Norwegian international attacker Mohamed Elyounoussi hasn’t had the best of times since he swapped former club Basel for Southampton.
Having arrived at St Mary’s Stadium in the summer of 2018 with a good goals to games ratio at both Basel and Molde, he’s yet to find the net for us. With that said, he’s only made ten starting appearances and eight substitute showings and the 24-year-old’s adjustment to the Premier League level certainly hasn’t been helped by our own struggles, and his spells out with injury.
New manager Ralph Hasenhuttl has given him game time though, albeit mostly substitute showings, but his last appearance came on February 24 as we lost 2-0 to Arsenal.
In a recent interview with outlet Adresseavisen (required reading obviously) the player himself seems to determined to turn his fortunes around rather than overly wallowing in his predicament.
“I choose to look at this as a challenge. At some point I had to get a drop. I’ve never been injured earlier in my career, in Southampton I have experienced several injuries. But I have to try to find positive things every day, thinking that I can grow on the adversity, and fight my way back into the team. I’m quite honest when I say it’s like that.”
Whether we will see him depart next summer as Hasenhuttl continues to shake things up remains to be seen, but the player seems to have ruled it out, pointing to conversations with the ‘club’.
“They see that I have skills and am important player for the club. But I need more time to develop and take the physical level required in the Premier League. (A summer transfer) It’s not a topic for me at all. I’ll stand here, I’ll show what I can do, I’ll turn this around.”
Let’s hope he does.
