Carlos Baleba Could Change Manchester United’s Season

Manchester United is finding wins hard to come by at the moment. Indeed, Michael Carrick’s team is currently on a run of six matches in all competitions without a victory. Sunday’s 1-1 draw against Leeds United was the latest underwhelming performance and result by the Old Trafford outfit.

There were, however, some positives for Carrick to pick out of the display, not least the performance of Carlos Baleba. In his first Premier League start as a Manchester United player, the Cameroonian was a commanding presence in central midfield, helping his new team on both sides of the ball.

Carrick reshuffled his midfield unit for the trip to Elland Road, deploying Baleba and Andrey Santos at the base. This gave United a strong foundation to build from. Ahead of the pair, Bruno Fernandes and Youri Tielemans were positioned in an advanced role where they could influence the attacking play in front of them.

It was a midfield set up that gave Manchester United greater control of the match even if it still struggled to create good enough opportunities to find the back of the net. In Baleba, Carrick might finally have a two-way midfielder to build around with Santos also demonstrating his potential.

“You look at the midfield with Manuel and Andey, that’s a pretty fresh spine of the team through the middle of the pitch,” said Carrick after the 1-1 draw. “And both young players are adapting to life at this football club, and I thought both of them were terrific today. I thought they both did really well in midweek, so that’s a massive positive for us.”

This season has been a disappointing one for Manchester United to this point. The team is slumped in 12th place in the Premier League table and have won just one of its two Champions League fixtures so far. Carrick is fighting to prove he’s still the right man for the job at Old Trafford.

And yet Baleba is offering some green shoots of progress. Carrick is still working out the right formula for success in the centre of the pitch, but Baleba is already showing why Manchester United was right to pay so much money to sign him from Brighton in the summer transfer window.

The challenging fixtures are coming thick and fast for Manchester United with Carrick and his players in Italy to face Como this week. After that, United will host Bournemouth before a tricky league game against Chelsea. With Baleba in the lineup, though, the outlook is slightly more positive.

This article was originally published on Forbes.com