He's been worryingly poor in the bits of pre season I've seen. He's the best defender we have when he's on form but we can't rely on him like this.
3
Season Average Rating
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- 0
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- 1
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He keeps losing his man constantly in pre-season.
Constantly. He needs to be more concentrated.
Constantly. He needs to be more concentrated.
Not comfortable in 3 at the back. 3 at the back requires good organizing skill from the central CB as well as good coordination between the backline and defensive unit as a whole.
The CBs can't just man mark all the time since if they being dragged out of position, there would be too much space for somebody to cover. So if one CB drop their mark, then another should pick up. Our 3 at the back set up is a defensive mess. Keeping let opposition run in other CBs' blindspot, yet no communication to alarm. Side CBs kept getting dragged out of the zone, then the other CBs have to readjust position just to abandon their marks.
Bailly sure has his fault but there are more than just individual mistakes for the defense to looks so shite this preseason. The lack of leader, and an organizer is highlighted. When you're rusty, your physicality can't bailyou out, you're exposed at other quality of defenders. This is not exclusive for Bailly, but all of our CBs in thi said pre season who depends on their physicality.
The CBs can't just man mark all the time since if they being dragged out of position, there would be too much space for somebody to cover. So if one CB drop their mark, then another should pick up. Our 3 at the back set up is a defensive mess. Keeping let opposition run in other CBs' blindspot, yet no communication to alarm. Side CBs kept getting dragged out of the zone, then the other CBs have to readjust position just to abandon their marks.
Bailly sure has his fault but there are more than just individual mistakes for the defense to looks so shite this preseason. The lack of leader, and an organizer is highlighted. When you're rusty, your physicality can't bailyou out, you're exposed at other quality of defenders. This is not exclusive for Bailly, but all of our CBs in thi said pre season who depends on their physicality.
Hasn't the backline this preseason mostly consisted of our second choice fullbacks, also with Tuanzebe and Fosu-Mensah in the mix playing some part of it as well? It really isn't that weird for our defence to have looked shite so far, especially since they have never played together in that system either. Its not like Bailly has tons of experience to compensate for all that.
I didn't say differently.
The point is a real leader at the back, and an organizer of defense; even with young players around, it might still look less terrible. Here it had been a mess for even the senior ones. Lack communication. Opposition forwards just move from one defensively zone to another and was not alerted.
All over the place in every game. Think people jumped the gun too early with him
Alright, not sure about that but fair enough. Don't think this has been an evident thing happening with our regular defence the last few seasons except for a few instances. We do really need a stable partnership back there and a leader would be nice. I don't think Smalling is really bad at leading but we should have someone closer to the likes of Rio & Vida to partner Smalling and Bailly with.
His feet are far worse than Smalling, yet nobody ever says it. Bizarre that, its almost as though who gives a flying shit because he can defend and that's his job.
Was he as bad as he looked in the highlights? Because he looked like a drunk who stumbled on to the pitch in them.
Yeah, he was shockingly poor
He’s getting 3rd season syndrome
Is that better or worse than the 2nd season syndrome he had last year?
Is he still injured?
Doesn't seem to be improving. I still don't get the hype about him.
Woeful defender. If he was a pasty white chap called Eric Bailey from Lancashire ala Phil Jones, he’d be widely, and rightly, deemed substandard.....but because he’s a foreign import, a fair few seem to be deluding themselves that he’s going to come good despite no real quantifiable evidence to support it.
As someone above rightly said, he’s no better on the ball than Smalling - he’s just shorter and therefore looks less awkward.
Crazy that the club has allowed Joe Gomez and Harry Maguire transfer for relatively small fees in the past 3 summers while investing heavily in garbage like Lindelof and Bailly.
As someone above rightly said, he’s no better on the ball than Smalling - he’s just shorter and therefore looks less awkward.
Crazy that the club has allowed Joe Gomez and Harry Maguire transfer for relatively small fees in the past 3 summers while investing heavily in garbage like Lindelof and Bailly.
He probably is still injured.
Somewhere between your post and Bailly die hard fans lies the truth. Describing them as garbage is a silly statement
He's been poor and hopefully its due to lack of matches. Needs to improve his communication with Dave.
Bailly is not woeful!
Stop talking trash - even Ramos would feel exposed with the kind of quality around Bailly in this preseason. I couldn’t even count the amount of dangerous moves he sniffed out last night while apparently playing with a dead leg.
He’s comfortably better than Smalling and any other defender at the club. Obviously there’s room for improvement in his leadership skill and positioning but Bailly is only 23 and he’s not even peaked yet. His nuisance value to the opposition strikers is the highest in the league.
Hasn't Jose stated he isn't fully match fit?
Couple this with a new system, a mis match team full of youngsters we was never going to see a classic performance from bailly, or anyone for that matter.
People on here need a reality check slating him and calling him rubbish etc - he is our best defender and needs a run of games with a consistent partner. He'll come good. Playing with train wrecks like Jones/Smalling/Rojo will only make him look worse as well.
He has his faults, is young and learning still.
I wouldn't read too much into his performance against RM
Couple this with a new system, a mis match team full of youngsters we was never going to see a classic performance from bailly, or anyone for that matter.
People on here need a reality check slating him and calling him rubbish etc - he is our best defender and needs a run of games with a consistent partner. He'll come good. Playing with train wrecks like Jones/Smalling/Rojo will only make him look worse as well.
He has his faults, is young and learning still.
I wouldn't read too much into his performance against RM
I like Bailly - he just needs a calm, composed defender next to him. I think some of you guys are being too harsh on him 
Funny to see how the caf defends Bailly after all the mistakea he has made in the preseason, he has been our worst defender by far. What would happen if those mistakes were made by Smalling, Jones, Rojo or Lindelof?
Not saying Bailly has no future but he needs to get better, has all the physical attributes but his positioning and anticipation has been terrible this preseason.
Not saying Bailly has no future but he needs to get better, has all the physical attributes but his positioning and anticipation has been terrible this preseason.
I keep finding it surprising how many people say this.
There is a difference between being potentially our best defender (which he is) and actually being our best defender (which he isn't). You can't just talk about how good he is when he's playing well while ignoring how often he's playing poorly. The latter makes up a far too large a proportion of his games to talk about him currently being our best. At the moment both Smalling and even Jones are better defenders than him, and I don't even like Jones.
I have huge hopes for Bailly, but so far he's as likely to have a shocker as he is to have a great one.
It’s utterly bizarre. He showed it’s that he had great potential and could be a good player in his first season, he did well - but the guy has played less than half our matches, if he can’t even get on the pitch - how on earth can he easily be our best player. He has never been consistently good for us.
Smalling is our best CB. Thank God you didn’t start going on about ceilings (which is a pet hate of mine on here). Hopefully Bailly can stay fit and step up to become the player we hope he can be, and perhaps next season we can say he’s our best CB.
You’re really into the black’n’white stuff, aren’t you?
He was very poor positionally against Real. As the centre of a back 3, that's supposed to be his biggest responsibility.
Almost every big chance we conceded was because of him losing his man or dropping too deep.
I'll give him the benefit of the doubt for now. All of our CBs look shocking in a back 3. They have no idea how to play off each other, for some reason. Bailly is no different
Almost every big chance we conceded was because of him losing his man or dropping too deep.
I'll give him the benefit of the doubt for now. All of our CBs look shocking in a back 3. They have no idea how to play off each other, for some reason. Bailly is no different
Good defending but needs to focus more when he is passing. It’s like he switches off when getting rid of the ball as if all his work is done.
Been very good. He had a difficult second season but hopefully this one will be a great one for him.
He's my favourite defender, I hop he can stay fit.
Well that didn't last long
New Centre-Back please 
See you in six weeks
Looks just like precaution
Cannot be relied upon, only Smalling and Lindelöf.
Darmian, Jones, Rojo and Bailly should be considered for sale.
Darmian, Jones, Rojo and Bailly should be considered for sale.
Don't panic folks.
Ffs, this is annoying. Then again, I don't think he should be starting games for us anyways. So yeah.
Eric Bailly injured? Well I never.
He said he could continue but Jose took him off as a precaution. That's what it looked like to me anyways.
Is it serious?
Made of glass. Precaution or not. If his body wasn’t so fragile wouldn’t need to be taken off as a precaution. Should start planning without him. Any games he can play are a bonus.
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