[Albion] Carlos Baleba SINGS a 5-year deal

[AstroSloth]

You could tell he was scared to lose the ball as he was the deepest man, often chose the ‘safe option’ sideways or back to the keeper rather than a risky pass into midfield to break the press. Can’t blame him, lose the ball in midfield and you have a defence behind you, lose it as last man and the chances of conceding are high. Agree it was quite a mature performance. I’m sure RDZ is still working with him with regards to his risk/reward strategy that we’ve seen so often.

I'd agree with that. He played really well, but occasionally slightly hesitant. And I can totally understand why. The Albion play without a safety net.

Completely disagree.

He played a lot of line breaking passes into the midfield that completely broke their press.

 

[Cordwainer]

RDZ said in his post-game stuff that at the moment Baleba is better when the game is in front of him rather than when he's in central midfield with a lot of stuff happening around him, which I thought was interesting. And trust him to find the solution that he did.

That’s really interesting as I think his biggest current weakness is losing the ball to players tackling him from behind so this makes total sense..the more he plays the more his positional awareness improves you would think. For a 19 yo who has played so few games I think he’s dome very well to date.

 

[Seagull58]

The first 20 minutes Baleba ever played for us he looked really good. He is undoubtedly going to be at Bissouma/Caicedo level. His physicality and speed is sensational and I'm sure RDZ is working on his first touch, which can be a bit wayward. That's why he's better with the game in front of him currently rather than on the half turn receiving from the back line.

 

[Cordwainer]

I agree fully re: Gilmour. He's a popular with some fans as he's a busy player but I don't actually think he's that effective.

He’s a mixed bag for me. When they did the open training session last season, during the control and pass drills, him and Enciso were far and away the most able. He seems to benefit from a run in the side, generally improving the more he plays..be good if he could add goals in.

 

[Oh_aye]

Gilmour’s head and heart are bang on in the right place which makes him incredibly likeable. He also has excellent positional awareness and his passing accuracy is superb but he is too light weight overall IMO and not technically skilled enough as a player to hold a crucial pivot position in RDZ’s double pivot set up but in the overall context of the team, it is a position he can handle well if he has someone better playing alongside him. Baleba on the other hand is a powerful pivot and is showing the sort of characteristics that made Caicedo (and Bissouma to a lesser extent) so impactful - he is much bolder in possession and more technically gifted than Gilmour. Like Caicedo and Biss, Baleba has shown he is more versatile on the pitch and more physically imposing than Gilmour too with a greater ability to receive the ball on a half turn without losing the team’s attacking pace. A very impressive signing so far.

Blimey. In the most respectful way possible I couldn't disagree with you more about Gilmours technical attributes. I think they are his chief asset, and Baleba will get there but can look a bit clumsy in comparison.

One thing that was also noticeable last night is how many 1:1's and headers a wee laddy like Gilmour wins. Where he's weakest is when he tries to carry the ball, and can be muscled off it (maybe this is what you mean about his attributes? But I wouldn't call that technical)

 

[Oh_aye]

That’s really interesting as I think his biggest current weakness is losing the ball to players tackling him from behind so this makes total sense..the more he plays the more his positional awareness improves you would think. For a 19 yo who has played so few games I think he’s dome very well to date.

Definitely. These were also the skills that caicedo and Mac had in abundance. Never losing ball regardless of position or proximity of enemies!

 

[Garry Nelson's Left Foot]

He reminds me a bit of early Bissouma. Plenty of talent but raw.

It took Bissouma 18 months or so before we started seeing the potential begin to be fulfilled. It took Caicedo similar or a bit less. His first half a season were spent training with the team and playing the odd game with the U-21's before that half season in Belgium then another few months on the fringes of the squad before finally getting a run of games at the end of 21/22.

With that in mind I'm not expecting too much from Baleba until next season. This year is settling in and developing. Any stand out performances will be a bonus.

 

[Nobby Cybergoat]

Gilmour’s head and heart are bang on in the right place which makes him incredibly likeable. He also has excellent positional awareness and his passing accuracy is superb but he is too light weight overall IMO and not technically skilled enough as a player to hold a crucial pivot position in RDZ’s double pivot set up but in the overall context of the team, it is a position he can handle well if he has someone better playing alongside him. Baleba on the other hand is a powerful pivot and is showing the sort of characteristics that made Caicedo (and Bissouma to a lesser extent) so impactful - he is much bolder in possession and more technically gifted than Gilmour. Like Caicedo and Biss, Baleba has shown he is more versatile on the pitch and more physically imposing than Gilmour too with a greater ability to receive the ball on a half turn without losing the team’s attacking pace. A very impressive signing so far.

Unduly harsh on Gilmour

He's also an inexperienced youngster on a pathway. He'll bulk out and improve in the coming years

 

[Zeberdi]

Unduly harsh on Gilmour

He's also an inexperienced youngster on a pathway. He'll bulk out and improve in the coming years

Surely you don’t think he will develop into a Caicedo or Bissouma (or even a MacAllister do you? That is my point. I don’t think it unduly harsh to say Baleba has more potential as a DMF pivot than Gilmour.

Please don’t misunderstand, I like Gilmour and think he’s improved no end since last season but he isn’t a replacement for Caicedo and never will be - Baleba on the other hand looks like he could be. In RDZs set up, that’s a pretty crucial position for us to need to excel in.

 

[Cordwainer]

Definitely. These were also the skills that caicedo and Mac had in abundance. Never losing ball regardless of position or proximity of enemies!

100%. Am sure Baleba will get there in time. Thought Rico Lewis did this incredibly well for England recently.

 

[Oh_aye]

Think you and I differ on what we mean ‘technically’ - you probably have a better (more correct) use of the word than I do - but I do mean all the attributes required for RDZs transitional DMF role - yes, power and physicality (which lends itself to tackling ability and speed) but also positional versatility. Baleba strikes me as a defensive player who thinks like an attacking one and he has the ability to maintain the pace of the attack and carrying the ball for longer distances when required.

Gilmour looks neat and tidy (as someone said above) and he is as you say, in the strictest sense ‘highly technical’ but he doesn’t have the overall qualities compared to the potential we are seeing in Baleba. (only imo of course)

Yep that's fair enough. I think Baleba is going to be that 'arse out and protect the ball' and more dynamic player in that role. Gilmour more of a metronome. It strikes me that there's more and more to his play though as he develops in confidence and he's definitely taking the ball on the turn more and pressing forward rather than just picking safe passing options.

 

[Hotchilidog]

Very good performance from Baleba last night, he is clearly growing into the game with each appearance. Carlos was asked to do a lot last night he put in a very versatile and effective shift.

 

[BevBHA]

Completely disagree.

He played a lot of line breaking passes into the midfield that completely broke their press.

Maybe he played more than your average defender for your average team would. But he passed back to the keeper a hell of a lot more than we usually do. One staple of our play is that the defence only pass back to the keeper as an absolute last resort, we always look sideways or forward first so the opposition don’t gain 20/30 yards to the pitch. It wasn’t a criticism it was an observation of him playing out of position and actually a complement to his maturity in not wanting to lose the ball making rash forward passes.

 

[Jim in the West]

I was VERY impressed with Baleba last night. Increeduble that it was only his 5th start for BHA, and he only made 5 starts for Lille in Ligue 1 (plus a couple of others in the cup). The guy has hardly played, and already he looks like a natural at this level.

 

[Zeberdi]

Maybe he played more than your average defender for your average team would. But he passed back to the keeper a hell of a lot more than we usually do. One staple of our play is that the defence only pass back to the keeper as an absolute last resort, we always look sideways or forward first so the opposition don’t gain 20/30 yards to the pitch. It wasn’t a criticism it was an observation of him playing out of position and actually a complement to his maturity in not wanting to lose the ball making rash forward passes.

Sorry but respectfully, I couldn‘t disagree more - (unless I have misunderstood you?) Using the GK as an ‘extra player’ in the build up phase is absolutely central to our style of play under RDZ - both Steele and Verbruggen play a crucial sweeping/keeper role in starting our attacking sequences and the whole point is to get the opposition to press high in order we create space in between their forward lines and MF.

Baleba frequently dropped from DMF deep into a CB position last night so passing back to Steele was part of that and allowed Igor and Van H to stretch the play wide - it also created the opportunity for Baleba to penetrate the press as a ‘safe’ receiver from Steele with some convincing MF work. We are no longer using the GK as ‘a last resort’ in open play but as an integral part of playing out from the back (otherwise we’d probably still have Sanchez as our no.1).

Maybe he looked a little hesitant at times and hasn’t quite nailed the one touch passing out of danger that our defenders use which is why he’s better ‘facing’ the game but he was in a particularly pressurised role and I don’t recall any unforced errors. He carried the ball well and gave an impressive performance considering his age and lack of PL experience.

 

[AstroSloth]

Maybe he played more than your average defender for your average team would. But he passed back to the keeper a hell of a lot more than we usually do. One staple of our play is that the defence only pass back to the keeper as an absolute last resort, we always look sideways or forward first so the opposition don’t gain 20/30 yards to the pitch. It wasn’t a criticism it was an observation of him playing out of position and actually a complement to his maturity in not wanting to lose the ball making rash forward passes.

This again is not true.

A staple of our play is actually playing it back to the keeper a lot to lure the press.

We can then beat the press with passes and positioning.

The other way we can beat the press is someone playing a great pass through the lines like Baleba was doing, meaning he was building up the perfect way for us either way.

 

[Zeberdi]

This again is not true.

A staple of our play is actually playing it back to the keeper a lot to lure the press.

We can then beat the press with passes and positioning.

The other way we can beat the press is someone playing a great pass through the lines like Baleba was doing, meaning he was building up the perfect way for us either way.

Exactly- just said the same thing in the post above - broke the long paragraph up so it’s easier to read though

 

[dazzer6666]

Maybe he played more than your average defender for your average team would. But he passed back to the keeper a hell of a lot more than we usually do. One staple of our play is that the defence only pass back to the keeper as an absolute last resort, we always look sideways or forward first so the opposition don’t gain 20/30 yards to the pitch. It wasn’t a criticism it was an observation of him playing out of position and actually a complement to his maturity in not wanting to lose the ball making rash forward passes.

Blimey, that’s so incorrect imo. We CONSTANTLY play the ball via the keeper to lure the oppo into our space (and consequently vacating theirs)

 

[Mancgull]

Re Gilmour, he’s technically a great passer and an intelligent footballer who understands his role.
However, against a counter attacking team like Brentford I found having Baleba play the role he did, reassuring, due to his pace and physicality. What De Zerbi did yesterday was tactically outfox TF with Baleba’s role. The only time it didn’t work was when Baleba lost possession and then the Brentford forward exposed JPVH for pace before winning the penalty.
I’d like to see Baleba play this role again, against teams that try and break through the middle versus us.
As others have said, he feels like an early Bissouma type player.
Caicedo had an incredible football brain from a very early age and just got what Roberto wanted him to do. I have to say that he looked very unimpressive for Chelsea against Man United yesterday.

 

[Weststander]

Gilmour doesn’t have DM attributes, the last thing we want is Gilmour alone protecting the CB’s at any stage. He’s a playmaker. However Baleba ticks all the DM boxes.