Portsmouth boss admits 'frustration' as struggling Swansea loanee suffers another set-back
The Frenchman has made 11 appearances for Pompey since his summer arrival
Pompey have been hit by yet more frustration over Florian Bianchini as his Fratton Park struggles continue.
The Swansea loanee has failed to score or assist in any of his 11 appearances this season, while finds himself out of the match-day squad at present.
That recent absence has been explained by John Mousinho as tendonitis in the attacker’s knee, which is being dealt with ‘week to week’.
Although he was ineligible to face parent club Swansea, he also wasn’t included in Pompey’s 20-man squad for the abandoned Charlton game and then last weekend’s visit of Blackburn.
Regardless, Bianchini’s involvement has come under increased threat of late following the return to fitness of Harvey Blair, while the Blues are seeking adding attacking reinforcements in the January window.
And Mousinho admits Pompey need to find a way to get more out of a player who has never registered an assist during 18 months in English football.
‘We have seen plenty of that spark in training’
The head coach told The News: ‘Flo’s just got tendonitis at minute in his knee, so we are week to week as to how he is.
‘He’s just out injured at the minute, as far as we are concerned he is going to be here for the season.
‘Flo has come in and been part of three of the five wins, he has started them, he’s had a big contribution to what we have done this year.
‘He works incredibly hard off the ball and the big thing for him is just to see if he can produce those numbers at the top end of the pitch in terms of assists and goals.
‘We have seen plenty of that spark in training and sometimes in games. I guess that’s maybe the frustration that we don’t see a bit more of it consistently. The accurate way to put it is can we get a bit more out of Flo?’
A £2m signing for Swansea in August 2024
However, in his maiden English season, he scored three times and registered no assists in 37 matches, prompting the Swans to welcome loan approaches in the summer.
Indeed, the last time Bianchini got a goal or assisted was on January 21 during a 2-1 defeat to Sheffield United, when he had opened the scoring.
After a loan switch to Fratton Park in July, he started four of the opening Championship games before finding himself on the bench for the next two months.
Surprisingly, the 24-year-old was restored to Mousinho’s starting XI for last month’s 3-1 success over Millwall, operating on the right wing.
He then started on the left for the following match at Sheffield United, with 10-man Pompey losing 3-0 - and hasn’t featured since.
Portsmouth boss: ‘We are not precious’
And with Pompey looking to increase their number of loan players during the January transfer window, the Frenchman could find the selection battle even more congested.
Mousinho added: ‘We are not precious about potentially going over the number of loans we get in.
‘We did six loans last January so, if we need to do more than five loans, we’ll do more than five loans.’