'Exceptionally high': Portsmouth boss tips £1m man and one-time Sheffield United target to finally emerge from the shadows

He’s the £1m summer recruit establishing himself as a dependable option from the bench rather than Pompey starter at present.

Nonetheless, John Mousinho is encouraged by Mark Kosznovszky’s growing adaptation to the English game - and is convinced the Fratton faithful will be seeing much more of his talents.

The 23-year-old was recruited from MTK Budapest in July for an undisclosed fee, although sources from Hungary put the figure beyond the £1m mark.

Regardless, Kosznovszky has still to make his first-team breakthrough, with just one Championship start to date, when he featured on the right-hand side of midfield at Ipswich last month.

Instead the one-time Sheffield United target has been primarily employed as a substitute and is gradually becoming a go-to player from the bench.

Portsmouth boss: His numbers are exceptionally high

With three outings in the last four matches representing more involvement than fellow summer signings Luke Le Roux and Florian Bianchini, it’s clear Mousinho has faith in the hard-working Hungarian.

Pompey’s head coach told The News: ‘Mark is probably that left-sided eight or the 10, but I think he can do both really well.

‘He’s had a really positive impact, to be honest. Mark has forced his way onto the pitch a few times and shown really nice touches and a really good level of work-rate. We played him out of position against Ipswich and he did okay.

‘His (work-rate) numbers are exceptionally high. Whether he comes off the bench, whether he starts games, like Reading and Ipswich, he has been very, very good in terms of his work-rate - and that’s the minimum we’d expect from him.

‘He can run and is technically good as well, it’s just the period of adjustment for Mark coming into the league. Once we get him going he will be great.

‘Mark just needs to keep on impressing whenever he comes on, keep working in training and doing everything he can to continue knocking on the door. I’m looking forward to seeing more of him.’

Among 11 summer signings for Portsmouth

Kosznovszky, who signed a three-year Fratton Park deal, was among 11 summer signings by the Blues.

Le Roux hasn’t featured in the last five matches, Bianchini has slipped out of contention since starting four of the opening six Championship fixtures, while Franco Umeh hasn’t even trained since arriving from Palace with a hamstring injury.

In comparison, the midfielder has featured seven times so far, including a six-minute cameo off the bench in Saturday’s 1-0 defeat to Stoke.

In a first interview in July following his signing, Kosznovszky spoke Hungarian to Pompey’s official website, with English subtitles posted underneath the video.

And Mousinho insists Kosznovszky has settled in well since moving to the south coast from Central Europe.

‘Very popular’

He added: ‘He speaks English. Mark’s fine, he’s fluent. Perhaps he just didn’t want to answer your questions!

‘He’s been great, very popular, a good lad to have around. He’s very quiet, but has been very, very easy to work with and I think it has been a good introduction to English football for Mark.’

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