‘We expect more’: Portsmouth boss' no-nonsense Josh Knight message as highly-touted former Leicester City and Peterborough United man aims to find Championship feet
The Hannover 96 signing brings Championship nous to the table, but John Mousinho has a demand for Josh Knight to show more consistent evidence of the qualities the Pompey boss admires.
Josh Knight has been challenged to deliver ‘more complete’ performances to kickstart his Fratton Park stay.
Pompey boss John Mousinho is demanding more consistency from the £1m defender, as his side aim to inject much-needed impetus into their campaign.
Mousinho on Knight: ‘We definitely expect more’
Mousinho believes Knight has shown the quality which made him a transfer priority this summer, when it became clear the 28-year-old was available from German outfit Hannover 96.
But the Blues head coach also pointed out, he feels there’s been games where the former Leicester City and Peterborough United man has fallen short of the levels expected of him.
There’s little doubt Knight was recruited very much as a player for the here and now, as he signed a three-year deal towards the transfer window’s climax.
He’s made 14 appearances to date with 10 of those outings arriving as starts, the first of those coming at Ipswich at the end of September.
Knight has been a fairly regular figure in the first XI, with two banks of five starts punctuated by substitute appearances against Stoke City and Birmingham.
The 6ft 3in man’s form has been variable in that time, with some dominant showings mixed with some more uncertain displays. Mousinho acknowledged that has been the case, but has long been a fan of Knight’s qualities and now wants to see those attributes on a regular basis.
Pompey boss: ‘You can see every inch of why we signed Josh’
He said: ‘I think in terms of our expectations of Josh coming in, we’ll continue pushing for more complete and more consistent performances.
‘He’s done it in patches, where we’ve looked at it and thought you can see every inch of why we signed Josh and why we brought him in.
‘Then there’s been other days where he’s fallen short of that so, yes, we definitely expect more.’
Knight is far from the only player whose performance levels have fluctuated amid a difficult period for Pompey, following a promising start to the Championship campaign.
In fact, the majority of Mousinho’s squad have been afflicted with the same variance in displays, amid some frustrating form which has seen the team fall into the bottom three of the Championship. That has seen plenty of changes in terms of personnel and formation this term, with the Pompey boss needing his players to step up - particularly the experienced options in the group.
Mousinho added: ‘You do (need consistency from experienced players). I don’t think anyone across the board, apart from maybe those two players who’ve started every game, I’m not sure anyone has shown that level of consistency this season.
‘Hence we’ve chopped and changed and hence we’ve tried different bits here and there, in terms of experimenting with different players in different positions, as we try to search for that right formula. I think that (a lack of consistency) is an accusation you could level at most players.’