Ben Brereton Diaz made headlines this summer when he was surprisingly selected to represent Chile in Copa América.
Brereton’s mum is from Chile, and despite him having represented England at youth levels, Brereton made his Chile debut this summer in the South American football showcase — Copa América.
This took the footballing world by surprise, causing a frenzy of headlines, and Brereton Diaz has become something of a cult hero in Chile recently, following his national team performances.
However, Brereton is also making headlines on the field this season, with an excellent start to the season for Blackburn Rovers.
Brereton Diaz started his career at Nottingham Forest, making 53 appearances before moving to Blackburn.
Although he has had good seasons previously at Blackburn, none have compared to this season, where he has scored 13 goals in 17 games for the Lancashire club and is the Championship’s joint-second top scorer behind Aleksandar Mitrović.
Although we are only 17 games in, this is Brereton’s highest-ever goal tally in the league, beating his previous high of seven goals.
In addition to this, Brereton Diaz has made eight appearances for Chile, where he has notched three goals and one assist, which is a respectable haul in international football.
This tactical analysis and scout report set out to look at Brereton Diaz style of play and his key attributes, plus some of the reasons for his impressive goalscoring record this season.
Ben Brereton Díaz Style Of Play
When seeing a surprise player with such an impressive goal record, the immediate thought is whether this is just an overachievement that will soon see them return to their previous ways.
This leads us to look at Brereton’s expected goals (xG) data for a more accurate view of his play this season.
When analysing the data, we compared Brereton Diaz to similar top players in the Championship.
As he is an inside forward/ striker, we looked to compare him to a combination of both.
Regarding xG, Brereton Diaz has the second-highest xG this season when compared to other Championship attackers, with 11.67; only Mitrović has recorded a higher xG.
This is the same for xG per 90, with only Mitrović, Dominic Solanke and Shayne Lavery recording higher numbers (although Lavery has played much fewer games).
The table below displays both xG and xG per 90 minutes.
As we will discover later, a key feature of Brereton Diaz’s game is his ball-carrying ability, we can measure a few metrics but, in this example, we will look at dribbles per 90 and progressive runs per 90, Brereton Diaz scores highly in both.
So far this season, he has managed just over four dribbles per 90 and 1.5 progressive runs per 90.
When watching Brereton Diaz, his ball-carrying skills stand out, which will be addressed later, but this is then reinforced by data, which is critical.
The final aspect of Brereton Diaz’s game is offensive duels won and offensive duels per 90.
Again, Brereton Diaz scores highly amongst other Championship attackers with 11.3 offensive duels per 90 at a success rate of 30%.
This demonstrates a strong ability not only to create offensive duelling situations but also to win them.
Through the data, it becomes apparent that Brereton Diaz is a unique player.
He possesses a combination of carrying and dribbling skills, which is better than most traditional strikers, yet he isn’t quite as efficient or successful as the typical inside forward/winger.
However, he shows throughout that he is one of the most effective attackers in the EFL Championship, and what he is doing isn’t a fluke.
Ben Brereton Díaz Position
Brereton Diaz can play as both a striker and an inverted inside forward.
However, his best performances this season have come from the inverted inside forward role on the left-hand side.
This is shown in his heatmap for this season.
Playing here allows Brereton Diaz to utilise some key attributes, which we will discover later.
So far this season, Blackburn have used several different tactics, as they have versatile attacking options.
However, they prefer to use a 4-3-3 formation, with a front three of Brereton Diaz, Dolan, and Gallagher when possible.
Within this, Blackburn will often drop Tyrhys Dolan deep to get on the ball between the lines and play as number 10 despite lining up as the front three’s middleman, allowing both Gallagher and Brereton to drift infield.
Both Gallagher and Brereton are comfortable attacking as strikers and can be seen rotating that duty.
This role is perfectly suited for Brereton Diaz and may have a significant impact on his improvements in form this season.
Cutting inside onto his right foot
With Brereton usually being deployed on the left-hand side and not being a left-footed player, he usually cuts in onto his right foot.
Brereton will often stand his man up, quickly shift the ball onto his right foot and quickly look to get a cross or shot off.
This is shown brilliantly by a situation earlier on in the season against Hull City, where Brereton Diaz has been given the ball on the edge of the box and has two options.
He can go left towards the byline, or he can cut in on his right foot.
As he is such a skilled dribbler, fullbacks tend to give him space, which he exploits by shooting or crossing the ball quickly.
In this situation, his choice is made easier because a teammate is looking to make an overlapping run.
In this case, he shifts the ball onto his right foot and strikes a brilliant right-footed shot, which flies into the corner, providing a great example of why Tony Mowbray has been using him on the left.
In the following example, we see Brereton Diaz make a different choice, but one that’s just as effective.
Brereton Diaz has the ball in a 1 v 1 situation on the left-hand side, and again, he has two options: he can go left towards the byline or cut inside onto his right.
He, again, cuts in on his right foot, but this time plays a brilliant clipped cross to the back post, where Sam Gallagher (who you can’t see in this image but is lurking at the back post) plays a brilliant, cushioned header to Dolan, who converts.
Playing on the left as a right-footed player allows for different attacking options and can help explain why we have seen a rise in inverted wingers and forwards.
Firstly, the player can dribble the ball either way.
Secondly, playing a bit deeper infield allows room for an overlapping fullback to make a run on the outside.
Finally, it allows for reverse passes beyond the backline to midfielders making attacking runs.
Ben Brereton Díaz Runs in behind
Another key aspect of Brereton Diaz’s game is his ability to run in behind defences.
Brereton Diaz is deceptively quick, and making runs in behind is one of the strongest aspects of his game.
This example is from Blackburn Vs Hull earlier in the season.
Blackburn has managed to break the midfield line, and the man in possession is carrying the ball into space, allowing Brereton Diaz, who has come infield, to make a run in behind to the space shown.
Although the midfielder doesn’t find him immediately, he continues his run and does a great job of staying onside.
He is eventually found but left with a tight angle and only manages to force a save from the keeper.
If his run had been found earlier, you can’t help but think he would’ve scored — or at least would’ve had a better chance of scoring.
The second example of Brereton Diaz running in behind defences comes against Derby County in a more recent fixture.
Derby has just lost possession, and Blackburn is looking for a quick attack.
Here, Brereton Diaz is looking to make a run between the fullback and centre-half into the space shown.
Although the ball has been played simply into Sam Gallagher’s feet, Brereton Diaz is still looking to make a run into the space behind the defenders.
The ball is then played off to Dolan, while Brereton Diaz has kept his run alive and will finally get the chance to go through on goal, thanks to a nice pass from Dolan.
He manages to retrieve the ball and calmly slot past the keeper for what was his second goal of the day.
Both of these examples demonstrate how Brereton Diaz enjoys running in behind defenders and into space.
He uses several factors to make his runs effective.
Firstly, he utilises his position, usually making the run from out to in, as he did against Derby.
Secondly, he likes to get between the fullback and centre back, which creates confusion over whose responsibility he is; hence, neither followed him in this example.
Finally, he has excellent speed to ensure he meets the pass and can get a shot off without a tracking defender returning.
Ben Brereton Díaz Carrying the ball & Dribbling Abilities
Brereton Diaz has a brilliant ability to carry and dribble with the ball.
This is another reason why we see him deployed in that inside-forward role.
As we established earlier in the data section, Brereton Diaz has managed four dribbles per 90 and 1.5 progressive carries per 90 this season.
Both allow him to utilise his combination of speed and strength, and when he receives the ball, he finds it very hard to move off it, riding challenges and shrugging off defenders.
The following example is from Blackburn’s recent game against Sheffield United, where the ball has been fired into Brereton Diaz, who is positioned between the centre-back and right-back.
He is managing to hold the defender off using his body and strength, and he has two options: he can either look to accelerate into the space on his left or he can look to cut back inside.
In this case, Brereton Diaz moves to his left and creates a yard of space for himself, as shown below.
By going left from the first touch, he made the defender go much more square, which helped him shift the ball onto his right much more easily.
Again, he has two options — he can go to his left or cut back onto his right.
Brereton Diaz chooses to cut into his right, which shouldn’t come as a surprise, by now.
In doing so, he’s managed to sandwich himself between two defenders, but he shows his strength by shrugging Jayden Bogle off the ball.
After shrugging Bogle off the ball, Brereton Diaz ends up surrounded by 3 defenders and being challenged by Chris Basham.
However, Brereton Diaz demonstrates his strength and ability to ride challenges by overcoming them.
After managing to continue his run past Basham, John Egan eventually brings him down, only for the referee to not award a penalty, which is suspect, to say the least.
If Egan didn’t bring him down, he would probably get a shot off.
This demonstrates Brereton Diaz’s brilliant ability to create chances from nothing, utilising his exceptional running ability.
As well as being quick with the ball at his feet, he is also powerful, and it’s very hard to stop him when he gets going, as you can see from the above chance.
Whether he is carrying the ball to advance his team up the field or carrying it through on goal, Brereton is a highly efficient and quality carrier of the ball.
Ben Brereton Diaz Attacking crosses
Brereton Diaz has a brilliant knack for getting into the right area off crosses and finding himself there to convert home.
He excellently attacks the ball and makes well-timed and executed runs to make him deadly from crosses.
This is something you may not expect from an inside forward; however, Brereton Diaz style of play is unique and his history as a ‘number 9’ shows when attacking crosses.
The first example is from Blackburn’s recent game away at Derby.
The ball has been worked out to the right, and at the top of your screen, you can see Brereton Diaz waiting to make his run into the box.
He is patiently keeping his position so he doesn’t go too early, and the defender doesn’t become aware of his presence.
As the crosser is about to whip the ball in, Brereton Diaz is still holding his run and not alerting the defenders.
The area marked is where Brereton Diaz eventually gets his shot off.
As the ball comes in, Brereton Diaz times his run beautifully, getting to the ball before the left-back and getting a shot off, which goes in the back of the net on the second attempt.
He has scored goals like this at the back post on several occasions this season, and this is one of the many key weapons in his arsenal.
Summary
This analysis has outlined how, so far this season, Brereton Diaz has been excellent, showing a diverse array of attacking talents that will undoubtedly put him on the radar of many Premier League clubs, as well as rumours of interest from La Liga clubs.
He has displayed a unique and versatile set of attacking skills, from his dribbling to his threat off crosses, which makes him dangerous in every situation his team may encounter.
Brereton Diaz has demonstrated the qualities of both an inside forward and a striker, which make him so dangerous and why he is the second-highest goalscorer in the Championship.
