Ben Brereton Diaz

[4000Holes]

I have great confidence in Brereton.  He is young and we took him out of his comfort zone and then played him in a wrong position.  Absolutely appalling management.  Fortunately he is now being played in his proper position and we can see what he is about.

I think eventually we will be saying money well spent.  Oh and every credit to the lad.

[DavidMailsTightPerm]

34 minutes ago, 4000Holes said:

I have great confidence in Brereton.  He is young and we took him out of his comfort zone and then played him in a wrong position.  Absolutely appalling management.  Fortunately he is now being played in his proper position and we can see what he is about.

I think eventually we will be saying money well spent.  Oh and every credit to the lad.

So we played him right wing when we should have played him left wing ?

[4000Holes]

12 minutes ago, DavidMailsTightPerm said:

So we played him right wing when we should have played him left wing ?

He is not playing on the left wing and you know that very well

[chaddyrovers]

47 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

He has had a decent start to the season, he needs to obviously up his performances, score more goals and then maintain that in order for us to be able to suggest that he has come good especially considering the price tag but I was very pleased to see him score on Saturday and it followed on from the goal at Watford and his performances at Derby and Coventry so that was good to see.

Just decent? 

Does the price tag influence how you judge the player performance? 

Edited November 8, 2020 by chaddyrovers

[47er]

Just now, chaddyrovers said:

Just decent? 

Does the price tag influence how you the player performance? 

Yes.

[roversfan99]

Just now, chaddyrovers said:

Just decent? 

Does the price tag influence how you the player performance? 

It plays a part in the analysis of whether he is a good signing but in regards to his performances in the first couple of years, no. I would be critical of a player who looked that out of place whether he was from the academy or a freebie. He just looked lost irrespective of the price tag. 

[47er]

Any player who cost that much and takes 2 years to get going is a bad buy.

[Oldgregg86]

Brereton was one of the poorest players in a rovers shirt I can remember. I genuinely looked at the u23s and thought he wouldn’t get in that team at one point. Solely on footballing reasons people were right to criticise and expect more. The fee paid and the fact he had 50 champ games under his belt made me say he has to have something about him , surely, and I couldn’t figure out what it was because he showed absolutely nothing. 
Like everyone else I judged what I saw and I’m more than happy to be proven wrong and say this season he has been good. Nothing to get carried away about , just good. He’s done some things really well and still has an awful lot of weaknesses. The difference is people can see some potential and his work rate has improved because he wasn’t even grafting at one point. So yes I thought he would never be a footballer in a million years. Was I proven wrong . Absolutely. Am I happy about it , absolutely. He deserves his place in the 11 and long may he grow and become the player we all hoped for but let’s not pretend he’s suddenly a world beater it’s more relief he isn’t shit than anything else

[O'Malley]

8 hours ago, 47er said:

Any player who cost that much and takes 2 years to get going is a bad buy.

Gareth Bale?

[DavidMailsTightPerm]

11 hours ago, 4000Holes said:

He is not playing on the left wing and you know that very well

Which ever way you cut it - his starting position tends to be wide left (usually on the touch line). He is asked to track back to support the left back.

I think, at the moment, part of his success holding the ball, is that he is against smaller full backs. As he continues to improve and build up his strength - I would hope he could start to play more as a traditional centre forward.

As things stand - he is becoming one of our key players - especially for our current style of play.

For me, an example of his improvement was a cross field ball in the last match that he played behind Elliott and into touch. What struck me at that point - was how rare this had become - as I had come to expect these (relatively difficult) cross field balls to find their man. 

[47er]

12 minutes ago, O'Malley said:

Gareth Bale?

Did Bale spend 2 seasons looking like he couldn't get in a pub team? Did Spurs have little money for transfers and gambled most of it on him? Were they desperate to get back in the Premiership? 

Not sure there's a comparison to be had there.

[K-Hod]

It took Brereton two years to start showing regular and consistent form. Which by the way, I’m delighted he has for the sake of the club and himself, as I’m sure it was playing on his mind too.
The transfer fee was bound to lead fans to question the signing. As a club, if we are spending that amount, they need to be hitting the ground running right away, particularly when we have had regular complaints about FFP and not having funds elsewhere ever since....

[O'Malley]

15 minutes ago, 47er said:

Did Bale spend 2 seasons looking like he couldn't get in a pub team? Did Spurs have little money for transfers and gambled most of it on him? Were they desperate to get back in the Premiership? 

Not sure there's a comparison to be had there.

To be fair to Bale, he did have a lot of injuries but he also didn't feature in a Spurs winning team for 2 years and he was ridiculed along with the club who had paid a lot of money for him. On that basis it's a fair comparison.

[matt83]

If was to judge Brereton from arrival to just before April lockdown I’d genuinely say he’s one of the worst transfers the clubs has ever made in terms of value. Well up there with a Davies or Grabbi. If judge him from April to now he looks a decent player as far as pretty much a non scoring striker goes (what is it 4 club goals).

But can’t escape the fee and in order to justify the price tag he has a long way to go not least of all consistently chipping in with goals. If he was an academy graduate playing for gratis I’m sure the criticism wouldn’t be as harsh but he isn’t and the fact remains until the last few months he has looked like a £7 million pub player. 

[Mattyblue]

It was absolutely vital that this transfer worked out. £7million is an enormous amount of money for modern day Blackburn Rovers in an FFP environment.

Has it worked out? Would we sell him in for a profit in January? Not yet and no. But there is undoubtedly a vast improvement and he is now contributing on a regular basis, so long may it continue.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

If we'd have spent that £7million on an established goalscorer at the time we might not still be bumping around the middle of the championship hoping one day we might get our money back.

[Dreams of 1995]

He is establishing himself this year. He's almost a guarantee start at the moment.

Something has happened in coaching during the last 6 months. I want to be able to credit Johnson for it but can't say for certain. What points it towards DJ is that Brereton's starting positing when receiving the ball is much better. He is in between the lines of the full back and the centre half, picking on the half turn and playing a pass infield. He's even holding the ball up much better. He can turn a defender now too, as shown on Saturday with a couple of touches from a high ball and he brought it down, turned his man and created opportunities.

Over the course of the last few seasons it almost feels like Brereton was taken apart to put back together again. He has real confidence at the moment. My only hope is that he isn't a streaky player, and what we are seeing now is his "purple patch" only for him to eventually become the Brereton we saw this time last year.

[Kie_BRFC]

25 minutes ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

If we'd have spent that £7million on an established goalscorer at the time we might not still be bumping around the middle of the championship hoping one day we might get our money back.

We absolutely would be though, goalscoring isn't our problem it's keeping them out the other end. We've got the top scorer in the league, highest goal difference and we're 12th. Should've been spent at the back if we're going to talk in hindsight

[jim mk2]

Playing with your back to goal and shielding the ball with a defender up your backside is a difficult skill and takes years to learn - Danny Graham was very good at it - and Brereton is getting better. The lad can play too outside the box, as he's shown in patches over the past 2 seasons.

He needs to score more goals though, get on the end of crosses, be brave and stick his head and boot in to get the last touch in front of defenders, and be more cute in his movements inside the area. When he starts to do that we'll have a .very good forward worth the £7m we paid. 

 

 

[philipl]

On the current rate of progress

1) Ben is finally playing with confidence and self-belief

2) In a fully fit Rovers squad with everybody available, he certainly gets on the pitch in the 14 players used and I would start him in every game against a bottom half team likely to park the bus against us.

3) Come next summer, it is now easy to foresee Ben having a market value at least the equal of what we paid for him. All we need to do is call them the BEA or BAD and based on Brentford's experience the £20m+ offers will come rolling in... If that's your thing.

[Blue blood]

Just now, philipl said:

On the current rate of progress

1) Ben is finally playing with confidence and self-belief

2) In a fully fit Rovers squad with everybody available, he certainly gets on the pitch in the 14 players used and I would start him in every game against a bottom half team likely to park the bus against us.

3) Come next summer, it is now easy to foresee Ben having a market value at least the equal of what we paid for him. All we need to do is call them the BEA or BAD and based on Brentford's experience the £20m+ offers will come rolling in... If that's your thing.

Strongly disagree with point 3. Nowhere near that yet. 

Look it's a massive improvement. It's brilliant that he isn't a liability. But he is nowhere near a 7 million pound player as yet. Those players consistently score goals at this level. Best case scenario is Ben has 1 season of that and even then I'm not too sure how many he will get this year. 

He's looked great against weaker teams l, anonymous Vs stronger ones. That's not a 7 million pound player. 

I'm as glad as the next fan that he isn't a waste of a wage anymore but he still has a long way to go before being 7 million of talent. And I'm a tad cautious of looking for this 7 million player too. Imo that was hugely overpriced and perhaps not what success will look like with Ben. It was a huge error to pay that much for him and whilst I would love him to justify his fee I think a rectified situation perhaps looks a bit different to that. 

[rigger]

To tell you the truth, I don't care what he cost, or what he is worth, as long as he keeps playing well for us.

[philipl]

16 minutes ago, Blue blood said:

Strongly disagree with point 3. Nowhere near that yet. 

Look it's a massive improvement. It's brilliant that he isn't a liability. But he is nowhere near a 7 million pound player as yet. Those players consistently score goals at this level. Best case scenario is Ben has 1 season of that and even then I'm not too sure how many he will get this year. 

He's looked great against weaker teams l, anonymous Vs stronger ones. That's not a 7 million pound player. 

I'm as glad as the next fan that he isn't a waste of a wage anymore but he still has a long way to go before being 7 million of talent. And I'm a tad cautious of looking for this 7 million player too. Imo that was hugely overpriced and perhaps not what success will look like with Ben. It was a huge error to pay that much for him and whilst I would love him to justify his fee I think a rectified situation perhaps looks a bit different to that. 

Matter of opinions- I am projecting the rate of improvement forwards, not a plateauing of where he is now.

[DavidMailsTightPerm]

11 minutes ago, philipl said:

Matter of opinions- I am projecting the rate of improvement forwards, not a plateauing of where he is now.

If he continues his rate of improvement at his lockdown rate he will be worth more than £20m - but personally can't see him doing that. Though at the very least - if his current form continues he will be starting to justify his fee. I think people underestimate his current impact - he must be a nightmare to play against now he can actually hold up the ball. For a big man his dribbling skill is excellent, and he is surprisingly quick as well. Also his cross field balls have become a feature of our play.

Given a continued run in the team - and injury free run - I can see him getting 10 to 15 goals - especially as his confidence continues to improve.

[47er]

58 minutes ago, Blue blood said:

Strongly disagree with point 3. Nowhere near that yet. 

Look it's a massive improvement. It's brilliant that he isn't a liability. But he is nowhere near a 7 million pound player as yet. Those players consistently score goals at this level. Best case scenario is Ben has 1 season of that and even then I'm not too sure how many he will get this year. 

He's looked great against weaker teams l, anonymous Vs stronger ones. That's not a 7 million pound player. 

I'm as glad as the next fan that he isn't a waste of a wage anymore but he still has a long way to go before being 7 million of talent. And I'm a tad cautious of looking for this 7 million player too. Imo that was hugely overpriced and perhaps not what success will look like with Ben. It was a huge error to pay that much for him and whilst I would love him to justify his fee I think a rectified situation perhaps looks a bit different to that. 

In any case we paid £7M then not now. Been a lot of transfer inflation since then.