Southampton have finally kicked off their competitive 2026/27 season and it was a win in Essex for Tonda Eckert's men on Saturday afternoon.
Indeed, the Saints managed to overcome the stern test of Colchester United, who reside in League Two, 2-0, in the EFL Cup, as two late goals eventually won the contest against Danny Cowley's spirited U's.
Eckert named a strong lineup for the early season game against the League Two hosts, with brand-new £9m signing Lewis Dobbin handed his first competitive outing for the South Coast giants, after amassing a standout three goals in pre-season.
The likes of Leo Scienza, and Finn Azaz, also featured in a very strong Saints forward line, with Azaz even dusting off his injury difficulties to assist Southampton's late second strike, but the German did experiment with his lone striker spot in the Essex sunshine, as Ben Brereton Diaz was chosen, surprisingly, up top.
Brereton Diaz started up top for the Saints
If any shock centre-forward was going to be thrown in from the start, the expectation would have been that Damion Downs might get the surprise nod, with the towering attacker scoring in pre-season to slightly turn around his Saints narrative.
However, Southampton fans would have jolted in their seats slightly seeing Brereton Diaz named as the lone striker, with the Chilean nowhere to be seen last season, as he was shifted out on loan at Derby County.
The presumption this summer would have been that he'd be offloaded for good, with a competitive goal for Eckert and Co. still evading him.
Eckert has noted in recent times that the one-time Blackburn Rovers poacher is a "very good" player to have around, so for now, he looks to be a part of the squad moving forward.
Based off his weak showing against the lowly EFL hosts on Saturday afternoon, however, the experiment to start from him the get-go could prove to be a short-lived one...
This move did not go down well with fans
Unfortunately, despite being praised recently by Eckert, his poor performance against Colchester cannot go uncriticised.
Indeed, from his 62 minutes on the pitch, he failed to test Thimothee Lo-Tutala, in the home side's net, with a single shot on target.
On top of failing to test the Frenchman with a meaningful effort on goal, he also only managed nine unmemorable passes of the ball, and won just 50% of his six duels, before being hooked off by the German.
To make matters worse, Cyle Larin, who is still recovering from the World Cup, upstaged him effortlessly, with the Canadian attacker in the right place at the right time to convert the opener, just ten minutes after being introduced into the Cup affair.
All in all, while Eckert might believe he has a role to play this upcoming season, the hit-and-miss number 22 simply cannot start against Watford next weekend, when the bread and butter of the Championship returns, as it's safe to say the goal-shy Chilean wasn't spoken about kindly on social media after the 2-0 win by some sections of the vocal Saints support.
Noted as having a "poor" day at the office by Southampton writer Christian Lovegrove after the contest had finished, Saints fans will be desperate to see Larin start at Vicarage Road, to put a sharp end to the Brereton Diaz starting experiment once and for all.
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