'I wouldn't like to face him': Portsmouth boss relishing unleashing 'unique' summer recruit on League One

The Blues’ head coach has been impressed by his summer acquisition, despite missing three friendlies with an ankle issue.

Indeed, he regards Saydee’s powerful performance in Tuesday night’s defeat at AFC Wimbledon as the striker’s finest yet.

Certainly the 21-year-old has caught the eye on his three pre-season outings so far, including grabbing a well-taken goal against Crawley, yet it’s his physicality which truly stands out.

The ex-Bournemouth man was involved in a second-half scuffle with Europa FC, while Wimbledon’s Armani Little took to using a rugby tackle to stop him in his tracks – but only after a team-mate’s shirt-pulling tactics failed.

And Mousinho admits he would have hated to have faced Saydee.

He told The News: ‘I think Christian has been excellent in pre-season.

‘He did very well at the weekend (Crawley) and was probably our best performer against Wimbledon, he and Abu (Kamara) were excellent, real shining lights.

‘He causes a lot of problems, certainly a player I wouldn’t like to play against! I’d just bounce off him, so I’m glad I’m retired.

‘Christian is extremely strong, his game is not just the physical presence up front, but he holds the ball. We saw particularly in the first half on Tuesday night, when the ball’s fired into him he holds it brilliantly well in tight spaces and then comes out with it on the other side.

‘He has been excellent in that regard, but, as good as he is in the middle third, we want to add goals and a real goal threat to his game in the final third, but I definitely think that will come.

‘It’s probably fair to say not many strikers are like him, he’s unique. He provides something a bit different for us and that’s the beauty of having those three (Colby Bishop and Kusini Yengi), they all have something slightly different from each other.

‘When you watch him in training, you will see how he played on Tuesday night isn’t anything new to us, we’ve definitely seen it before.’

In the absence of Bishop on Tuesday night, Saydee was handed 69 minutes up front.

He’s arrived at Fratton Park off the back of seven goals and 38 appearances during a successful loan spell with Shrewsbury last season.

And, according to Mousinho, Saydee is already finding his feet in his new surroundings.

He added: ‘He’s a quiet lad, but has a great sense of humour once you get to know him.

‘I spoke to him over the summer when we were going to bring him in and there’s a brilliant personality there, he’s already really popular within the dressing room.

‘Naturally Christian will be quite shy coming to a club this size with the media attention and everything that goes with it – but he will definitely flourish in the environment.’