Very reminiscent of Bissouma after a similar number of games. Loving his development. Very good game yesterday.
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[Albion] Carlos Baleba
- Thread starter worthingweird
- Start date
HalfaSeatOn
Well-known member
It was his ‘I’ve arrived’ game.
HastingsSeagull
Well-known member
And hopefully if he's not a world beater in his next couple matches, people won't get on his back!
Nobby Cybergoat
Well-known member
- Jul 19, 2021
- 7,028
It's an absolute strategic priority to develop Carlos isn't it?
Playing the way we do, we need ability on the cover. He is the only one we have who offers that.
In possession we're also suffering from teams suffocating our passing lanes. With Carlos in the team, this is much harder to do, he can carry the ball into space, which Gilmour and Gross don't. Opponents are then forced to vacate their zones to stop him marauding forward, giving us many more options.
He find a lot of aspects of RDZ's patterns of play hard to understand in real time I think. Estupinan had a right go at him yesterday for being in the wrong place. But look. He'll get it. He just needs to do it.
This is a player we need to invest in. Balls out. Even if it costs us in the short term.
Playing the way we do, we need ability on the cover. He is the only one we have who offers that.
In possession we're also suffering from teams suffocating our passing lanes. With Carlos in the team, this is much harder to do, he can carry the ball into space, which Gilmour and Gross don't. Opponents are then forced to vacate their zones to stop him marauding forward, giving us many more options.
He find a lot of aspects of RDZ's patterns of play hard to understand in real time I think. Estupinan had a right go at him yesterday for being in the wrong place. But look. He'll get it. He just needs to do it.
This is a player we need to invest in. Balls out. Even if it costs us in the short term.
Yesterday was the first time it 'clicked' for Baleba, was encouraging to see, and I hope this improvement continues.
People keep saying how we didn't replace Caicedo, but we did. We spent €30 million on Baleba, a player who only had 20 or so league appearances at the time. That's an absolutely massive investment in my view. Unsurprisingly, he wasn't ready to slot straight in, but it's looking more and more like he is going to, it's just going to take a season to develop. This time next year I suspect it will be about 'Can we keep hold of Baleba next season', rather than 'We didn't replace Caicedo'.
Uh_huh_him
Well-known member
- Sep 28, 2011
- 10,697
THIS!
We will be far better off developing Baleba across our last 11 games of this season, than playing in the same way.
albionfan37
Well-known member
It was for me his best game for the club he had that biss ability to nick a ball he had no right to win and his ability to drive through the park was very impressive indeed. Him gilmour and gross will be a formidable trio next season
He's just going through the standard NSC evolution and emotional washing machine :
Interest - no-one has heard of him but showreel looks good
Confirmed by Fabrizio - excitement levels mount. 'Here we go' etc
Signing day - flight tracking, impatient posts wanting to see him holding the shirt
First appearance - some nice touches, good prospect
Second appearance - waste of money, shit, downgrade, send him out on loan, recruitment team have dropped a right bollock there etc
........
Few appearances later - oooh, he looks good, developing nicely, MOTM, build the midfield around him
Few months later - we shouldn't accept anything less than 100m
Few months after that - Judas scumbag quintupling his wages after everything we did for him
The Wookiee
Back From The Dead
Looking more assured as each game goes by 
Thought he was excellent tonight.Looking more assured as each game goes by
Nobby Cybergoat
Well-known member
- Jul 19, 2021
- 7,028
Agree. He's coming on. We just need to persevere with him. He'll have the odd poor game and get himself in the odd bad position. He just needs the experience.Looking more assured as each game goes by
In two years time, he'll be indispensable to us. We just need to stick it out with him
Pavilionaire
Well-known member
- Jul 7, 2003
- 30,592
One of our better players on the night, arguably our MOTM.
Mackenzie
Old Brightonian
He's getting there.