Carlos Baleba

Carlos Noom Quomah Baleba



Date of Birth: 3 January 2004



Current Club: Brighton & Hove Albion.

Previous Clubs: LOSC Lille, Brasseries.

Loan Clubs: N/A.





International: Cameroon 4 appearances.

Trophies Won: N/A.





Baleba is possibly the most press-resistant midfielder in the Premier League, with an ability to receive the ball under pressure that would see most players just wilt under. Most people would look at his stats and think of him as being just a tenacious ball-winning midfielder, an extremely athletic and mobile central mid who gets about the pitch breaking up play. While he is extremely good at that, among the best in fact, there is far more to his game than that.



He is strong, able to hold off players and ride tackles when on the ball, or use that strength and power to take the ball off opponents. Pace is something that Baleba has too, he is very quick off the mark, very few players in the midfield area can match his acceleration, making him able to get to where he is needed very fast. He has decent reading of the game too, it is something which he has improved over his time in the Premier League and it means that he has become less of a headless chicken charging about.



When he first came over, that was his main weakness, he would charge about willy-nilly, throwing himself into every opportunity at making a challenge. Even though just 21 still, his maturity has increased massively already and he is now using his brain a lot more to pick and choose where and when to close down players and, most importantly of all, he is much more calculated in his challenges. The improvement to Baleba's game, simply by being less rash, is marked.



He is also strong in the air, with a good leap, something which could lead to him being a useful surprise target at set-pieces in the right team. The key thing with Baleba is that he is very good on the ball. He can bring it forward with a surging run, which is very difficult to stop due to his pace and power.



You can give him the ball in a congested area, with opponents around him, and he is capable of twisting his way out of it without giving it away. Baleba is also a decent passer, maybe not the greatest vision in the world, but he can pick a pass. On top of that, if he is on the ball anywhere around the edge of the box, he is capable of smashing it into the back of the net - something I think he should attempt more often.



Overall, I would put Baleba up amongst the world's top central midfielders, even better for Brighton than Caicedo was for them. He can be the destroyer, the bulwark that opposition attacks are stopped by, but he is so much more than that. He is almost a complete all-round midfielder, with just a bit of work needing on his attacking game to really take him up a level.



Requested by - Salah, Caolan_2