John Mousinho has ‘positive’ talks with Portsmouth players after QPR thrashing

Portsmouth boss John Mousinho had a “positive” discussion with his players after the 6-1 defeat at QPR – and insisted his tactical change was not the reason for their hammering.

Pompey were three down within half an hour and suffered the fifth loss of a six-game winless run which has left them just one place and one point above the Championship relegation zone.

Paul Smyth, Rayan Kolli and Richard Kone all scored twice for QPR, with John Swift responding for the visitors.

Mousinho said: “Without giving anything away, because I think what was said needs to be kept in the dressing room, we’ve tried to have a very honest conversation.

“The main message as we came out of the room was we have to be realistic about where we are and what we’ve done today, but also positive because some of the work we have done and some of the points we’ve picked up means we’re out of the relegation zone with a game in hand.

“We’ve been very realistic but also positive, and I wanted to get the lads’ opinion as well. I think it’s really important I’m not in there on a monologue and losing the plot about everything that’s gone on.”

Ebou Adams, usually a combative midfielder, was deployed in a number 10 role, with playmaker Swift switched to a deeper position – and the changes backfired.

“We’ve struggled for goals in the past few weeks. I think Ebou as a 10 gives you a little bit more impetus going into the box,” Mousinho said.

“Obviously there’s parts of the team selection that clearly I haven’t got right. But I think we could have swapped them around and I’m not sure it would have made a huge difference to the score.

“I’ve clearly at some point got it wrong. I’ve no issue with that. But I didn’t come away thinking that (decision) was a glaring issue.

“It’s by far the worst performance we’ve had for a long, long time, and I didn’t see it coming.

“Setting up a certain way, picking the team we did, we thought would be enough for us to win the game, and obviously it turned out to be the complete opposite.”

QPR boss Julien Stephan described his team’s display as their most clinical since his arrival at the club last summer.

He said: “It’s a good win. But it’s not the end of the season – just a win. A good win and it’s a special win because it’s a clinical one.

“If I sum up the game in one word, I want to say clinical. We were a clinical team.

“It was not our best performance this season collectively. No. But it was probably our most clinical of the season.

“With our first three shots we scored three goals and that changed the game completely.

“We needed to keep pushing in the second half and when we scored the fourth one it killed the game, and we then had more space and that’s how we got the penalty for the fifth one, and scored the sixth.

“But it’s not the end of the season. We still have seven games to play and it’s really important to continue to push, win more points and finish in the highest position possible.”