Another future great 'servant for this club' . Why I am not surprised?
Eric Bailly
- Thread starter Champagne Football
- Start date
I think he’ll do well if he’s able to get past his injury problems, there’s a decent enough defender there somewhere.
Agreed but not Utd level
He can’t get into this Utd defence (which is shocking), and that says it all.
I have no faith in his ability. His best attribute Is his pace, actually that’s about his only attribute. I’ve never seen a CB who can’t actually head the ball, his positioning is appalling, he’s rash, I don’t think he can actually tackle either.
He’s been here 3 years, time to say Goodbye. Nowhere near good enough.
I have no faith in his ability. His best attribute Is his pace, actually that’s about his only attribute. I’ve never seen a CB who can’t actually head the ball, his positioning is appalling, he’s rash, I don’t think he can actually tackle either.
He’s been here 3 years, time to say Goodbye. Nowhere near good enough.
A lot of that is true, but he is still better than Valencia, Young, Rojo, Darmian and Jones
Garbage.
His technique for heading the ball is borderline comical and he has no footballing brain. Other than that, he can be a good defender on his day. Hopefully we manage to get rid of him in the summer for a half decent amount.
He has gone blonde. Pogba’s influence 
And keep inferior CBs, got it
Yet that exactly what you’re proposing. Kudos
I mean, he started 11 league games last season and 7 this season. Dont you think he actually wants to do something in his career and be a first choice player somewhere?
He's seeing CBs who are performing better than he does get new deals sure, but wouldnt that be the case in most places?
I would hope so for him, this is why he should ask to leave and play for a club that needs him.
Error prone but talented. Is that really of any use to us?
He's extremely error prone. He doesn't understand how to defend and constantly just does mental shit on the pitch. Whilst entertaining to watch sometimes it's not much good when it comes to winning games.
He reminds me a bit of Micah Richards. Physically he has the right ingredients to be a really good player, but he doesnt have that control and intelligence to use those assets well. I could see him being 35 and still looking raw out there, getting by with a bit of pace and his good strength. But if that continues to be all he offers then theres no way he'll be here at that point. Its okay for a 23-24 year old but next season is where he'd need to nail down a place and prove that hes more than just physical tools. And I dont see it. Lindelof and Jones have very much jumped ahead of him and theres no sign that next season he'll do better than them and take their place.
He didn't.
I was a huge sceptic from early on. He played well on his debut and that started the hype train on here and it took a curious amount of time to derail.
He's got a terrible injury record, he's rash, can't head the ball, poor positioning, has Phil Jones level bloopers in him and is a red card waiting to happen nearly every game.
It seems he just wants to stay here and not play rather than take a pay cut. Can't help but think he's one of the players Ole has hinted has a poor attitude given he barely gets a look in.
I think he'll be one Ole will want gone tbh, him and Sanchez clearly don't have the managers trust
When trying to be clever leaves you looking everything but that. Congrats
He benefited from the "Not Jones or Smalling" hype. While he did play quite well for a new player coming in, Smalling's part in that was swept under the carpet like always. He still felt the safest and most consistent of our CBs, while Bailly looked good doing some of the things he did, but still sliced his clearances and made rash challenges. Its just the defense at that time got away with it.
Rojo also played well that season. He's quite similar in that he was still making some poor contributions, its just he was also making some good ones and we werent getting punished too much.
He wants to stay because the alternative would be taking a pay cut and leaving for some Everton, Sunderland or China.
We will struggle to push him out as we will with other 'servants of the clubs'
And there would be no shame in that if those places are his true level. He just needs to play
But he wouldn't give a feck. He is on a very good salary and he's playing for a top club (on paper). Why would he want to take a pay cut and move to some shit club?
Both Bailley and Rojo are aggressive and that endears them to the fans, even though both are not really in control of their aggression. Phil Jones is front foot too but more likely to injure himself because of it than the opposition.
Smalling is the most consistent but for me his lack of ball playing skills are a problem in the modern game, especially when he's passing back to De Gea who then turns it over 9 times out of 10. Lindelof is OK but too passive for me. We concede too many chances and De Gea being rooted to his line along with Lindelof preferring to stand off doesn't help. Personally I don't think any are good enough for the elite level, as leaders anyway.
Smalling would be fine with a ball playing defender alongside him and a ball playing keeper. Same with Lindelof, I'm sure he'd be find alongside Laporte and Ederson, for example. Jones would be fine as a squady if he wasn't injured all the time. Rojo and Bailly are just substandard in my opinion. Rojo, honestly, I can't wait for him to leave.
That's my point. He's comfortable here, although I don't think it's certain he'd take a pay cut if he moved to lower clubs. In all depends on his agent
All of them are all grind and little brains
Nah he is the typical bruiser with the difference he's hardly good in air and he's also injury prone. If he moves elsewhere he will get a pay cut
The funny thing is that towards the end of his contract he will probably get another one. All he needs to do is play 2-3 good games and our knee jerk board will quickly provide him with a contract to protect their asset
If he leaves we'll have to agree to a small fee so the club can cover his wages.
Mostly sounds fair to me but just keep in minds that Smalling actually plays more passes forward and less passes backward than Lindelof. Smalling does play more sideways passes. On average Lindelof plays 3 more passes per match than Smalling and he clearly has better passing technique, with short passes at least. But thats it.
Lindelof is the one who passes back to the keeper more and finds a forward pass less.
I'd like t have thought players would have moved on in search of playing time. However we seem to have developed a knack of signing ones that dn't seem to care about that over the last few years. Darmian has happily sat on his arse for two seasons. Rojo is the same. Now we add Bailly to the list. How do we keep signing these twats?
Mostly sounds fair to me but just keep in minds that Smalling actually plays more passes forward and less passes backward than Lindelof. Smalling does play more sideways passes. On average Lindelof plays 3 more passes per match than Smalling and he clearly has better passing technique, with short passes at least. But thats it.
Lindelof is the one who passes back to the keeper more and finds a forward pass less.
How do they compare to 'ball playing' defenders?
Not good. At least, last time I looked compared to Toby the numbers were a large difference
He'd take a paycut if he moved to China ? I highly doubt it, he'd earn much more
Imagine yourself being a junior programmer. Suddenly Bill Gates comes knocking at your door to give you a 5 year contract for 2m a year to be Microsoft CEO. Now let's say after 2 months he notices he made a mistake. He puts in some place where you can do little damage and he asks you to leave. Would you relinquish the job for some entry job with minimum wage?
We give average players long contracts on ridiculous salaries. No wonder why these players don't want to leave
Maybe China isn't the right example but most clubs won't pay him as much as we do. There is no Real or PSG knocking at his door
I get that. But these guys can still make good money elsewhere and actually play football.
There are still plenty of players that would choose to play. Rooney took a 50% pay cut to leave with 2 years left. Darmian, Rojo and Bailly seem to be of the Wiston Bogarde variety
What's gone on with Darmian is a fecking disgrace for example. Apparently he's turned down about 12 transfers by now
Rooney was worth uprwards of 120 million quid at the time, he could afford a pay cut. These guys aren't on the same scale wealth wise.
Rooney made ridiculous amounts of money in his career and he could afford taking a hit to protect his legacy. These nobodies are lucky to earn good money at a club like ours and don't have enough talent to build a legacy anywhere. We are their winning lottery ticket
These are the players I fear not Pogba or ddg. The latter can join another club at a moment notice. The 'good servant of the club' + has beens like sanchez would cheat and they would throw any manager under the bus to extend their stay here cause the alternative is a clear downgrade to what we offer
They can still afford to take a cut. Darmian has had offers from most of the top Serie A clubs. Juve players aren't exactly on the breadline. If they had anything in them they would want to play and prove that they are good players instead of stagnating and taking an unearned wage. I understand the realities of contract law and the fact that it's the clubs fault but it's still fecking pathetic that they would choose to burden a club that doesn't want them.
You're right, at the end of the day it's about what a player prioritizes. Many of our players are comfortable earning good wages while not playing much every season.
I'm curious about Sanchez. He strikes me as the type that will move for playing time.
Juventus won't pay him anywhere close to what we did