'Cautious' Portsmouth boss admits selection dilemma as he weighs up unleashing new boys in Reading cup clash
Pompey new boys Mark Kosznovszky and Luke Le Roux have still to make their debuts
‘Cautious’ John Mousinho is agonising over whether to hand Luke Le Roux and Mark Kosznovszky their Pompey debuts tonight.
Although fellow newcomer Florian Bianchini is in the frame to be rested, having started Saturday’s 1-0 victory at the Kassam Stadium.
The Blues host Reading in the Carabao Cup this evening (7.45pm), representing their first Fratton Park fixture of the 2025-26 season.
Inevitably, Pompey are weighing up changes against the League One side, using it as an opportunity to rotate their 26-man squad.
That would open the door for Minhyeok Yang, who came off his bench for his debut at Oxford United, to have a full debut following his Spurs switch.
Although Mousinho is not yet certain whether Le Roux and Kosznovszky will make their bows, having been unused substitutes on Saturday.
Mousinho: I think we’ll make a couple of changes
He told The News: ‘I think we’ll make a couple of changes and that’s hopefully what the fans who are paying their money can expect, but I don't believe it’s going to be a bad thing.
‘We want to be extremely strong, we back ourselves to be very strong, and we’re going out to win the game. It’s a cup which is really important to us and we want to try to win it.
‘Maybe Mark and Luke will play. With the pair of them, they've only had a week’s worth of full training, so it’s just an area we are going to be cautious in.
‘If you look at where we would be in pre-season, we went into the two games Farnborough and Woking after being back for two-and-a-half weeks. We felt we were in a good spot and the lads, having had that full intense training, were ready to start games again.
‘I am not sure about Mark and Luke (starting against Reading), we will monitor that. They are not too far away, we just have to be careful.
‘With Florian (Bianchini), there are two sides to the coin. There is keeping him in the side to get him that match fitness and building that up, especially considering he hadn’t played a huge amount.
‘There’s also the injury risk for him coming in and playing straight away after (on Saturday) probably playing the longest for about 12 months. It’s a bit of both, we have to speak to the medical department about that.’
Players ruled out of the Carabao Cup clash
Marlon Pack will today undergo knee surgery, ruling him out for six weeks, while Harvey Blair continues to be sidelined by a hamstring injury and Harry Clout last week joined Farnborough on loan.
Matt Ritchie, Tom McIntyre and Abdoulaye Kamara remain out of favour as Pompey seek to offload the trio, who haven’t been handed squad numbers anyway.
‘Where the top, top priorities lie’
Mousinho added: ‘At this stage of the season, we’ve got to be very, very wary of where the top, top priorities lie. I won’t hide behind the fact that it’s the league for us, it’s much better for Pompey to remain in the Championship than have a cup run.
‘I’m not saying we can’t do both, but that’s certainly where we are in terms of our priorities at the moment.
‘There are plenty of players who are knocking on the door and very, very hungry that can count themselves a bit unfortunate not to have played last weekend, so there’s the chance to be able to give 2-3 of them a game.
‘We will have to see when it comes to selecting the team what we’ll do. We have to be careful about certain things like that, picking and choosing the players we think are going to come in and make an impact.’