‘Excites’: Portsmouth boss hears teen midfielder clamour as he weighs up Burnley and Sheffield United calls
John Mousinho is wary of the demands being placed on Abdoulaye Kamara as he weighs up his Burnley involvement.
The Pompey boss can feel the clamour growing for the teen midfielder to be deployed in the Championship, as his side go in search of their first league win at Turf Moor.
But Mousinho reckons Kamara’s display against West Brom highlighted the pitfalls of placing too many demands on the Borussia Dortmund signing.
There has been a groundswell of support for the 19-year-old’s first-team inclusion, after an exciting second-half cameo against Sunderland at the end of last month.
Mousinho can see why that is so, after Kamara showcased his driving ability against the high-fliers at Fratton Park.
But the former Paris St Germain also had difficult moments against the Baggies last weekend, as he adapts to football on these shoes.
That’s an important consideration for Mousinho, as he side taken on another huge assignment at the relegated Premier League side.
He said: ‘The weekend was a good indicator of where Abdou is at.
‘He came on and did some really good things, and then did some things where he gave the ball away and was dispossessed.
‘That’s probably a better barometer of where he is and we have to tidy up certain areas of his game.
‘He knows that and we’ve been working on that with him, because there are areas where we excites going forward and we’ve all seen that.
‘So defensively if he can string all that together and be really clinical on the ball, too, then we have a real player there.
Mousinho is perfectly understanding and expects to see peaks and troughs in Kamara’s game, especially as he climbs a steep learning curve at senior level.
He added: ‘It will happen when you are asking Abdou to come on in difficult games.
‘He came on at 3-0 against Sunderland, the game wasn’t dead by any means, but it was a more difficult mountain to climb at that point as Sunderland sat a bit deeper.
‘Against West Brom the game was very much still alive and if we nicked a goal it would have changed the complexion of the game.
‘Abdou came on and faced a very good midfield trio West Brom had in Swift, Mowatt and Molumby. So it’s a really good learning curve for him.’