Portsmouth boss' frank Jacob Brown admission with Blues yet to see best of Luton attacker
The former Stoke man has scored once in nine appearances since arriving from Kenilworth Road
John Mousinho believes Pompey have yet to see the best of Jacob Brown.
Although the head coach admits the Luton loanee is still a work in progress as the Blues bring him up to speed after ‘not playing a huge amount of football’.
Brown had made four starts during an injury-wrecked 12 months at Kenilworth, before being recruited on transfer deadline day to bolster Pompey’s goal return.
He has subsequently scored once in nine appearances, including starting at centre-forward in the 6-1 humiliation at QPR.
Mousinho must again choose whether to start the 27-year-old ahead of Colby Bishop in the Good Friday trip to Norwich (3pm) in the desperate hunt for goals.
Although he concedes the former Premier League attacker has still to show his best for the Blues as he continues to chase match sharpness.
‘We’re still getting him going’
Mousinho told The News: ‘I think Jacob has offered a threat in front of goal. He’s probably disappointed to not have come away with a couple more goals, you’ve seen some of the chances he’s had.
‘We’ve played him in a couple of different positions, but whenever we have asked him to play, whenever he is called upon, he gives absolutely everything.
‘We are still getting him going because he hasn’t played a huge amount of football, he’s had a lot of injuries over the past couple of years as well. So, in terms of the impact, I’ve been pretty pleased - and we want to keep seeing a lot more.
‘If you look at the best of Jacob Brown, there is definitely more to come. He turned himself from a very, very good Championship player into a Premier League player a couple of years ago.
‘There have been a lot of factors since then - in terms of the last couple of years - that have meant that he has obviously dropped back down. But that Premier League potential is there, we’ve seen him score goals at the level, it’s just about trying to get him back to that level.
‘We’ve got eight games left, there's still a long way to go in the season, it is almost a fifth of the season, there’s plenty of games. Having this break as well, hopefully to sharpen him up a bit, will help.’
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He has subsequently started three matches at centre-forward, while lined up in the number 10 role in the 2-1 defeat to Swansea and featured on the wing in a number of substitute outings.
Encouragingly, though, Mousinho is convinced the former Stoke man’s fitness is improving with five weeks remaining of the season.
Pompey’s head coach added: ‘I guess that’s the position we are in. We are looking at the January transfer window, who we can take and who we can bring in - and sometimes you have to take players like Jacob.
‘Like Rob (Atkinson) last season as well. Where are we going to get players that are fit and firing at the level straight away? Ebou is an exception there, the rest of them we have to get up to scratch as quickly as possible.
‘We’ve had Jacob for a couple of months now and this is the first chunk of training we’ve had as well. It has been difficult with the amount of games we’ve had and the rearranged games, we didn't really have a break or time to train.
‘He has played enough now where we can start to see his fitness improve and we can start to see him firing.’