Roby

Baldé is the best left-back in the world at the moment and he’s finally getting the recognition he deserves in spite of the colours of his kit.

1st major difference between him and the rest of the crop is his : —upper body strength Baldé has at his disposal and impressive upper-body frame that can help him shield the ball and protect it when engaging in tight space crowds or when he’s pushing his direct opponent to gain momentum, time, space and speed.

No opponent can easily brush him off the ball or mess his coordination of body-legs-arm-ball, which is very impressive because of the speed he moves with.

Let’s analyse this goal :

Baldé’s impressive game-IQ to know when & how to cut inside when receiving on the touch-line is because of his raising as a winger in the academy days. Baldé here goes for the ‘futsal’ control, stops the balls, shifts his whole body goes inside and the first burst he has is the difference between him and the opponents, in the first burst (acceleration) nobody can catch-up to him, not even himself, because he can not de-accelerate at the speed he accelerates. He penetrates the channels easily due to his upper-body strength and acceleration power he possesses when engaging in runs. The finishing is one of a pure ‘striker’, low-back lift, instantly gains power and shoots hard, fast and high to catch the goalkeeper by surprise, the human reflexes can’t react that fast to a shot that quick and strong. Adriano-esque.

‘His baby running’ this is exactly how a baby runs, quick moving of arms to gain momentum and blitz past opponents in a second. Quick, direct, equal movements of the hands, acting as wings to push yourself through and eat ground for days.

All of these were important to Hansi when deciding to use Baldé as a press-response (the full-backs are prone to the press because of the lack of space and being cornered). Therefore instead of inverting him, Hansi plays the ball at his feet on the touch-line, let’s him attack the centre and look for the 3rd man movement of Raphinha or Pedri, all of the qualities I mentioned help him not get dispossessed in penetrating the centre.

Baldé this season is developing at a rapid pace and soon will get his deserved national call-up, making Spain even better. Better than 22/23 worse than 25/26😉