have to be considerations.”
In the view of many, though, Mousinho may already be wise to take action after this latest spot-kick mishap.
Portsmouth remain reliant on Colby Bishop regardless of whether he takes penalties
Mousinho has made it clear how highly he values Bishop during a series of pre-season interviews.
He admits it has been tough to attract new strikers to the club because no-one of any note wants to play second fiddle to Portsmouth’s number 9.
Bishop’s overall goalscoring record for Portsmouth is great. He has 56 goals in 134 appearances, but he also brings so much more than that to the team.
In every game, you can expect Bishop to:
- run his socks off
- hold the ball up
- win free-kicks
- be a general menace to defenders.
There is no question that Bishop should remain the main man up front for Portsmouth, and he has the character to overcome this poor run of form from the spot.
He’s a senior member of the squad and doesn’t seem like the type of player who will willingly step down from penalty-taking duty.
So, if Pompey win a spot-kick against West Brom on Saturday, you can bet good money that Bishop will be the one taking it.
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