{"id":24278,"date":"2026-08-20T08:34:44","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T08:34:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=24278"},"modified":"2026-08-20T08:34:44","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T08:34:44","slug":"a-higher-ceiling-than-moises-caicedo-carlos-baleba-is-exactly-what-man-utd-need-and-potentially-one-of-the-best-midfielders-in-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=24278","title":{"rendered":"A higher ceiling than Moises Caicedo! Carlos Baleba is exactly what Man Utd need &#8211; and potentially one of the best midfielders in the world"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div aria-label=\"main body\">\n<div>\n<p><span>There&#8217;s no telling how he will handle the pressure that comes with playing for a club the size of United, but Baleba should slot into Carrick&#8217;s 4-2-3-1 system without a hitch. He is also extremely ambitious and eager to improve, even putting in extra work on his own to reach his lofty goals.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>&#8220;I try to take [lessons from] outside of the Premier League. Like Ligue 1, Vitinha or Joao Neves. In La Liga, Xavi, [Andres] Iniesta, [Sergio] Busquets,&#8221; Baleba said in an interview with <\/span><span>Sky Sports<\/span><span> last December. &#8220;I try to learn every day &#8211; I&#8217;m learning. I&#8217;m watching them on YouTube. It&#8217;s an ambition [of mine] to be the best midfielder in the world.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>To achieve that, though, Baleba will have to become a more polished passer. He has similar creative instincts to the players he cited, but lacks the execution, particularly when trying to switch the play or look long. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Baleba will have to sharpen his technical skills, but playing with the likes of Fernandes, Tielemans and Mainoo will help with that. His first job is to break up play and relieve pressure, which he&#8217;s already a master at. The rest will come as he edges towards his prime years.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There&#8217;s no telling how he will handle the pressure that comes with playing for a&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24278"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24278\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/24279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}