Having left Southampton in the summer, Moussa Djenepo is finding it difficult to reignite his stagnating career.
Moussa Djenepo joined Southampton for a fee rising to £15 million in the summer of 2019, having been identified as a player with enormous potential on the back of a season in which he had scored 11 goals and provided six assists for Belgian club Standard Liege.
After a promising start to life at St Mary’s, with a fantastic goal away at Brighton soon followed by a fine solo effort effort against Sheffield United in the early weeks of the 2019/20 season, it is fair to say Djenepo’s glimpses of quality were far too infrequent across his four years at Southampton.
His inconsistency was infuriating at times, and the contract extension signed by the Mali international after a couple of decent performances in an unfamiliar left-back role at the start of the 2022/23 season is evidence of the mismanagement of the previous owners of the club.
Now 25, Djenepo was a victim of the summer overhaul of Southampton’s squad following relegation from the Premier League last season. The winger returned to former club Standard Liege for a minimal fee thought to be around the £3 million mark, but has struggled to make an impact.
Moussa Djenepo unfulfilled potential at Southampton
Speaking after the aforementioned solo effort against Sheffield United in Djenepo’s first start for the club in September 2019, then manager Ralph Hasenhuttl explained that: “He (Djenepo) shows how important he can be in our game and this is fantastic,”
The Austrian coach then went on to say that: “When he has the ball in these positions it is unbelievable. He can shoot and he is so quick and (has) good movements.”
Ironically, Djenepo’s unpredictability is arguably both his biggest strength as well as his fundamental flaw. The tricky wide player can delight with his trickery at times but it would go wrong more often that it went right and he did not iron out the raw elements of his game as Southampton would have hoped.
After just five goals in 91 Southampton appearances, Southampton cut their losses and allowed Djenepo to leave despite the recent new contract with it obvious he would not fit new manager Russell Martin‘s style of play.
Those that don’t fit Martin’s possession-focussed approach that remained at the club last summer are likely to face a similar fate to Djenepo once the current season draws to a close too.
Djenepo struggling to make an impact since Southampton exit
After excitement amongst those associated with Standard Liege surrounding Djenepo’s return to the club he left as a 20-year-old, his first season back has been hugely underwhelming.
Djenepo has played 22 games in all competitions this season and managed just one goal. To add to that, the man described by Hasenhuttl as a ‘role model’ upon signing his new Southampton contract has failed to register a single assist.
Sometimes goal contributions do not accurately reflect a player’s impact on the pitch, but this is unfortunately not the case for Djenepo. In many ways, the underlying numbers are more concerning than the actual number of goals and assists, with Djenepo having just two shots on target this season despite starting 19 league games.
Another statistic that will come as no surprise to Southampton supporters and further evidences the inconsistency eluded to is the fact that Djenepo has a dribble success rate of just 44.12% in the Belgian top flight this season.
Perhaps the biggest disappointment for Djenepo since his Southampton exit is the fact that he missed out on the Mali squad for January’s African Cup of Nations due to an injury problem from which he returned in mid-January. With 33 international caps, Djenepo was likely to have made the squad for the tournament in Ivory Coast despite his disappointing form this season.
He may be capable of moments of brilliance, but unfortunately Djenepo’s attempts at recapturing the form that led to Southampton taking him to the Premier League in 2019 have so far been futile.