Portsmouth boss fires message to £1m arrival as Sheffield United and Swansea City-linked man as Fratton career waits to spark
The £1m signing from MTK Budapest has not featured significantly in the Championship - and was left of the the squad at Southampton. John Mousinho talks the position over Mark Kosznovszky.
John Mousinho has told Mark Kosznovszky he needs to show patience as he waits for his Pompey career to get off the ground.
But the Blues boss feels the Hungarian is ready to feature in the Championship if required, despite his lack of second-tier minutes.
Mousinho on Kosznovszky: ‘He’s looking sharp, a really sharp player’
Kosznovszky has picked up just five minutes of league playing time, since arriving from MTK Budapest in July in a £1m deal.
The 23-year-old’s only other outing was in the Carabao Cup, as he failed to fire along with a host of other players in the 2-1 reverse to League One outfit Reading.
Kosznovszky has been on the bench for four of the Blues’ five Championship outings so far, before being left out of Mousinho’s squad along with Hayden Matthews in the south-coast derby draw at Southampton on Sunday.
Mousinho has outlined his thinking behind that decision, as he weighed up the options at his disposal with heightened competition after the transfer window’s close.
The Pompey head coach stated Kosznovszky is showing his quality in training and doesn’t have to be sheltered from Championship involvement.
But with others excelling where he could be deployed, the former Parma man needs to sit tight with time on his side.
Mousinho said: ‘There’s a couple of things with Mark.
‘First off the players in his position have done well. So he’s going to need patience, because we’re not in a rush with Mark and he has a long-term contract.
‘We just need to give him that time and adjustment. I wouldn’ t want to hide behind Mark coming over and needing too much of a period to get used to the pace of the game here.
‘I think he’s ready, I just think the opportunity hasn’t presented itself there.
‘He’s looking sharp, a really sharp player as an eight or 10. He’s good technically and his running stats are through the roof.
‘It’s one where we looked at it against Southampton and thought, are we necessarily going to bring him on There were plenty of scenarios where we could, but there were a few on the other side of it.
‘He’s a player I’m sure we’ll be excited to see, we just need to be patient with him.’
Mousinho: ‘Toughest decision of the season so far’
With numbers boosted by summer recruitment, players are going to be missing out on not just a place in the starting XI but Pompey’s squad at present.
With Thomas Waddingham injured, Matthews and Kosznovszky fell into that category last weekend in what Mousinho branded his toughest selection call this term.
He added: ‘They’re very unlucky and I could’t really give either of them an explanation for not being involved, other than we’re looking at the likely scenarios of them coming on and things change rapidly in the game.
‘To be honest, I wouldn't have anticipated bringing Jordan Williams on at left-back, but we had him on the bench because he’s a good player and we know how versatile he is.
‘We’re looking at the squad as a whole and, unfortunately, we can’t have more players than that.
‘There’s plenty of players who deserved to be in the squad, so that was the toughest decision of the season so far.’