Blues boss planning to take a pre-season look at ‘aggressive’ defender
John Mousinho will use preseason to gauge whether Haji Mnoga can break into his Pompey plans.
But he has already earmarked the 21-year-old for a right-sided centre-half role.
Mnoga’s final match of a successful Aldershot loan spell is tomorrow, before returning to Fratton Park.
With the National League side operating full time, the youngster has yet to train under the Blues’ head coach since his January arrival.
It means Mnoga is very much an unknown quantity for Mousinho, despite having studied some of his Shots matches via video analysis.
Yet pre-season will offer Pompey’s boss the opportunity to fully assess the Tanzania international.
He told The News: ‘Haji came in once, about a month ago, to say hi and so we could have a chat, but he’s not trained with us yet.
‘We’ve had the scouts out to watch quite a few Aldershot games and I’ve watched a couple myself online, yet I don’t know a huge amount about him.
‘Having said that, he’s probably best suited as a centre-half considering his aggression and the aerial dominance which comes with that aggression. He’s also quite good on the ball and can carry it out from the back.
‘It’s a position which really suits him. He shows a lot of those attributes in terms of being an aggressive centrehalf trying to dominate the centre-forward, which comes to the fore at this level.
‘That would be something we will focus on in the long term.
‘It’s going to be pre-season when I can have a really good look at him. It’s probably a bit unfair to judge him on the back end of the season when the National League has finished and he’s returned here.
‘They really like him there (at Aldershot), he has done well whenever I have seen him play.
‘He’s been aggressive, front-footed, decent enough on the ball and progressed a lot this year.
‘It will be very interesting to have him in the building next year, hopefully challenging for a spot.’
Since moving to Aldershot in January, Mnoga has been a regular starter, making 16 appearances and scoring once.
The youngster suffered a tough time at Gillingham in the first half of the campaign.