There was a familiar feeling on Tuesday night. Sofiane Boufal collected the ball from deep and drove towards the Fulham goal early on in the second half.
As the Moroccan marauded infield with the ball rolling closely ahead of his quick feet, he produced something from nothing. With play hardly threatening danger to the hosts, Boufal asked questions of Fulham’s back-line; his head held up, back firmly straight and one thing on his mind: spicing up a plain affair between two laboured teams.
As Boufal glided through effortlessly, he bore down on goal. The eyes of Southampton fans gradually widened as he advanced closer and closer to the box, only for him to be scythed down unsuspectedly by Stefan Johansen.
Cynical, effective and infuriating, it was a textbook, Sunday League challenge; he couldn’t catch Boufal, so he felled him. In fact, the Fulham midfielder was lucky that it was only a yellow card.
Boufal was applauded for his direct run towards the hosts’ back-line, but ultimately, the chance to cap some fine work with the final product to truly grab the headlines eluded him. This time, it was by no fault of his own, but he was not so innocent in various moments of the Carabao Cup clash at Craven Cottage.
It was a mixed performance from the 25-year-old; one synonymous of his time at Southampton thus far. Ingenious moments of trickery and guile were followed up by a failure to accurately dispatch a straightforward pass, cross or shot, much to the frustration of Ralph Hasenhuttl.
But that’s Boufal in a nutshell. He is technically outstanding, gifted beyond belief and can make the unthinkable happen. There is no player like him in the Southampton squad, and that is his main quality. He will frustrate, he will cede possession too readily at times, but he will ensure that defenders are put on the back foot.
His brilliance has been only too fleeting with Saints since his arrival in 2016. The prolific, goalscoring wide player with the repertoire of skills to provide a stern test for any full-back in the world has not continued with the same level of acumen at St Mary’s as he did during a productive spell at Lille. We are yet to see his best in a Southampton shirt.
There has always been something in the way, though, rightly or wrongly. He failed to hit the ground running because of a meniscus problem at the beginning of Claude Puel’s reign; he was never utilised properly by Mauricio Pellegrino; his relationship with Mark Hughes was frosty, to say the least.
Now? There are few excuses for Boufal to fall back on. He is visibly in the best physical condition since his dazzling 2015/16 season in Ligue 1, and he is proving this by altering his approach to match Hasenhuttl’s more strenuous demands.
Boufal has never been necessarily languid, but somewhat undisciplined. Upon surrendering possession – a regular occurrence, not a consequence of his ability but merely of his nature as a player who takes risks – he had previously hurried to retrieve the ball, only to ease off in his efforts. Not once has this been the case under Hasenhuttl, with whom he will aim to rejuvenate his career.
Luck is, as they say, what happens when hard work meets opportunity. Boufal might just be in luck this weekend, as a starting berth has presented itself almost as if it were by fate: Moussa Djenepo and Nathan Redmond, the only two other wingers at the club, are injured.
After proving to Hasenhuttl that he is capable of carrying out the tactical instructions by which his complex system demands on Tuesday night, Boufal is ready to return to the starting line-up in the Premier League for the first time since February last year.
With Redmond’s injury dampening the mood at Southampton, and Djenepo’s knock cruelly putting a halt to his exciting start at St Mary’s, an opportunity has arisen, and it’s one that Boufal has to grab with both hands.
As is often the case in football: when one door closes, another opens. If Saints are to unlock Manchester United on Saturday, the man who completed more take-ons (144) than any other player in Europe last season may hold the keys.
