Ben Brereton Diaz is hitting new lows while struggling to perform decently, and Southampton must understand that the 26-year-old must be sold before anyone else in the attacking department.
Recently, Southampton's almost set to stay defender Ryan Manning referenced Will Still's initiative to get a deep look and feel of every player's capabilities. No harm in that, but three preseason matchups are enough to portray a fundamental lineup image consisting of the must-have core players.
In a heavily spread out attack, that's a tough task to achieve when you have eight goals put up on board almost halfway through the friendlies schedule. So, it's not a first team inclusion criteria but the opposite of it should be an obvious transfer alert because having no goals to show for is utterly shambolic.
Here, also it's Ben Brereton Diaz who is squandering his playing minutes while knowing his previous attacking partner Jesurun Rak-Sakyi was also called out for awful finishing numbers.
Ben Brereton Diaz unable to get the better of rising stars
But the Chilean centre forward has even more worries to work upon when he can't dominate youthful opponents with almost a five-year age advantage on his side.
In their own words, the Daily Echo pointed out Diaz's desperate outing: "Handled by former Saints youngster Derrick Abu, who was playing his first Valenciennes match."
Honestly, this might be the final Diaz criticism that forces Southampton to offload him, no matter if the lack of demand means contacting any of the Turkish sides. And just think about it, Diaz may do a satisfactory job at sister team Goztepe who don't know what this summer's future holds for Romulo.
But Goztepe can then ask some Saints academy prospects on top of that, as a makeweight for their front three needs. Also, let's see if the Southampton board thinks Diaz can get rid of this early season struggle, as that can still make some meaning out of his 2024 arrival.