Middlesbrough will host Championship strugglers Portsmouth at the Riverside Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

Portsmouth manager John Mousinho has assessed criticism of one of his key players ahead of Saturday’s visit to Championship promotion contenders Middlesbrough.

It is matters at the other end of the table that are at the focus of Pompey’s attention ahead of the Riverside Stadium clash as Mousinho’s men are sitting just one point and one place above the second tier’s relegation zone after a run of eight games without a win. The form of Pompey goalkeeper Nicolas Schmid has been questioned in recent weeks after the Austrian stopper was criticised for his role in goals during a recent heavy defeat against Queens Park Rangers and Monday’s 2-2 home draw with fellow strugglers Oxford United.

Schmid has impressed for large parts of his time at Fratton Park after he was snapped up from Blau-Weiß Linz during the summer of 2024 - and Mousinho has stressed he is unconcerned by his recent dip in form and insisted he has ‘every faith’ in his number one.

He told The News: “Nico set really high standards for himself last year and, for the majority of this year, he has still hit them. Obviously there’s always going to be disappointment when we concede goals. Nico is the best goalkeeper you’d like to know, always recognising whenever there is something he wants to do better or can do better - and we are always trying to work towards that. It’s very, very easy to blame when the ball goes in past the goalkeeper, but there’s a huge amount of mistakes the outfield players make as well. We have to be better as a collective to make sure we try to restrict the opposition a bit more - and yes I know Nico will want to keep improving on his performances.

“Am I concerned about him? Not really. He set the bar extremely high last year and, as soon as you do that, people expect a certain level of performance, but it’s not always going to come. People have their ups and downs in their career and I still think Niko is performing at a decent Championship level. He is just about maybe getting back to the peak he was last year. We have every faith in Nico as the goalkeeper at the football club.”

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