Portsmouth Captain Marlon Pack on International Break Timing and Being Dropped

Portsmouth captain Marlon Pack has expressed his view that the recent international break occurred at an inopportune moment for the club. The team, known as Pompey, had secured their initial home Championship victory of the season, defeating Preston North End 3-1, just prior to the November international fixtures. This break, according to Pack, prevented the team from building on that momentum. “It’s really hard as a player with these three international breaks coming so quickly and for us we’d probably have preferred not to have it,” Pack stated during an appearance on BBC Radio Solent’s Pompey podcast, Who Needs Mourinho. He added, “But it was just important to get that result and use this week to re-evaluate.” Currently, Portsmouth occupies the second-to-last position in the league standings, trailing safety by three points, as they prepare for an away match against Blackburn Rovers this weekend. Earlier in the season, the veteran midfielder, Pack, who also serves as the club captain, was omitted from the starting lineup, a decision he acknowledged as challenging. “Regardless of being captain you should want to play and I was very disappointed,” Pack commented further. He continued, “But I’m quite pragmatic and during that time we’d only won one game so the gaffer had every right to try something to find a winning formula but I want the team to do well even if that comes at my expense sometimes.” The complete interview is accessible on BBC Sounds.