Portsmouth boss details picture over new faces being ready for Championship opener at Oxford United
John Mousinho delivers the latest of new duo Mark Kosznovszky and Luke Le Roux being involved the Kassam Stadium on Saturday.
Pompey’s new midfielders are ready to impact their side’s Championship curtain-raiser at Oxford United.
But John Mousinho has acknowledged the Blues need to show caution over how Mark Kosznovszky and Luke Le Roux are deployed at the Kassam Stadium, and early on in the campaign, following their summer arrivals.
Kosznovszky and Le Roux ‘available for selection’
Mousinho explained both new faces are available for selection as the new campaign gets underway, but their pre-seasons have been impacted by the complexities of international deals and has to be factored into his thinking over the Hungarian and South African’s weekend involvements.
He said: ‘Mark and Luke are as ready as they can be, having missed a significant chunk of pre-season.
‘We’re not going to rush them into anything, but they need to be ready to have an effect on the game at the weekend so they will be available for team selection, they’ll be available for squad selection and we’ll see where we go with that. We’re giving them that time to adjust.
‘It’s not quite as straightforward as bringing in domestic players.
‘I know John (Swift) was on a free, but we brought him and he came and trained with us the next day having been with the PFA.
‘If you look at Florian, technically we had to get international clearance, but because he was coming from Swansea to here it was relatively easy and straightforward.
‘We didn’t necessarily have some of the issues we had with Mark and Luke - work permits, coming over, paperwork from the Hungarian and Swedish FAs and then waiting for visas.
‘All this stuff takes a long time, so even though we had those players in the building a couple of weeks ago Luke’s first training session was last Friday and Mark’s was the Tuesday prior to that.
‘It just takes time to get them in the building and allow them to officially train. It’s a bit of a frustrating time for them both when they’re here and the group’s training.’
Pompey boss boils down over new pair’s fitness levels
Mousinho has boiled down on exactly how he sees the fitness picture with both men, with Le Roux’s minutes halting with the Swedish season in full flow with IFK Varnamo.
Meanwhile, Kosznovszky was building up for the new term with MTK Budapest, before both men’s arrivals was sealed on July 25.
Mousinho added: ‘Luke’s different to Mark because the Swedish season was in full flow and he was fit and available.
‘Luke’s issue, I guess, was when his transfer became acknowledged to Varnamo he stopped training and playing games there. There’s no issue with that, that was always going to happen.
‘That took a couple of weeks, so he was training on his own in the gym but that can’t replicate what you do out on the pitch.
‘You have reset and go again. So it’s a bit of a strange one where he was match fit from playing in the season, but he’s had three to four weeks now where he’s not been able to train regularly.
‘Mark is different because he had a pre-season with MTK and was in a good spot, but had to stop and start for a couple of weeks until he had to train here.
‘So they were in different spots but are pretty much at the same level at the moment - Mark may be slightly ahead of Luke because of less time spent away from training.’