£6 million new Southampton signing having a similar start as the previous season

Following the departure of Scotland international Che Adams on a free transfer to Serie A side Torino, Southampton were involved in signing a few quality centre-forwards in the summer transfer window. The Saints brought in the likes of Cameron Archer and Ben Brereton Diaz to their squad and despite already having Adam Armstrong and Ross Stewart in their squad, Southampton have struggled to score more goals in the Premier League. Recently, Archer found the back of the net against Arsenal and ended his recent struggles inside the final third due to a lack of quality finishing.

Moreover, manager Russell Martin recently discussed Armstrong's underwhelming start in the Premier League season and Ross Stewart has picked up a muscle injury in the 3-1 away defeat against Mikel Arteta's Arsenal. However unlike the other three strikers, the situation is different for new £6 million forward Ben Brereton Diaz, who finds himself in a similar situation as the previous season. Last year, Diaz joined La Liga side Villarreal on a free transfer after his impressive goalscoring seasons at Championship side Blackburn Rovers, but couldn't score any goal in his six-month stay with Marcelino's side.

£6 million new Southampton signing having a similar start as the previous season

The Chile international made 14 league appearances for Villarreal but couldn't adapt to La Liga and accepted a transfer move to join Sheffield United in the Premier League, on a six-month loan move from the former UEFA Europa League winners. Similarly, Diaz has had a struggling start to this season as well and unlike Archer, hasn't taken much attempts on goal from inside the box. Moreover Diaz doesn't possess a great pace and thus, needs to work on his positioning and agility to find some spaces inside the box and create more goalscoring opportunities.

However Diaz can still be a key player for Russell Martin's side towards the end of the season forming a crucial centre-forward partnership with Cameron Archer. The duo were together at Sheffield United for the second half of the previous season and scored a combined total of ten goals in the Premier League. Although they couldn't help Sheffield United to avoid relegation, they gained an invaluable Premier League experience and would aim to perform better this season to help Southampton in order to turnaround their winless start to the season.