Why Portsmouth boss John Mousinho doesn't believe highly-rated newcomer is ready for a first-team start

But the Blues’ head coach remains encouraged by the 21-year-old’s progress as he seeks to bring him up to speed following a ‘stop-start’ pre-season with Liverpool.

Blair has featured four times off the bench since last month’s switch from Anfield for an undisclosed fee.

The highly-regarded attacker had spent pre-season with Liverpool’s first-team, consisting of five appearances, a tour to America, and facing Manchester United in front of 77,559 in Columbia.

However, his outings all arrived as a substitute, totalling 108 minutes, and, crucially, with no single appearance longer than 27 minutes.

And those lack of summer match minutes has convinced Mousinho that Blair requires more fitness work before he can break into Pompey’s starting XI.

The Blues boss told The News: ‘It has been a difficult pre-season - a stop-start one - for Harvey. Not in terms of injuries, but in terms of minutes.

‘He has been with Liverpool’s first-team, then came to us and was thrown in at the deep end at Middlesbrough 

‘He’s shown some real glimpses, especially against Sunderland and West Brom, some real attacking intent and attacking threat down that right-hand side.

‘Once we keep getting him fit, keep getting him up to pace, I think he’ll be a really good addition for us.

‘Fitness-wise, coming off the bench is where Harvey’s at at the moment. It’s match minutes more than anything, he was with Liverpool’s first-team so didn't play a huge amount in the summer. He played some of their games, but never a full 90 minutes.

‘We want to build his minutes up. He played the full 60 minutes in our friendly against Havant last week, so that was a positive for him.

‘We’re just building him up to be able to start games on a consistent basis, which is something we have to be wary with with such a young player.’

Blair began at Liverpool at under-12 level and made his debut in the Carabao Cup in October 2021, starting in a 2-0 win at Preston.

This summer, with players missing following the Euro Championships and Copa America, he was called into their first-team squad to bolster numbers for their friendly schedule.

That resulted in appearances as a substitute against Preston, Real Betis, Arsenal, Manchester United and Las Palmas ahead of his Pompey move.

Mousinho added: ‘Harvey’s a good kid, a very, very polite young lad, he has a bit of an edge about him as well, which is great, and he’s training really well.

‘It’s a big adjustment coming from where he’s come from, but he has settled in well.’