John Mousinho intends to continue building Matt Ritchie towards a full Pompey return.
After the Gosport boy’s Fratton homecoming, the Blues manager feels that precautions must be taken to protect him from potential damage.
Furthermore, Mousinho is aware of the need to manage his playing time at the moment given his recent arrival from Newcastle United.
When Ritchie returned to PO4 last week, it greatly boosted the spirits of the Fratton supporters and generated excitement ahead of Pompey’s Championship comeback.
The former Bournemouth player, however, only saw seven minutes of bench time in the opening-day 3-3 draw against Leeds, the team’s favourites for promotion. He would later make a 26-minute appearance in the Carabao Cup against Millwall.
That came following Ritchie’s limited playing time at St. James’ Park the previous season, when Eddie Howe mostly used him for quick appearances off the bench.
Despite his advanced age, the 34-year-old academy graduate maintains exceptional physical health, as seen by his extensive training sessions managing Newcastle’s Premier League team in the previous season.
Mousinho is aware, nevertheless, that Ritchie’s match sharpness corresponds with his fitness prior to increasing his exposure to Championship action.
The Pompey manager clarified that this is also to prevent injury concerns, since the level of play his squad would need to play at this season is evident following the match against Leeds.
“Matt wasn’t ready to start (against Millwall),” he stated.
We’re examining it in relation to his preseason experience. Despite training with Bournemouth’s under-21 team, he did not receive any playing time in matches or competitive games.
Matt spent his first minutes at Leeds in a while, so we need to gradually increase that.
“Matt didn’t participate in a lot of football last season.” He trained really hard and never got hurt, but he didn’t play a lot.
Therefore, we must be cautious and avoid throwing him in without thinking, since it may result in harm.
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