Portsmouth have had to endure a pretty testing start to their League One campaign, with Kenny Jackett's side having only won two, drawn three and lost three.

Pompey fans will no doubt be hoping for an upturn in results in the weeks to come, particularly with the club currently sitting in 19th place.

Much of Pompey's poor form could be attributed to the transfer business that was conducted by the club during the summer. With key players such as Jamal Lowe and Matt Clarke leaving the club for Wigan and Brighton respectively, there has been a big onus put on the likes of new signings John Marquis and Paul Downing to perform since arriving at Fratton Park.

Indeed with Lowe leaving the club, Pompey have lost one of their main sources of goals, with the winger having netted 17 goals in all competitions last term for Pompey, meaning that John Marquis has been expected to pick up the mantle since arriving at the club from Doncaster Rovers, for whom he hit the goal scoring trail for last term, netting 26 in all competitions for Donny.

However, since joining the south coast club, Marquis has so far failed to hit the heights of last season, with the 27-year-old having only found the net twice in nine games. This is something the striker will no doubt be looking to improve, and as such, we have picked out THREE ways Marquis can improve his form for Portsmouth...

Take more shots

One of the main reasons why Marquis has failed to find the net on a regular basis for his new club is the fact that he isn't taking enough shots, which is a theory which can be supported by data provided by WhoScored.com, which states that the former Millwall striker only averages 1.3 shots per game.

A ratio which is made all the more underwhelming by the fact that only 0.6 of those shots hit the target, with 0.3 being off target and 0.4 being blocked by a defender.

The best way for Marquis to improve his shots output is to take on more efforts from outside the penalty area, with just 0.3 of his shots at present coming from zones outside the penalty area, a stat that Marquis should look to improve upon as goalkeepers can be caught out by snapshots from distance.

Improve link-up play

One other area that the 27-year-old should look to improve is his link-up play with teammates, it is clear that Marquis is not getting on the ball enough, with statistics from WhoScored.com showing that the former Donny striker has only made an average of just 13.5 passes per game, with an overall pass success rate of 62% making for disappointing reading.

Marquis should look to position himself closer to Pompey's attacking midfielders as this will help to provide him with more options to lay the ball off or flick it on to a teammate, both of which are links that have so far been amiss with the player having recorded an average of 5.1 inaccurate short passes.

Be more positive in possession

Last but not least, Marquis also needs to look to be more positive in possession of the ball, with the Pompey striker averaging just 0.5 dribbles per game, a disappointing return, given that 0.3 of those are unsuccessful, which is a far cry from the dribbles performed by the player last term, with Marquis regularly embarking on lung-busting runs forward for Doncaster.

In addition to this, the striker should also look to be stronger in possession, with Marquis recording an average of 2.6 unsuccessful touches per game, whilst also being dispossessed 1.4 times per match, indicating a need for Marquis to improve his holds up play when Pompey are on the attack.

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