Ralph Hasenhuttl has hailed the character of Moussa Djenepo but insisted the winger still has a lot to learn.

The £15m Mali international has made a significant impact in his short time with Saints, scoring twice including the winner in the 1-0 victory over Sheffield United.

As Saints prepare to face Bournemouth at St Mary’s on Friday night the spotlight is once again on Djenepo whose pace and quality has already brought him to the attention of the footballing public.

“He is an exciting player, he’s also a fantastic character,” said Hasenhuttl.

“The most important thing is he is fit now again because we had a problem with his legs and after the Fulham game so we missed him against Manchester United and he showed again he is a player that can make a difference.

“He had a muscle injury and it was a risk at Sheffield United to let him play, that’s for sure, but this guy wanted to play and he said he was okay and he showed it and if a player wants to play you should let him do.”

At just 21-years-old, Djenepo is certainly raw but Hasenhuttl says his desire to learn is standing him in good stead.

“He must learn a lot,” insisted Hasenhuttl

“We are putting the instruction into him. He must learn a lot against the ball.

“We have worked very hard with him so far. He showed he wants to learn and that is the most important thing.”

Djenepo’s raw talent makes him a fantastic addition to the type of squad Hasenhuttl is trying to assemble.

“I think this quality, the one against one, was from him, from Sofiane (Boufal) and from Nathan (Redmond), this is hard to defend every opponent. This is exactly what we want to have.

“We want to have players in the red zone. They can make the difference. Absolutely this is the development in our game.”

Explaining the red zone, Hasenhuttl commented: “It is the zone in front of the back five or back four, because there is less time, less space, you need to have good decisions there.

“From here you can create chances or lose the ball and then they have the counter-attack. It’s a zone where you need real footballing quality.”

Hasenhuttl started Djenepo at left wing-back against Sheffield United before moving him further forward.

Though it is an experiment unlikely to be repeated, it did underline the versatility of the team.

“In the first half we had a conversation, we wanted to change in the first half. I said he should go on the other side and Cedric on the left winger position because we had a little bit of a problem with the long balls in behind,” explained Hasenhuttl.

“You could see in these moments it was not his absolutely best position.

“But we have spoken before about being flexible and variable, and my team is flexible and we have a few players who can play more than one position.”