Carlos Baleba could make Manchester United debut against Tottenham as Prem resumes
Carlos Baleba could make his Manchester United debut on Saturday at Old Trafford when the Premier League resumes with United hosting Tottenham Hotspur. The 22-year-old Cameroonian was signed from Brighton in August for $88.7m (£65m) plus $6.8m (£5m) in add-ons and has yet to play for his new club.
An ankle injury kept Baleba sidelined while Michael Carrick’s side struggled against Everton, Manchester City and Fulham, and he joined United a few days after the opening-weekend defeat to Hull City. Many supporters have looked to Baleba as a possible solution to United’s early-season problems. The club have won just one of their first five league games and conceded eight in that run. The scale of the challenge facing both player and manager has grown during his absence.
United spent the best part of $200m (£150m) over the summer revamping their midfield, with Andrey Santos arriving from Chelsea and Youri Tielemans leaving Aston Villa to make the move north. Baleba’s capture from Brighton was presented as the final component of that rebuild. How he will fit into a remade midfield remains a central question for Carrick.
Carrick has deployed Kobbie Mainoo and Tielemans as a double pivot in United’s last four Premier League outings, with mixed results. Mainoo has impressed, “proving to Thomas Tuchel why he might have been wrong to deny him an opportunity at the World Cup for England,” while Tielemans’s numbers are strong. Only Noussair Mazraoui and Mainoo are averaging more accurate passes per 90 minutes for United this season than Tielemans, who is also covering the most distance per 90 minutes of any United player, yet United have been far too open in the centre of the pitch.
Baleba is regarded for his defensive ability, athleticism and press resistance in possession, and he said in a Sky Sports interview: “You need the courage to come out with the ball in difficult and risky areas.” United have lacked a genuine two-way midfielder for years, a gap stretching back to the latter stage of the Alex Ferguson era, and Paul Pogba was previously signed to fill that role but was, the club contend, largely misunderstood by a string of different managers who failed to recognise his attacking instincts.
It is unclear how Carrick will accommodate Baleba given Mainoo’s form and the arrivals of Santos and Tielemans, who joined United on the promise they would be key figures. Dropping Tielemans could weaken United’s on-the-ball capability. Last season at Brighton Baleba ranked seventh among his teammates for accurate passes per 90 minutes and 16th for big chances created, figures the article links to his struggles for form and fitness and to the fact that United have not signed a natural creator.
Baleba was included in a matchday squad for the first time away to Fulham on 20 September before the international break and played his first minutes in a behind-closed-doors friendly last week. He could feature against Spurs this weekend, most likely from the bench given his lack of match sharpness. Tottenham have suffered midfield issues of their own this season and Roberto De Zerbi is grappling with many of the same problems Carrick is experiencing, which the piece says could give United scope to control the centre, particularly at Old Trafford.
The article warns that introducing Baleba before he is ready or getting the midfield balance wrong could prove costly, with Carrick under pressure after the early results and another underwhelming performance potentially putting his job at risk. Fans who expect Baleba to be a one-man fix may be disappointed because one player can only do so much amid what the piece describes as years of poor recruitment and boardroom mismanagement, and United will finally get to see what they paid for when Baleba is available for selection against Tottenham at Old Trafford on Saturday.
