Portsmouth head coach John Mousinho has admitted that he is refusing to rule out the idea of playing Manchester United loanee Di'Shon Bernard as a right-back.
Bernard, who spent last season on loan at Hull City, joined Portsmouth on loan for the remainder of the season on transfer deadline day and made his debut during Saturday's 1-1 draw against play-off hopefuls Barnsley at Fratton Park. Despite being a recognised centre-back, Mousinho, who was only appointed Portsmouth boss last month, made the decision to deploy Bernard on the right side of the back-four in the absence of the injured Zak Swanson.
Despite the 22-year-old having joined the Fratton Park outfit with the expectation of starting in the heart of the defence, he did not look out of place, producing as strong a debut performance as he could have wished for. He was solid defensively and also offered a threat going forwards, especially in the second half.
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He has operated as a right-back at times during his career so far and his showing against Barnsley has created a potential headache for Mousinho between now and the end of the campaign.
"Di'Shon has played right-back before, it's one of the advantages of bringing someone in who has had a couple of loan spells with Salford and Hull," Mousinho told The News. "We knew he could play there, probably it's part of the attraction in terms of versatility, and he was excellent.
"He was thrown in at the deep for a home debut at Fratton Park playing out of position against a really good team with a lot of attacking threat down that left-hand side and grew into the game.
"At half-time we looked at a couple of things, particularly around positioning, and he took those on board and adjusted his game slightly. He was brilliant and provided that attacking threat as well.
"I think he is a centre-back for us, that's where he has played the majority of his games, so to have the ability to slot into right-back is great. Although, after Saturday's performance, I don't know why we wouldn't look at both positions and his versatility. It would be remiss of me to dismiss him as right-back after Saturday."
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