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Southampton are lining up a move for Portimonense forward Shoya Nakajima as the Saints continue to struggle in front of goal, per reports in Record, via SportsWitness.

What’s the word?

SportsWitness reported earlier in the week that Southampton had sent scouts to Portugal to watch a Liga Nos encounter between Portimonense and Belenenses that ended one-all.

Although it was unclear at the time who the Saints scouts were observing, the latest word to come out of Portugal through Record is that the firm interest was in watching Nakajima.

SportsWitness’ translation of the newspaper report suggests that the south coast side have been following Nakajima’s performances for his Primeira Liga side and could make a move in January.

The 24-year-old only arrived in the summer, when he left FC Tokyo after a four-year association with his hometown side, and in eight appearances at the Estádio Municipal in Algarve has scored four times and assisted a further three.

TransferMarkt currently values the left sided attacker at £13.5million, but SportsWitness noted Leicester City were previously keen on offering €20million (£17.4m).

Time for Redmond to step up

Nathan Redmond has so far been very disappointing for Southampton throughout the opening 11 matches.

In each Premier League appearance, the midfielder who can play across the attacking line has failed to register a goal or an assist and has only averaged 1.7 shots per game according to WhoScored.

Southampton overall have a goal scoring problem with the joint-second lowest tally - only Huddersfield have fewer. If this form continues, the St Mary’s club could easily find themselves trapped in the relegation battle for a second successive season.

If a deal can be struck for Nakajima at Leicester’s suggested fee of £17.4million, it represents somewhat of a fair price should he bring his direct style of play to England in a similar way to that of Sadio Mane.

His potential arrival might just push Redmond out of the starting XI, or at the very least force the English wide man to find a higher level of form in order to keep his place in the team.