- 1 week ago
After Man United's 2-0 loss away at Hull City, it became even more apparent that Michael Carrick has a big problem to fix in his midfield. Enter, Carlos Baleba who looks set to join United for £70m from Brighton.But what is Baleba good at? And will he actually fix Man United's problems in the midfield? Adam Clery explores what the Cameroonian could bring to Old Trafford, and how his skillset can help Michal Carrick's side this season.
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00:00Right, hello everybody, welcome to the Adam Cleary Football Channel where Carlos Beliba is on the verge of joining Manchester
00:07United
00:07and there is just, there is no intro for this video, right, because I have never seen a game of
00:13football
00:13quite like their season opener against Hull for neatly illustrating why a particular club desperately wants to sign a particular
00:23player.
00:26It was almost as if they coordinated that performance on purpose to make sure the club bring him in.
00:34Like, for starters, and yes we are genuinely just straight in on this, take this moment from Ollie McBurney.
00:40He's fortunate to keep the ball in play but then he just casually runs it back into the middle of
00:46the pitch.
00:46Uri Tielemans gets across to deal with him and is just skipped past, like he's not even there.
00:52Brian Mbomo tries to then help out, not being at all defensively minded though, he is also breezed by.
00:59Thus meaning that Manchester United go from this position here, relatively comfortable, to this incredibly chaotic position here.
01:08All at the hands of the technical dribbling prowess of Hull City's Ollie McBurney.
01:16And obviously, no offence, Hull City's Ollie McBurney.
01:20In fact as well, just take the opening chance of the game, like the same player has a header that's
01:24saved but it comes from this.
01:26Man United are pressing in like a 4-2-4 shape which has its advantages but does leave these little
01:32pockets in behind the wide forwards here.
01:35And Hull simply play into one of them with total ease, they get turned and they feed a ball down
01:41a channel into the space.
01:43And one of the hard things about playing a 4-2-4 pressing shape, right, is it comes down to
01:49these three players to decide who covers this space.
01:52Either somebody drops, which obviously alleviates the press, either somebody jumps, which leaves more space in behind.
01:58Or more often than not, the midfielder has to cover across.
02:01And in this situation here, Santos just does not read the danger and doesn't get into that space quick enough
02:08to do anything about it.
02:10And yes, those are just two split-second moments across an entire game of football.
02:15But if you watched it, you will be aware that that is...
02:19It's the word I want.
02:21Indicative?
02:22Representative?
02:24Correct?
02:24Good?
02:24Accurate?
02:25All of that stuff, right, as to how Man United's two new midfield signings played in this game.
02:31Like, they have many plus points, they are good players, but clearly they can be easy to beat defensively and
02:37they don't cover the pitch well defensively either.
02:40And if you are a Manchester United fan, you will know that for all the problems the club has had
02:47over the last couple of years, this one has been the big consistent.
02:52Members of the midfield being asked to defend large spaces and failing to do that well.
03:00Like, genuinely, Jamie Carragher's famed leave the football before the football leaves you bit was about this exact thing.
03:07Like, this is Casemiro, one of the greatest defensive midfielders of his generation at still a relatively young age, looking
03:16like he was completely finished because he was being asked to defend really big open spaces against, I think.
03:22I can't actually see that because it's not there.
03:24Tottenham.
03:24And being about as effective at doing that as the guy from the Steward meme.
03:32You know, you know what I mean.
03:34I should have a better joke.
03:36I know, it's just, it's Monday morning.
03:37And it wasn't that Casemiro was magically a bad player, it's just that Man United are Man United.
03:43They have so many top-level attacking players that to concede possession and to sit in deep and wait for
03:50opportunities goes against their entire DNA as a football club.
03:55They have to go out and attack.
03:57They have to commit players forward.
03:59And a consequence of doing that is that you will leave big spaces in behind.
04:03And sort of why counter-pressing became so popular over the last couple of years, because that can help you
04:08avoid these situations.
04:10But pretty much every single top team who commits men forward defends against these scenarios by having one, sometimes two
04:18players who are really good at defending these big open spaces.
04:23Some players do it by just being super athletic, sprinting to cover these holes, and then either physically winning the
04:30ball back or just slowing attackers down.
04:32Whereas others do it by reading the game incredibly well and anticipating the danger before it develops.
04:39I mean, obviously, ideally, you would love somebody who can do both of those things.
04:44And the hope that Manchester United have is that this man here, Carlos Belieber, can do both of those things
04:52and do them really well.
04:55And just case in point, you see why both of those things matter in the whole game.
04:59Here, it is a simple long ball that Hull can test, and it winds up dropping into this gap between
05:06the defence and the midfield.
05:07And I want you to notice the relative starting positions here of Tielemans, Santos, and this is Matt Crooks.
05:16First off, it probably shouldn't be Maserari coming across to shield his own back four with the header, but just
05:21whatever.
05:22Right, look at how Crooks powers past both the midfielders who, though working back, do not get anywhere near the
05:30play, do not pick up a man.
05:32And by the time the cross comes in, Crooks has been able to go from five yards behind them to
05:38ten yards in front and give Hull a really dangerous 3v2 in the box.
05:44I would just like to point out, this isn't a massive criticism of Tielemans and Santos, because this is not
05:50their game.
05:51But as a manager, you cannot select a central midfield pairing in a game this transitional who can both get
05:58ran past as easily as that.
06:01Either your profiles are wrong, or you've got to sit one of them down and say,
06:04Look, I know you're a great passer and you circulate the ball really well, but just for now, I need
06:10you to just run around loads, particularly back to our own goal, please.
06:14And like, the worst example is in the build-up to that second goal, like from this moment here.
06:19And I promise you, I'm not picking on Tielemans yet.
06:22I think he's a wonderful player.
06:24He just really struggled being asked to do a game that's very different from his game.
06:30Like, you can see here, Man United are deep.
06:32Both Tielemans and Santos are deep, and this here is Bellumi.
06:37And the key thing to note in this moment is that as the play starts to develop, he is being
06:42marked by Santos, and there is no real danger.
06:46But he just makes a really basic movement out from the front line into the small pocket of space here.
06:53And first off, Santos just lets him.
06:56He, for whatever reason, decides he can't be getting dragged out of that defensive line,
07:01so he's happy to see him jog away from his area.
07:04Which isn't inherently a terrible thing, but the problem is that Tielemans is really slow to notice that shit happening.
07:12And don't get me wrong, he should absolutely be getting a shout from Santos, like,
07:17your man, pick him up, or whatever, and clearly he doesn't.
07:20But at the same time, he shouldn't be ball-watching like that.
07:23He should be looking at what's going on around him and see him come into his area.
07:27So Bellumi is now free, and it's only once the ball is played into him does Tielemans realise that he's
07:33now standing in this space.
07:35So he goes charging out, but it's not his game, and it's also too late, and it's another really bad
07:42attempt at winning the ball.
07:43He gets megged, which is dreadfully embarrassing.
07:46They give the foul away, and from that free kick, Hull get the second goal, and that was pretty much
07:51the game.
07:52And this, my dear friends, is why this particular type of player profile matters so very much.
08:00Because that run can be tracked, that movement can be communicated, that foul does not need to be given.
08:06And from this moment here, I would posit that if either of these two men are Carlos Belieber,
08:12that goal never happens in a million years.
08:16Because stuff like this is what he does, or at least it's what he was doing exceptionally well two seasons
08:22ago,
08:23and Manchester United will hope that despite a massive downturn in his performances last season,
08:28he's still that player from that season.
08:32Like these, and I just, can I leave enough room for this?
08:35These are his respective defensive stats over those two seasons.
08:39And obviously, yes, 25-26, just really quite average in a lot of respects.
08:43But the year before that, that is maybe some of the best defensive numbers any player has posted in the
08:50Premier League in recent seasons.
08:53He is not just good at one thing, he is exceptional at almost everything that off-the-ball work demands
08:59of you.
08:59Like he's in the very, very top bracket for almost all defensive actions, right?
09:04And interceptions is the one that will appeal most to Manchester United,
09:09the top 5% of the league, for the amount of times he did that, right?
09:12Because that's the one that requires excellent reading of the game.
09:17And his recoveries as well, reading the situation around him, being first to lose balls,
09:22that's something they really do not have.
09:25And even in his bad season, those numbers are still pretty good.
09:29Like compare this moment here, danger brewing, big open space to defend,
09:35but he reads the way the play is going and he cuts the pass out before it becomes a massive
09:40issue.
09:41Or this one here, up against a run rather than a pass,
09:45he motors all the way back and wins the ball because there's simply no getting away from him.
09:52And don't get me wrong, why he fell off last season should be a little bit of a concern.
09:57And the reasons for it, nobody really knows at this stage.
10:00There were changes to the team, there was tweaks in formation,
10:03there was some suggestion that not getting his big move last summer may have affected his head a little bit.
10:08And also, the fact that Brighton were just doing fine without him,
10:12so there wasn't really an imperative to desperately reintegrate him into the team.
10:17But regardless, the raw numbers, what we've seen of him as a player,
10:21does suggest that he can get back to where he was two seasons ago.
10:27It feels like last season was the exception rather than the one before.
10:30And if you're a team that struggled to defend these big spaces,
10:34then his reading of danger, his physical ability to recover situations,
10:39was not in question last season.
10:42Like, you can look at his running numbers from his bad season,
10:46and on a per 90-minute basis,
10:48there's almost nobody in the division that makes as many sprints as he does,
10:52or sprints as often as he does.
10:55The work rate is not in question.
10:57You put him in a different environment,
10:59a new environment, a more exciting, sexy environment,
11:02and there's no guarantees in football.
11:05I cannot tell you what is going to happen,
11:07but I would personally be very happy with this signing.
11:10And also, what really helps him at Man United
11:12is that he's a massive asset on the ball as well.
11:16Like, he's not going to run games in possession or rack up 100 touches,
11:19but he resists presses excellently on account of how good his first touch
11:24and his close control is,
11:25and he can power forward with the ball as well as anyone in the league.
11:30Like, he will break low blocks for you with his running,
11:33as well as any player who tries to break them with the passing.
11:37And this was another problem Man United had against Hull.
11:40Like, Bruno Fernandes kept going and looking for the ball in deep positions,
11:44because Santos and Tielemans were not getting it through the lines
11:48the way he obviously felt he could be.
11:51He just saw one too many sideways passes on account of how Hull was set up,
11:56and if you had a runner, someone who carried the ball past men individually,
12:00that would have been really useful in that situation.
12:03Now, long-term viewers, to my inane waffling,
12:06will know that I personally love the title
12:08Why X Player Solves Y Team's Biggest Problem.
12:13And yes, I have seen other channels starting to use that one.
12:17I'm flattered.
12:17However, this may be the single best example of this I can ever remember seeing.
12:23I can't think of another time a player so specifically addressed a problem
12:28that was so specifically a massive deal for a particular football club.
12:33This is about as needed a signing as you will see all summer.
12:37Like, this has been Man United's biggest issue for years across multiple managers,
12:42and solving it is supposed to be this man's very stock in trade.
12:48So if this works, and it's always an if, light's gone out,
12:52this would be transformational, potentially.
12:55And I'm not going to be wrong, they do have other issues,
12:57and it remains to be seen what impact so much extra football this season
13:02will have on Michael Carrick's game model.
13:05But this signing, at least, should stop teams doing to them
13:09what Hull City, Hull City, just did to them.
13:14So that's quite important.
13:15So yes, that's why Manchester United really, really want to buy Carlos Belieber,
13:20because they need somebody to run both smarter and harder
13:23than everybody else currently in this squad.
13:27And, God, you're right, what an excellent segue to talk about my own running,
13:31because if you've somehow missed it,
13:32we are trying to raise as much money as we can for Mind,
13:35who are a mental health charity here in the UK.
13:37If you've ever tried to use mental health services,
13:39you will know they are so badly underfunded
13:42and constantly at breaking points.
13:44So charities like Mind do an amazing job,
13:46so we're trying to raise a bit of money.
13:47I'm doing the Great North Run in less than three weeks
13:50in the Rome Half Marathon, like three weeks after that,
13:52and assorted other things across the air.
13:54And we went past two grand at the weekend.
13:57Which might not seem like loads, but we've been doing this for 10 days.
14:02That moves me.
14:03That makes me feel just...
14:06I haven't even got the words for that.
14:07That's unbelievable generosity.
14:08So if you have got anything you would like to donate,
14:11the link is in the description.
14:11It goes so much further than you would think,
14:14and it makes such a massive difference.
14:16They will do so much with that,
14:18and they will do so much with the 5 or 10 or 20.
14:20Whatever it is, it's all really important and really useful
14:24and does make a genuine difference to people.
14:25So there's that.
14:27That's down there.
14:27I will only be going on about this for another four months or so.
14:31Don't worry about it.
14:31You can get me across all the social medias.
14:33At Adam Cleary, CLE, our wife.
14:34If you've not already subscribed to the channel,
14:35why not do that immediately?
14:38Please, and Man United fans, let us know
14:39if Belieber fixes everything for you in the comments.
14:43Or do you need another one?
14:44And if so, will you stop looking at my left back?
14:47Thank you very much.
14:49I've been Adam Cleary.
14:50This is ACFC.
14:51That's Carlos Belieber, probably,
14:52and I'll see you later.
14:54Good, goodbye, Belieber.
14:56Good Belieber.
14:58No, I've ruined it at the end there.
15:00Sorry.
15:01Bye.
15:02Bye.
15:02Bye.
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