Carlos Baleba: Brighton’s Midfield Production Line Has Polished Another Gem

Brighton have an excellent recent track record of developing central midfielders. Carlos Baleba is the latest and might ultimately be the most talented of those they’ve polished.

Carlos Baleba has come a long way in three years. By his own admission, when he left his native Cameroon for the first time in his life to join Lille in early 2022, he had so much to learn about the game.

“Defensively, tactically, I can say it: [his understanding] was rubbish, zero,” he told Lille’s official channels in January 2023. But here we are in 2025 and Baleba is one of the form midfielders in the Premier League, partly down to his diligent defensive work.

The best identifier of that is the fact his 6.5 possession regains per 90 minutes this season is the seventh most among all midfielders (min. 900 mins played) in the Premier League. But there is so much more to him than sweeping up in front of the defence.

Baleba has been a standout player for Brighton this season, making significant strides after playing something more akin to a rotation role in his debut campaign last term. Essentially signed as the replacement for Moisés Caicedo, he’s finally stepped into the Ecuadorian’s void to once again prove that Brighton’s talent spotters really know how to identify ability.

Of course, we didn’t necessarily need any reminding of that, so established is the club’s reputation. But it’s worth pointing out that Brighton signed Baleba in August 2023 in a deal potentially worth £27 million despite him making just six Ligue 1 starts.

It was a hefty fee and, by extension, a big gamble. The potential he possessed was always plain to see, but that’s never a guarantee.

Roberto De Zerbi’s comments during Baleba’s first few months emphasised how much faith and patience a club needs to have with such a transfer policy.

After Baleba’s difficult first start for Brighton in a September 2023 League Cup defeat to Chelsea, De Zerbi acknowledged the midfielder “is not so ready to play in the first XI”. Several months later in December, even after the youngster had made nine top-flight starts, his manager again suggested “Baleba is perhaps not ready to play in the Premier League”.

Each comment was followed by a glowing assessment of Baleba’s promise, though they reflected the learning curve he had to embrace during a first season in which De Zerbi effectively confirmed he was played ahead of his time.

Only Baleba knows what impact that had, but to look at him now, a reasonable conclusion to make would be that being thrown in at the deep end kickstarted his development and adaptation.

There’s also an argument Baleba’s range of abilities is suited slightly better to the more transition-based style of play utilised by Fabian Hürzeler as opposed to the keep-ball approach of De Zerbi.

For instance, you don’t have to watch Baleba for long to realise that probably his most eye-catching qualities revolve around his ability on the ball.

While not being especially tall, Baleba possesses the strength of someone whose worked on this part of his game for a long, long time. And that’s not just an assumption; even before he joined the renowned Brasseries du Cameroun academy as a teenager, his father – a former player in his own right – set Baleba training programmes that required lots of running (“for several hours”) and unforgiving weight training. His father later became one of his coaches at the academy, leading to yet more physical training regimes.

Then, he also had “truck tyres” at home that he used in drills to aid his agility. Whether it’s coincidental or not, when you watch him in full flight now, this background is evident in his makeup as a player.

There’s a graceful composure that frequently takes over him even in situations of duress, such as receiving the ball under pressure just in front of his own defence. Sure, there are occasional errors, but more often than not he adjusts his body one way and then bolts the other, taking the ball with him and charging upfield, leaving opponents in his dust.

The fact he’s willing to try such manoeuvres in those areas speaks to his bravery and belief. Thankfully he also has the awareness and technical ability to pull them off for the most part.

“It’s about having the bravery to show what you’re capable of,” he told Sky Sports last year. “We take risks – and you have to take risks at this level. So having the courage to do it, you can play out the back easily, without losing it.”

Baleba’s approach translates to being a reliable progressor of the ball via carries (in-possession movements of at least five metres). On average, he progresses the ball 5.2m up the pitch per carry in the Premier League this season, which only four nominal defensive midfielders can better.

Among the same group of players, he ranks fourth for progressive carries (in-possession movements that take the ball at least 5m upfield) on a per-90-minute basis, with his 6.3 putting him behind only Manchester City and Liverpool players.

Similarly, just four defensive midfielders can better his 2.6 progressive carries of at least 10m in length, highlighting just how impressively frequent those driving runs are when compared to his positional peers.

Of course, these metrics can be inflated for players in more defensive roles because they generally play in less congested areas of the pitch and there’s more space ahead of them to run into. But Baleba’s statistical output here feels like a pretty fair reflection of the type of player he is when on the ball because his forward bursts are absolutely a feature.

What the aforementioned metrics might not reflect is the close control and silky footwork Baleba possesses, but we can highlight this subtlety by pointing out he’s combined ball carries with take-ons on 19 occasions this term, which is second only to Enzo Fernández among Premier League defensive midfielders.

In short, he’s already among the most talented deep-lying midfielders in the Premier League with respect to his ball carrying, which really helps give Brighton an edge in transition. That’s important because the Seagulls have dedicated greater focus to such moments this term, with their 186 transitions – defined as attacks against an opposition who have recently lost the ball and been unable to regain their shape – reaching the penalty area seeing them rank sixth in 2024-25; that’s already four more than in the entirety of 2023-24 (rank: 17th).

There has been criticism – or analysis might be fairer – centring on a perceived lack of progressiveness in Baleba’s distribution.

And it is true that only 23% of his passes have been classed as ‘forward’, which is the fourth-smallest proportion of the 32 nominal defensive midfielders to have played at least 500 passes in the Premier League this term.

However, there’s more than meets the eye here. When it comes to progressive passes (passes in the middle or final third of the pitch that move the ball at least 25% closer to goal), Baleba’s average length of 18.6m is the fourth longest among defensive midfielders.

He may not play quite as many as others, but he has the vision and ability to pick out those passes over considerable distances. That’s backed up by the fact his 61.6% success rate with long balls sees him rank sixth among defensive midfielders this term, which again reflects well on his eye for a pass and technique.

Not unrelated to that, he ranks eighth among defensive midfielders for passes that bypassed six or more defenders (59) and 10th for proportion of total passes that break the opposition’s offside line (12.1%).

So, while there’s definitely room for improvement, Baleba’s output here already shows real promise. It’s also notable that his 81.8% pass competition rate when under pressure from an opponent within 2m puts him 10th among defensive midfielders, with the majority of those above him considerably older and more experienced. That’s a pretty good starting point for someone in such a role.

Of course, it remains to be seen what position he settles into in the long term. He’s tended to describe himself as a “box-to-box” midfielder in the past, and there’s certainly been times this season when that’s what he’s resembled.

While often deployed deep, he has the freedom to break forward; a more permanent role in an advanced position might ultimately detract from some of his qualities, namely his incisive runs from withdrawn areas.

Either way, Brighton’s midfield production line clearly remains in rude health and promises to keep bankrolling their ambitions for a little while yet, with Baleba primed to be their next bountiful export after Yves Bissouma, Alexis Mac Allister and Caicedo.

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