Brittain has proven to be a steal for Blackburn after joining the team in 2022 after leaving Barnsley.
Callum Brittain was among several Blackburn players who had an impact in Tuesday’s match against Newcastle, but he was unlucky to lose.
Although traditional full-back vs. winger matches are becoming less common, we saw one on Tuesday night between Anthony Gordon of Newcastle and Brittain.
The former Everton player gave the Magpies the lead on minute 71, but Rovers responded with a goal from Sammie Szmodics eight minutes later, bringing the score to 1-1 before losing on penalties.
According to WhoScored.com, Brittain had the highest rating of any Blackburn player, coming in at 7.5.
Despite Gordon’s goal, he surely knew as he left the field that he had played against the Blackburn full-back, who was excellent on both ends.
Since Jon Dahl Tomasson acquired him for Blackburn in the summer of 2022 for about £1 million, he has shown to be a good addition at a reasonable price.
Brittain has progressed once more this season after having a strong debut campaign under Tomasson.
He would have surely felt that he could have done more in that area after only recording one assist in the previous campaign.
He would have been doubting himself if he had only managed two assists in the first 28 games of the current campaign, but under John Eustace, who has seen him play every minute of every game so far, he equaled that total in his first three games.
Callum Brittain now plays a more offensive role thanks to John Eustace.
Eustace prefers to use a three-man defense when playing. With Dominic Hyam lining up behind him at right center back, Brittain is given more freedom to charge forward as a wing-back.
Right-backs play a significantly different role now than they did ten or fifteen years ago, and under Eustace, Brittain seems to be going to benefit from the changes in the game.
| Callum Brittain stats 2023/24 (Championship games) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Minutes played | Goals | Assists | Average minutes per goal involvement |
| 2,592 | 1 | 4 | 518.4 |
Source: Transfermarkt
Of course, many right-backs have been. Just look at the way Jürgen Klopp asks Trent Alexander-Arnold to play at Liverpool.
It took just seven minutes for the first goal of the Eustace era to be scored by Tyrhys Dolan, who turned home Brittain’s cross.
For the second goal, Ryan Hedges headed another Brittain delivery across the face of goal for Szmodics to nod in and double the lead.
Eustace’s impact was immediate, and Brittain appeared to be the chief beneficiary of a tweak to the team.
After the game, Brittain told The Sun: “Playing five at the back gives you more of a licence to go forward.
“As a group, we’ve spoke about it. We turn down crosses and we come out too much, so I think we wanted to put the ball in dangerous areas, and we did that today and we caused them problems.”
Brittain is vital to the way Eustace wants to play
As he alluded to, playing as a wing-back means he needs no second invitation to get forward and put crosses in.
With Sam Gallagher, a big swashbuckling striker to aim at, it’s no wonder Eustace wants crosses put into the box. Szmodics is useful in the air as well, and they have a big team when it comes to set plays.
When Blackburn played in the Premier League throughout the 1990s and 2000s, Ewood Park was always a tough fixture, even for the best teams in the league.
Playing a direct yet very effective style won them the Premier League title in 1994/95 with Chris Sutton and Alan Shearer, both of whom were excellent in the air, receiving the right service.
If Rovers didn’t play to their strengths, they wouldn’t have scored 49 goals between them during the campaign.
Under Kenny Dalglish, Blackburn established a reputation in the Premier League.
Tomasson stepped back from it a bit, preferring to concentrate more on ball possession and skillful build-up play.
Brittain fits right into this picture of Eustace reviving tradition at Ewood Park.
