Football League World
·26 luglio 2025
Blackburn Rovers should consider ambitious Ben Brereton Diaz raid

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Yahoo sportsFootball League World
·26 luglio 2025
Blackburn Rovers should target a move for Chile international attacker Ben Brereton Diaz, who is well suited to Valerian Ismael's system and style.
As they head into the 2025/26 season, Blackburn Rovers are once again looking to build towards challenging for the top six and the play-off places in the Championship.
The Lancastrians have spent the last half a decade or so flirting with sustaining a challenge for promotion for the Premier League, missing out on the top six on the final day of the campaign on a couple of occasions.
Now, with Valerien Ismael having taken his first pre-season in charge of Rovers following his appointment in mid-March, Blackburn are not necessarily in transition, but certainly changing tact to ensure that Ismael has the weapons of his desire at his disposal.
Ismael’s style of football is known for being quite extreme in its function, with the former Barnsley and West Bromwich Albion an absolute ideologue and very rarely straying from playing the way in which he wants to play.
In attack, that does leave Blackburn perhaps a bit short in terms of players that could really suit his system, and so a move for an attacker seems likely.
That attacker should be Ben Brereton Diaz – it would be a remarkably ambitious move, but there are reasons for why it would perhaps be best for all parties.
Valerien Ismael’s style of football is extremely direct and aggressive, with a 3-4-3 shape that almost entirely bypasses the midfield, but can also be quite limited in attack.
Whilst almost invigorating to watch at times due to the sheer volume and regularity of the aerial bombardment when things are working, it is quite a limited approach when things aren’t quite clicking.
What is required for it to work is a lot of physicality, and that is especially the case in the wide positions in attack, with strikers often deployed out-wide, as Ismael did with Victor Adeboyejo at Barnsley and Karlan Grant at West Brom.
Allowing the focal point to drift wide would occupy defences, whilst also providing a target in more than just one area of the final third, thus aiding the often rushed back three.
Brereton Diaz would be ideally suited to Ismael in that regard, with the Chile international attacker capable of playing across the front three, but perhaps best out wide on the right, as was the case when he previously thrived at Ewood Park.
Makhtar Gueye has the profile that Ismael would look for, whilst Ohashi is of a good quality, but perhaps not the right type of player in terms of his mobility and willingness to use his physicality.
Brereton Diaz, on the other hand, links the two things up very well with his frame and nous able to make him a physical threat, as well as having an undoubted higher level of technical ability to thrive in numerous positions, especially in an Ismael system.
It is all well and good pointing out that Brereton Diaz would be ideal for this version of Blackburn, but it remains the case that his return to Ewood Park would be an extremely ambitious move by Rovers.
That said, ever since his departure from Ewood back in the summer of 2023 for La Liga outfit Villarreal on a free transfer, his career has struggled to really take hold.
He enjoyed a reasonable loan spell at Bramall Lane as Sheffield United were relegated from the Premier League in 2024, having joined on loan after just half a season with the Yellow Submarine in Spain.
He was then purchased to remain in the Premier League by Southampton, but returned to the Blades again mid-way through the season on loan, having struggled for a poor Saints side.
He remained a reasonable threat for United last season as they reached the play-off final, but it has to be said that the 26-year-old is still looking to prove he really can do it anywhere bar at Blackburn.
However, it may well be best for him to once again showcase his capabilities back at his former club, building some bridges and spearheading a potentially genuine promotion challenge next season.