'We don’t want to be lazy and think we’ve cracked it': Portsmouth's champions are back - and vowing to get even better

The head coach toasted the League One title in his first full season at Fratton Park, but has vowed not to be ‘lazy’ as he negotiates new challenges.

The Blues’ squad today return for pre-season, with two days of testing lined up before being granted the weekend off.

They will then return on Monday morning for training, which will initially consist of one session based around ball work.

Yet Mousinho, who will have three new faces present in Jordan Williams, Josh Murphy and Reuben Swann, is adamant coaching and tactical improvements are still required, despite last season’s success.

He told The News: ‘We will approach it similarly to what we did last year with improvements. We want to have a very, very fit strong side that competes in every game that we play.

‘You can look at it that it worked last year, but it’s a fine balance between sticking to the same and also improving other areas - and there are definitely things we can improve on.

‘Things did work well for us last year, yet there are some things which didn’t work well and we still think we can work on that.

‘We don’t want to be lazy and think we’ve cracked it, because we definitely don’t think we have. We want to move on in a lot of areas.

‘This time last year Max (Whittingham) stepped up from the Academy to take over the strength and conditioning department, now we have Max working well with George (Bell) there, so we’ve got upgrades there.

‘Obviously we now have a new physiotherapy department, so things have changed in terms of the way we approach things, and we’ve moved on as a coaching staff as well.

‘There have been a lot of tweaks in terms of the way we want to play as well, so those things do come into it. So it’s just about improving as much as we can.’

At the end of next week, Pompey will be heading to Pula, Croatia, for a seven-day training camp, commencing from Saturday (July 6).

Before then, there’s plenty of work planned on the pitches at their Hilsea-based training ground.

Mousinho added: ‘We are going to tick off all the physical for the opening two days and see what shape everybody is in.

‘George has been doing a really good job with the players over the off-season, making sure we monitor the programmes so everyone comes back fit. One of our big challenges is making sure they actually don’t do too much over the summer.

‘In terms of how we approach it on Monday for training, from the very first day everything is geared up to the way we want to play, in possession and out of possession. We get the balls out on day one.

‘A lot of the time you can get the fitness work done in the sessions, so they will be intense and demand a lot from the football-side. The more realistic, the better.’