The South Korea international made his Blues debut at Oxford United
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John Mousinho believes Minhyeok Yang showed ‘glimpses’ on his debut - and has revealed how the Spurs loanee fits into his Pompey first-team.
The 19-year-old replaced Florian Bianchini in the 66th minute of Saturday’s 1-0 victory at Oxford United in the Championship opener.
Operating on the left wing, it represented the Fratton faithful’s first look of the South Korea international’s talents, having arrived at Fratton Park the previous day.
Yang initially caught Mousinho’s eye during a QPR scouting mission in February, when he watched the attacker start in a 4-0 victory over Derby.
And, having subsequently monitored his progress, the Blues have secured the highly-regarded youngster on a season-long loan from Spurs.
Portsmouth boss: He brings a lot of excitement to us
Mousinho told The News: ‘You probably saw glimpses of how sharp Minhyeok is on the left wing.
‘I first saw him last season at QPR, they played Derby on a Friday night and he was superb, a thorn in their side. I was pretty pleased actually that he didn’t start the following week at Fratton Park, although he came on and did well.
‘He’s a player we have been monitoring. Tottenham, rightly, have very, very high hopes for him and he’d been away with them on a pre-season tour, so we had to wait patiently to bring that loan in.
‘He can play on either flank - on the left or right - and brings a lot of excitement to us.
‘Minhyeok is very sharp, you saw that when he was flagged offside, but the players didn’t realise and he nearly got in. He’s a skilful player, a tricky one to deal with, and I suppose a bit of a different profile if you look at the wingers we’ve got.
‘Everyone knows Murph in terms of his ability, while we saw glimpses of Flo (Bianchini) and what he can provide, I actually thought Flo grew into the game really well in the second half, but we were just concerned over the lack of full pre-season he’s had and lack of minutes over the last 3-4 months.
‘We have seen Langy in a 10, but he is a direct winger, whereas Minhoef is maybe slightly more comfortable inside, a bit more jinky, a slightly different profile.
‘He’s had a stop-start pre-season because, for the past couple of weeks when we’ve been monitoring that as a loan, he hasn’t played a huge amount for Spurs. But we are looking to build up his fitness.’
Two pre-season outings for Spurs
After linking up with Spurs in January, Yang moved on loan to QPR for the second half of last season, making 14 appearances, scoring twice and producing one assist.
This summer, he featured twice during the Premier League club’s pre-season under new head coach Thomas Frank, most recently for four minutes after James Maddison was stretchered off against Newcastle.
And Mousinho believes Yang will be able to cope with the Championship’s physicality.
‘He’s not the biggest, that’s fine’
He added: ‘I have seen him cope with the level, he is game. He’s not the biggest, that's fine, there are plenty of players like that, Adrian Segevic isn’t the biggest, but he certainly coped with the physicality on Saturday, although you need that balance.
‘Of course we want to have big, solid, dominant players, at the same time you need players who can handle the ball and, if you find someone who can do both, that’s ideal.
‘I have seen enough of him last season to know he has plenty at the table.’