Pompey Talk: January transfer window update
Josef Bursik believes a lack of aggression is behind Pompey’s chronic set-piece frailties.
And the keeper stated a failure by his side to address their woes from corners could prove costly to their Championship hopes.
John Mousinho’s side fell to a 4-1 FA Cup reverse against the Premier League leaders, with an inability to defend deadball situations behind their downfall.
Arsenal scored three goals from corners, with a quick free-kick leading to Gabriel Martinelli tapping in his side’s third six minutes after the restart.
Even factoring in the Gunners’ set-piece might, it continues a shocking pattern of lapses from those scenarios this season from John Mousinho’s side.
Bursik said: ‘It’s something they are strong at and it’s what gives them a three-goal win.
‘It’s annoying and we need to sort them out, because we’re conceding them in the league as well.
‘It needs to be better and we need to address it, because it’s costing us.
‘We’ll look at it because it separates games, you can look at the games where it’s impacted us.
‘The team at the top of the Premier League are putting a lot of focus on it, so it shows how important it is.
‘It can be as simple as marking your man, we need to be more aggressive.
‘If you are picking up your man you have to stay with it, but they are very good at it.
‘There’s lots of blocks and you almost know where they are going to go, but you can’t do anything about it when you get blocked and there are runners who free themselves.
‘You almost have to block the blocker and anticipate it, but it does happen very quickly.
‘There’s a lot of things to think about and it isn’t as easy as it seems, but there is an element of being against your man and being strong.’
Bursik took solace from the manner in which Pompey gave a good account of themselves in general play against Arsenal, with their efforts acknowledged by the home crowd on the final whistle.
He added: ‘If you take the set-pieces out it’s 1-1 and we gave it a really good go.
‘I’ve had to make one save, they’ve hit the post and missed a penalty.
‘I don’t think there’s loads in it and we gave a good account of ourselves.
‘We played some decent football at times and used the conditions to our advantage.
‘I don’t think it was bad and we should take a lot of encouragement into the league.’
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