The South Korean international has made three appearances for Pompey since his summer arrival
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John Mousinho is convinced Pompey are tantalisingly close to seeing the best of Minhyeok Yang.
Although he admits the Spurs loanee needs to ‘get better in a lot of areas’ following a low-key start to his Fratton Park stay.
The 19-year-old was handed a first Championship start for the Blues in Saturday’s trip to Ipswich, operating on the left flank with Josh Murphy still sidelined by an ankle issue.
It represented only a third Pompey outing for Yang, who had not appeared since lining up against Reading in a Carabao Cup defeat six weeks earlier.
And, ahead of Wednesday’s clash with Watford (7.45pm), Mousinho believes there are now encouraging signs the South Korean international is beginning to find his feet with the Blues.
Portsmouth boss: I’m looking for a cutting edge
He told The News: ‘Minhyeok put himself into a really good position for that chance, it’s a brilliant run and a great ball as well from Segs. He does Darnell Furlong for pace for, but he doesn't necessarily have that clinical edge in front of goal at the moment.
‘Maybe it was because of the nature of the game, the fact we were setting up to hit them on the counter and maybe he didn’t expect to have a chance to do that.
‘He will definitely learn from it and it was really nice to see him in that position, nice to see him having a few good touches.
‘He needs to get better in a lot of areas, but certainly it was a step up in terms of how dangerous he looks compared to the Reading game.
‘I’m looking for that cutting edge, first of all. Minhyeok also put in a couple of good balls in the first half, he has that drop of the shoulder, he’s not necessarily going to be out-and-out pace down the line, but he can beat a man in different ways.
‘I just want to see more of that attacking output. We definitely saw it last season when he was playing for QPR, I thought he was excellent in spells for them. Once he gets going we will see a load more of him.
‘He’s going to take a couple of games to get going. Hopefully he’s had those two games and we are close now to seeing the best of Minhyeok.’
Arrived in the Premier League with Spurs in January
Yang arrived at Spurs from Gangwon FC in January and was swiftly loaned out to QPR for the remainder of the season to aid his development.
Aged 18 at the time, he subsequently made 14 appearances and scored twice for the Championship club, including featuring as a second-half substitute against Pompey in February.
Although he has still to make his Spurs first-team debut and is now on a season-long stay at Fratton Park.
‘A baptism of fire’
Mousinho added: ’He’s only been in this country since January and it was a baptism of fire going straight out on loan to QPR.
‘Minhyeok is one of those players who’s had a bit of a stop-start pre-season. He has been with the first-team a fair bit at Tottenham and probably not necessarily used as someone they were thinking of having there longer term, they wanted to loan him out.
‘Sometimes, when you are in that position, training can be a bit stop-start. The under-21s a lot of the time are used for the first-team’s benefit, which is absolutely fine and how it should be.
‘But it’s not necessarily the pre-season he might have had should he have been involved with the first-team.’