John Mousinho has explained his reasoning behind the surprise defensive changes at Preston – and is adamant Connor Ogilvie can now remain at centre-half.
Following the disappointing defeat against Plymouth, the Blues boss made two changes to the back four at Deepdale, consisting of three positional alterations.
Zak Swanson and Marlon Pack dropped out, with Terry Devlin recalled at right-back and Cohen Bramall handed his Blues full debut since arriving from Rotherham during the transfer window.
With Bramall occupying left-back, Ogilvie moved into the centre of defence as a left-sided centre-back, a position he has played in plenty of times over his career.
That left Regan Poole, who was made captain for Saturday’s clash, as the only player who kept his position, this time partnering Ogilvie.
Ultimately, the Blues lost 2-1 after a ball over the top of Ogilvie was finished impressively by Stefan Thordarson with three minutes to go – and Mousinho has lifted the lid on why he made those changes.
He told The News: ‘It hasn’t really been working for us away from home for the majority of the season, so we wanted to change things in terms of having a different profile of player on the pitch – and for the most part I think it did.
‘We didn’t know if Milutin Osmajic would be fit, we actually thought that maybe Sam Greenwood and Emil Riis would play up top, it ended up with Will Keane and Riis, which was probably even more athletic.
‘What we wanted to do was protect the channels, have two runners at centre-half, that was the theme for the whole team selection.
‘We knew Connor would give us that, we also wanted to get Cohen on the pitch somehow, and there was no way we could leave Connor Ogilvie out of the side, he has been one of our best players this year.
‘Playing Cohen at left-back seemed like a natural thing to do and I actually thought he was really good.
‘I would also play Connor at centre-half again.’
Towler again overlooked
Mousinho had admitted Ogilvie and Nicolas Schmid had ‘not covered themselves in any glory’ over the manner of the Lilywhites’ winner.
Damningly for Ryley Towler, it’s another player preferred ahead of him as the left-sided centre-half, following Marlon Pack’s stint.
And with Alex Milosovic also closing in on first-team availability, Towler could soon find himself further down the pecking order.
Elsewhere in Saturday’s team, Kusini Yengi replaced Matt Ritchie and was handed a striker role, with Colby Bishop dropping behind.
In the meantime, Pompey remain four points ahead of the relegation zone with eight matches of the league season remaining.
Their next fixture is against Blackburn at Fratton Park on March 29 as they also edge closer to welcoming back Conor Shaughnessy and Rob Atkinson from injury.
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