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Moussa Djenepo’s season may have been a mixed bag so far, but as his performance against Chelsea again proved, what a colourfully entrancing bag it is.
Within the eerie silence of St Mary’s, the booming roars of Ralph Hasenhuttl have often provided the soundtrack to Southampton’s peaks and troughs this season. The Austrian is a walking, talking man-made radio, marauding his touchline with fervent energy and bellowing out constant waves of encouragement and advice.
However, for all the typical roars of power Hasenhuttl can be heard issuing, one particular type of roar to one particular player is almost always inevitable. Throughout the voyage of a 90 minute football match, Moussa Djenepo is the one player to most likely be on the end of his manager’s sparks of thunder.
The cries of ‘yes Moussa!’ and ‘no Moussa!’- *please note the latter shout is regularly accompanied by a 180 degree spin purely generated by frustration* – are the two go-to expressions that can fluctuate every fleeting second that the Malian is on the field of play.
In football, managing a squad of players, all attached with varying personalities and distinction in their own ways, means the one-size-fits-all attitude to coaching doesn’t work, especially in the modern game, where footballers now have license to emanate their own concoction of characteristics, without the fear of a testosterone-fuelled environment reigning them back in.
Some footballers like to be left alone and be given carte blanche to solve any difficulties which may transpire during a match. Others, meanwhile, perform at their optimal when being talked through the game, underpinned by an intangible safety blanket that’s created by an external voice offering instructions, whether that comes from their manager or a team-mate.
As you have all most certainly gathered by now, Moussa Djenepo’s approach to learning firmly falls into the latter bracket.
Djenepo is a player you can’t quite put your finger on. There is an inexpressible 90 minute anarchic cycle to the Malian’s game, a cycle that you have come to expect, but not always sure of what could actually occur within the contents of that cycle.
What makes the 22-year-old such a fascinating, utterly intoxicating player to witness, is the brilliant madness of it all. Watching a game that involves Moussa Djenepo is something you have never quite seen before. Flashes of brilliance are marred by confusion, then triumphed by glorious contradiction.
As this writer opined at the beginning of December, Moussa Djenepo may be the only Southampton player that doesn’t conform to convention. In a modern footballing era where most tactical systems and offensive patterns are rehearsed and methodical, Djenepo is one of the few players who appears to be running on sheer instinct.
No matter the game or the set-up, the winger seems to play in about three positions and pops up all over the pitch to leave you constantly wandering how on earth he got there. While he has bleached blonde hair and enimagtic skills most could only dream of, the central paradox to his football stylings are the brave, crunching tackles that you would never associate with a player of his type. Oh, and all in that time he’s roaming around at full tilt, too.
His languid running, arms-and-legs running style only accentuate the marvel. He lunges and chases as if he’s doing some foot-stomping dance, where the thuds and the crashes are so booming and heavy, that you briefly lose where you are.
On Saturday, in Southampton’s 1-1 draw with Chelsea, you saw every bit of Moussa Djenepo’s eclectic array of mesmerising skillset. Though the game itself had a back-to-basics feel from the hosts, the former Standard Liege winger did his upmost best to ignite the spark, no matter where he was on the pitch, no matter if he was up, down, twisting around.
In the first half, Timo Werner and N’Golo Kanté would both clatter into Djenepo in quick succession, both times leaving the wingers sprawled across the St Mary’s turf and briefly yelping in sharp pain. But each time, like a wizened, infallible jack in the box, he dusted himself off and re-entered the midst of heavy duty football as if nothing had happened.
Admittedly, his first half performance was fraught with lapses of concentration and inaccuracy. Just before Takumi Minamino opened the scoring, Hasenhuttl would proceed to pirouette in anguish after Djenepo’s attempt to side-step Kante proved futile. Without the ball, Djenepo’s youthful, ‘see-ball-get-ball’ attitude would be his downfall, often getting drawn towards the play and neglecting his duty of tracking back Marcos Alonso.
But in all fairness, the way in which Southampton played meant Djenepo was presented with an all-encompassing task that was highly unlikely to be flawless for the whole duration. Saints’ uncharacteristic pragmatism meant the attacking players had very little forward passing options.
Djenepo would look up and see either Nathan Redmond or Danny Ings as his only vertical pass. The lack of passing lanes caused Southampton’s players to become hesitant and resistant in possession, stuttering to find ways out of Chelsea’s counter-pressing traps.
There would turn out to be deliberate stationing from Hasenhuttl in fielding a back three prior to kick-off, in optimistic hope it would throw Thomas Tuchel off the scent, but Southampton’s structure was a typical 4-2-2-2, with Bednarek adopting an extremely conservative role at right-back.
This caused Djenepo’s task to become even more onerously taxing, as Bednarek’s remit not to pass the halfway line meant if any attacking productivity would come from that flank, it would be have to be via Djenepo.
Despite being without the adept hand of Kyle Walker-Peters to flank his mazy, inverted runs and the minimal support he received in helping set the platform for his natural strengths to flourish, the winger would not be deterred. Legs akimbo and arms flailing everywhere, he galloped around the pitch, supple on his tip-toes and full of unwavering vigour.
Through the prism of a particular passage in the second half, Moussa Djenepo once again displayed the unique, thrilling qualities that make him such compelling viewing.
It was the 80th minute and unsurprisingly, he had been the primary source of Ralph Hasenhuttl’s oscillating moods. For the 35 minutes prior, he had been hacking balls away, to literally any part of the ground, in an ungainly, deliberate manner that would leave most supporters attempting to not pull every strand of hair out.
But remember what this writer said: ‘flashes of brilliance are marred by confusion, then triumphed by glorious contradiction.’
So, in the 80th minute, the final stage of the Moussa Djenepo cycle rolled back round. A short pass was played to him and was once again, under heavy pressure. The Malian recoiled his back leg, for all world looking like another big waft of the ball was coming. But then, suddenly, Djenepo attempted the subtlest Cruyff turn you’ll see, sending Marcos Alonso back to Madrid, and bursting into the gaping space in the right- hand channel.
Moments later, the wandering winger found himself in central midfield, this time with a flock of blue shirts hunting him down. If he had been dispossessed, Chelsea would have had an overload bearing down on goal.
But not this time.
Djenepo shrugged off the first challenge, then wriggled past two further. He darted past Jorginho before the Italian decided he didn’t want the situation to get out of hand and brought him down. Again, Djenepo found himself on all fours, sprawled across the ground. And yet again, he hauled himself back upright and lived on to embody the Southampton resistance.
In the dying embers, Djenepo would rise highest to head away a corner at the front post, only to then sprint out to the sideline and tackle the ball into touch.
“Against the ball, he is getting better and better,” said Hasenhuttl afterwards. “This is what we need. His passion is amazing and is a part of the game he’s developing. For me this is one of his biggest strengths.”
Yes, the Moussa Djenepo puzzle does remain unsolved. Nonetheless, his insatiable appetite he transmits onto his defensive work is providing value to the team and Hasenhuttl. Though things may not be clicking on the offensive front and the fervent ball-carrying vibrancy he first showed don’t appear to currently be there, it is certainly not down to the want of trying.
He's probably still running now. ? pic.twitter.com/LhsSfiIXj8
— Southampton FC (@SouthamptonFC) February 20, 2021
Against Chelsea, Djenepo re-affirmed why every game comes with an array of emotions for Ralph Hasenhuttl.
Sometimes bizarre, sometimes balletic, but always, unconditionally thrilling. Of course, he makes outlandish, offbeat decisions that leave his manager eyes’ piercing or tones exasperated. But you can never stay angry at him for too long. Before you know it, a crunching challenge will come or a piece of bamboozling skill that confounds those watching on regains those hesitant affections.
He is a man that doesn’t conform to convention, a player who plays football like every day is a school day. And at just 22 years of age, the intoxicating Moussa Djenepo rollercoaster has just begun.
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