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Eric Bailly Ivory Coast flag

2020-21 Performances

View full 2020-21 profile

6.0 Season Average Rating
Appearances
21
Clean sheets
9
Goals
0
Assists
1
Yellow cards
4
Status
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UNITED ACADEMY said:
Partner for Bailly :lol: like if he can stay fit in the first place. We are praying right now for Bailly to stay fit, next season we aren’t going to take a gamble again to pray he will stay fit. That’s why the topic has been finding partner for Maguire.
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Is he injury prone or has he just been unlucky? Still trying to work that one out. As far as I know there's nothing specifically recurring injury wise, he's just a mad bastard that puts his body on the line and fecks himself in the process.
 
He has really provided a great foil for Maguire. The biggest difference between he and Lindelof is that desperation to anticipate and throw himself in attempt at a block.
I am no Lindelof hater. He is calm and defends well when upright on 2 feet. But he just doesn't do those little desperation extra 1% plays. He could have for one of those Man City goals but instead opts to stand his ground and defend his position. You see it all the time against us. About time we had abit of that mongrel with a fit Bailly
 
He was fantastic.

Would like to see more of Bailly partnered with Axel at some stage..
 
Unreal performance, put it on the line with tackling. He broke there lines numerous times, Lindelof and Maguire don't have the pace to do this. Really impressed but needs to stay fit. The ice man Lindelof can stay on the bench. No way we beat Villa and Burnley if Bailly isn't playing. I was happy to see him for this game, deserves to start against them cnuts on Sunday.
 
ClaytonBlackmoorLeftPeg said:
Maguire played the most minutes of any footballer in the world in 2020.

consistency and being on the pitch is incredibly important. At the moment, Bailly hadn’t got close to consistency. I hope the current run is a change, but to say he’s better than Maguire is as premature as a 14 year old boy in a lingerie department.
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Durability is a good quality but it's hardly a talent.

Guaita has more minutes under his belt than Alisson in goal this season, no one in his right mind would then conclude Guaita is better than Alisson because of mileage.
 
Jackal said:
Durability is a good quality but it's hardly a talent.

Guaita has more minutes under his belt than Alisson in goal this season, no one in his right mind would then conclude Guaita is better than Alisson because of mileage.
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I don’t know wether I would call it a talent, but it certainly is as you say, a good quality, and quality is more relevant to results than talent. Guaita is a silly comparison, durability isn’t the ONLY quality.

Some players are injury stricken for a period, some are for ever. Phil Jones carreer was ruined by injuries. Bailly’s isn’t but can be. After his latest return, he’s probably been PL’s best CB for a month or so - and I love to watch it. Still, I’m happy that we have a fairly solid partnership in Lindelöf-Maguire, and a promising young back up in Tuanzebe. If Bailly continues like this, uninjured, It’s a bonus, almost like getting a new player. Obligatory WT.
 
An on form and all firing Bailly is easily our best CB. There's nothing he can't do and I love how he has the ability to start attacks from the back by driving the ball forward well and picking out good forward passes between the lines
 
TsuWave said:
He’s better than Maguire for me. Need to find a partner for Bailly rather than a partner for Maguire. He cleans up after Maguire way too often, and it’s kinda weird to expect him to be able to always do it.
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Seriously. There are many things Bailly can't do what Maguire can do.

Bailly might be the hardest defender in our squad, but Maguire is one of the best modern CB in the league.
 
I had feared and thought Bailly had been done for his manutd career when he had knee injury TWICE.
Just hope him stay injury free and take care of his body. Just don’t do stupid crazy things in training please!
 
This is his best form since he joined us. He's a proactive defender that anticipates danger, which is what we've always needed. Feel vindicated for defending him for so long, hope he can keep it up.
 
TsuWave said:
He’s better than Maguire for me. Need to find a partner for Bailly rather than a partner for Maguire. He cleans up after Maguire way too often, and it’s kinda weird to expect him to be able to always do it.
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If Bailly stays fit, we don't have to worry about signing another CB.
 
MadDogg said:
His (and AWB's) lack of aerial ability was targeted a bit in the first half and it created a few dangerous situations. I'm not sure why Burnley seemed to completely go away from that in the second half, but I guess it was more about us playing well enough that they stopped getting in positions to do it. He did play well other than that but I do worry a bit about that aerial weakness.
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I really think it's only against teams like Burnley where it really becomes a point of issue. He's not close to as bad as AWB in the air, but he just isn't as confident with the constant hoof balls as Maguire is. Very few other teams really have the personnel or style to take advantage of this though.
 
I love how he makes his other centre half accountable.
He gave Maguire a right bollocking last night for losing his man.
 
To be honest with Bailly it’s a case of “I’ll believe it when I see it”. In terms of his talent, attitude and physical attributes, he could be up there with the best around. The only meaningful gap in his game is a tendency to be a bit wild from time to time, but even that you’d expect to get smoothed out as he gets older.

But his injury record is a real concern, so I don’t want to get my hopes up. It’s nice he’s on a little run, but one of the things that makes the best centre backs is their ability to turn out week after week. 10 or even 20 games in a row isn’t enough. In the end Bailly needs to be able to turn out 40-50 games in a season (allowing for rest and rotation) if he’s going to be our long term solution as Maguire’s partner.

Still, one game at a time. If he can take that good form and continue it at Anfield, I’ll be happy enough with that.
 
He's been great lately but as always theres a worry he'll play against Liverpool like he did vs Spurs.
 
Bwuk said:
He's been great lately but as always theres a worry he'll play against Liverpool like he did vs Spurs.
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Remember him against Liverpool couple of year ago? Won absolutely everything, kicked them all over the park, man of the match and then goes and scores an own goal. :lol:
 
TsuWave said:
He’s better than Maguire for me. Need to find a partner for Bailly rather than a partner for Maguire. He cleans up after Maguire way too often, and it’s kinda weird to expect him to be able to always do it.
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The principal reason that we signed Maguire is because of his aerial dominance. Our highest paid player is a goalkeeper that is terrible at collecting crosses. The way that we set up defensively on corners is that Maguire has the 6 yard box as his zone to defend (not AWB as some detractors claim) he's there to compensate for DDG's weaknesses. Maguire has the 2nd highest number of interceptions in the Premier league (behind Kante) as he's a very good reader of the game. He's pressures his attacker and usually wins the ball but sometimes is caught out. This is why you need a defender with pace to compensate for him when this happens. Football is a team game and this is how you build a functional and effective team because all players have strengths and weaknesses.
 
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Bailly and Maguire is like yin and yang. That's what I imagined how Smalling and Maguire would work together. Of course, Bailly has way better ball skill but less on heading than Smalling.
 
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He is very good partner for Maguire, both are aggressive CBs, Maguire usually steps up and tries to win possession ahead of attacker, with Bailly's recovery pace it's easy to handle the attack if Maguire loses the duel .

Likewise Bailly is strong is most areas except heading (he is decent), this is the area where Maguire is among the best in the league.

Also CBs playing aggressively helps the team, his composure on the ball is very underrated imo. He does some insane stuff in the box, if he gets caught he will looks like an idiot but more often than not he retains possession which should help the team.
 
Un-bailly-veable?

But yeah, ill be annoyed if he doesnt start vs Liverpool. Nothing against Lindelof, but hes not missed at all and our defence looks so much better. Even AWB and seems to not come in as deep and in the way like he used to.

It might have been mentioned, but if not, i found it funny that players were going left right and centre near the end but Bailly didnt :lol:
If we can keep him fit, healthy and use him well, we have a big chance to do something special this year.
 
Chief123 said:
Ability is just one of the qualities? I’d say it’s a huge percentage of the requirements! :lol:
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fitness and mentality are equally as big.

you can have all the ability in the world, without fitness and mentality, you can’t be a decent footballer. You could in the 80s. Not now.

who had the better ability Lingard or Morrison? Who is the better player?
 
criticalanalysis said:
He's not single handedly transformed the way we play so no but his individual ability means we have more moments of a sustained progressive and higher line, which is what most people have been saying/wanting. If Burnley pressed us harder than I would have expected to see more cracks but that's just an overall fundamental issue with the coaching. No one's been hailing Bailly as the saviour, rather that he has obvious qualities ahead of someone like Lindelof.

Remember your comment about Bailly only geting praised in Caf? If you watched the Sky Sports commentary, Neville said a few times he's a much better fit for Maguire and has been very good. Not that Neville's words are anything to go by.

To me Bailly's form vindicates pretty much all the criticism many of us have over Lindelof.

Again, let's not get too excited because it may be short lived but I'll liked to get used to this.
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Agree, no player in the world automatically means higher line. But the whole idea, that Bailly is necessary if we want to play a high line is based on theoretical assumptions, not observations. We assume that he is better for a high line because he is fast and aggressive (try to win back ball early). So far, in the matches we have seen, there has not been a higher line. Yesterday was very low line at times, especially considering we faced a team who was the worst in possession I've ever seen in PL. And there is so far nothing that indicates that we play more offensive football with Bailly. Observations so far points in the other direction, actually.

When we compare the three CBs, we should remember that Lindelof had a good run before he was taken off for injury. His last matches were very good, including both an assist and goal in the last two as CB. This is why it is strange to me that "Bailly's form vindicates pretty much all the criticism" you have over Lindelof. Bailly was good yesterday, but tbh I would have expected a win and a clean sheet with any of our CBs, even Tuanzebe, if they partnered Maguire. After all, most teams who play Burnley keep a clean sheet.

This is why it is ridiculous when people claim we should find a partner for him, and not continue with Maguire. Bailly is very weak in the air, and without Maguire's aerial dominance it would have been tough yesterday. Now Bailly is even better than Vidic, I read.

IMO, continue to play Bailly against the weaker teams where he can excel, and Lindelof against the better teams and best forwards, where he normally excels. Both get the rest they need, and I think we get out the best from both. And one day there will inevitably be an injury on Maguire.
 
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DeeDee7 said:
He has really provided a great foil for Maguire. The biggest difference between he and Lindelof is that desperation to anticipate and throw himself in attempt at a block.
I am no Lindelof hater. He is calm and defends well when upright on 2 feet. But he just doesn't do those little desperation extra 1% plays. He could have for one of those Man City goals but instead opts to stand his ground and defend his position. You see it all the time against us. About time we had abit of that mongrel with a fit Bailly
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When I watch Bailly and compare with Lindelof, it is clear that he throws him self to blocks more often (stats confirm that, Bailly has 0.7 block more per match).
I agree that maybe Lindelof should have blocked the shot vs City, but Bailly should maybe have blocked the shot vs Leicester.
If we look at the league, we have conceded 4-5 goals in open play in 12 matches with Lindelof/Maguire. It is hard to argue that he doesn't block enough and I would certainly not say that "you see it all the time against us". Two different ways of defending, one upright and one more on the ground.
 
He was excellent again. I've always thought he had it in him if given a run, but his style means there's always going to be the risk of a game where it all falls apart.

Lindelof is still the man for the high pressure teams but Bailly is an excellent partner for Maguire.
 
We were winning duels on the right side of defence today. Maguire looks alot more comfortable too alongside Bailly.

Please please Bailly stay fit!
 
Polar said:
I don’t see Vidic would have performed any better than Bailly’s performances lately.

Bailly’s standard after his return has been world class.
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Vidic was miles ahead of Bailly.

If Vidic was playing today he'd be by far the best defender in the league.
 
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