[Albion] Carlos Baleba SINGS a 5-year deal

[Machiavelli]

A strange game. First half I thought Mitoma was awful, losing every 50:50, giving the ball away starting their counters. Improved after HT. Pedro was nowhere and spent time sucked into battles with their CM 60 yards from Sels goal, then in ET became effective.

Mitoma was utter horsesh!t in the first half. I thought JPvH was our best player, special mention to Pervis and Webster too.

 

[LamieRobertson]

What do we know …. but I always like three in CM, which might include a 10 who also has battling qualities. The reason …. the PL is full of coaches who do it, to match up in the key battle.

Even more so when really both wingers to me were off there game and there two dangerous wide men didn’t start

 

[Weststander]

Mitoma was utter horsesh!t in the first half. I thought JPvH was our best player, special mention to Pervis and Webster too.

Welbeck the game passed him by too? Can always say that’s down to no service. His best bits seemed to be mucking-in in open play defending, 70 yards from Sels goal.

[As seen from the NS].

 

[Machiavelli]

Welbeck the game passed him by too? Can always say that’s down to no service. His best bits seemed to be mucking-in in open play defending, 70 yards from Sels goal.

[As seen from the NS].

Think that was more down to us being poor in the first half. Our passing was way off (I agree with what others have said about Carlos in the first c30 minutes too), and that meant Welbeck had very little service. He did get involved in deeper positions and did well enough, but wasn't a threat in the final third.

 

[Weststander]

Think that was more down to us being poor in the first half. Our passing was way off (I agree with what others have said about Carlos in the first c30 minutes too), and that meant Welbeck had very little service. He did get involved in deeper positions and did well enough, but wasn't a threat in the final third.

Interestingly, the first ten minutes I thought we’d really turned up, fantastic pressing all over. Forest fans were deadly silent.

Then they upped the ante in physicality themselves, Mitoma et al bottling the fight. Plus that old Albion achilles heel …. no true RB and to exacerbate that Hinsh received bugger all defensive support from his winger. Forest smelt blood down their left, Neco Williams could play 50 yards forward with little risk.

 

[tigertim68]

Really? Blimey.

I thought he was very quiet , hardly got in the game

 

[A1X]

Warren was very scathing of him on the radio today, TBH I haven’t been impressed in the last few weeks compared to what went before, is he believing his own hype / had his head turned?

 

[Flounce]

I thought he was very quiet , hardly got in the game

Had one great shot and one not so great. Surprised he wasn’t up for a battle, he actually got bullied today, very unusual

 

[Han Solo]

Warren was very scathing of him on the radio today, TBH I haven’t been impressed in the last few weeks compared to what went before, is he believing his own hype / had his head turned?

No

 

[Machiavelli]

Warren was very scathing of him on the radio today, TBH I haven’t been impressed in the last few weeks compared to what went before, is he believing his own hype / had his head turned?

Don't think that's what the problem was today. Passing radar off again, beyond being highly adept at passing it to the CB when we had ten outfield players to their eight.
We were just so bad once they had players sent off.

 

[Sussexscots]

Given the season he's had, it's perhaps
easy to forget that Baleba is still just 21 years old.

He's been a monster for us this season. The improvement he has shown is remarkable. Plus - fortunately - he's a player who is consistently fit and available for selection.

Having let Groß and Gilmour leave, imagine where our injury raddled
season would have been without him.

 

[Terry Butcher Tribute Act]

Thought he was fine today. Not bad, not good. 6.5/10 and our best midfielder. Sadly we don't have the midfield depth to carry a 6.5/10

 

[Uh_huh_him]

He has developed this idea that hoofing the ball up into the air is a good idea.

Not entirely sure what he is trying to achieve, but he seems to do it 3 or 4 times a match recently.

It's never a clearance, or any reason to get rid, just a fairly mindless hoof, IMO.

has anyone else noticed this?

 

[sussex_guy2k2]

Thought he was fine today. Not bad, not good. 6.5/10 and our best midfielder. Sadly we don't have the midfield depth to carry a 6.5/10

Sadly, we’ve been asking a 21 year old in his first full season to produce 9/10 performances every week, and then we have fans who get annoyed when he has an average performance and doesn’t carry the team on his back…

 

[One Teddy Maybank]

Sadly, we’ve been asking a 21 year old in his first full season to produce 9/10 performances every week, and then we have fans who get annoyed when he has an average performance and doesn’t carry the team on his back…

Good post/observation and very true.

 

[Gabbiano]

Sadly, we’ve been asking a 21 year old in his first full season to produce 9/10 performances every week, and then we have fans who get annoyed when he has an average performance and doesn’t carry the team on his back…

Expectations are high, because Caicedo was doing exactly that for us - 9/10 every week.

Caicedo was the extremely rare exception. Balena isn't quite there yet.

 

[dwayne]

I think we need to change our tactic of trying to run more than the opposition next season. The players, like last season are broken. At times yesterday some of our players look like they could barely move, baleba , mitoma, Pedro....painful to watch. We need to go through periods in games of conserving energy.

 

[sussex_guy2k2]

Expectations are high, because Caicedo was doing exactly that for us - 9/10 every week.

Caicedo was the extremely rare exception. Balena isn't quite there yet.

Baleba has been there for much of the season, albeit he’s a different type of player I would say. He’s also been doing it in a less settled team, often all on his own, with less experience around him. If people can’t see that, then there’s not a ton we can do. For me, he’s been so far and away our player of the season, it’s not even really close. In fact, I’d argue he’s the only player that’s not really dropped below a 7/10 at all this season.

But I get what you’re saying.

 

[aolstudios]

Expectations are high, because Caicedo was doing exactly that for us - 9/10 every week.

Caicedo was the extremely rare exception. Balena isn't quite there yet.

Exactly. His potential is stellar but Carlos has never reached the robotic perfection of Cacedo at the the Albion

 

[Gabbiano]

Baleba has been there for much of the season, albeit he’s a different type of player I would say. He’s also been doing it in a less settled team, often all on his own, with less experience around him. If people can’t see that, then there’s not a ton we can do. For me, he’s been so far and away our player of the season, it’s not even really close. In fact, I’d argue he’s the only player that’s not really dropped below a 7/10 at all this season.

But I get what you’re saying.

Yes, fair enough I can't argue with that. I'm not meaning to do him down, just highlight that not everyone can perform as Caicedo did.

He's also my player of the season - Veltman was his only real competition before his injury.