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Eric Bailly Ivory Coast flag

2018-19 Performances


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5.1 Season Average Rating
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18
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4
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Hugh Jass

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He was out of position at RB. But in the first leg he was a yard ahead of Mbappe and then Mbappe sprinted past him to score.

Shocking defending tonight for Bernats goal.
 

Snow

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I don't know how positive it is to talk about him after such a joyous result but I don't think we would have won if Verratti hadn't tackled him and I don't think we'd have conceded at all if Ole had just played Young at RB and started Dalot.
 

Negan

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Let’s not be too harsh on him. He was playing out of position after all.

It was the right decision to sub him off. He was a liability out there and Dalot should have started for sure.
 

AP88

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He’s woeful. I’m glad the weird cult of Bailly appears to have disbanded, because their perpetual defence of his weekly chaos, and somehow demonising Smalling for his shortcomings was borderline deranged.

Every time I watch him, I see this....

 
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rotherham_red

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I'm gonna give him the benefit of the doubt. He undoubtedly had a bad game and was deservedly hooked off but it was in an unfamiliar position with Young almost offering no support for much of his time on the pitch.

He just needs to put it down to experience and make up for it in his next opportunity. I still think there's a monster of a CB in there and its up to him and the coaching staff to coax it out of him.

If Jones and Smalling (notwithstanding games like today) have been allowed to fester for as long as they have, then Bailly deserves another season here.
 

rotherham_red

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In fairness he was out of position at RB with Young at RM, and the idea we were trying to switch between 4-4-2 with the ball and 5-3-2 without it was clearly baffling to both him and Young, as soon as he came off and we just stuck with the 4-4-2 with Dalot ahead of Young, the line-up we should have started with, we looked so much better, so he in turn looked even worse, his performance was crap but I do feel a bit sorry for him due to the context.
Fully agreed.

Ole made the mistake, and its unfortunate Eric was hung out to dry as a result of it, but it was the right call and I'm sure Eric will get the feedback and constructive criticism needed for him to get on to the next level.
 

Dion

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On a night where Fred, Lukaku, Shaw, McTominay and Smalling all produced doubter smashing results people still decide to write off one of our players.
 

bosnian_red

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Wouldnt read too much into it. Was a centerback playing right back against some quality players. Had a bad 30 mins pre injury, but that's it. Out of position it's not a massive surprise.
 

el3mel

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On a night where Fred, Lukaku, Shaw, McTominay and Smalling all produced doubter smashing results people still decide to write off one of our players.
He has a potential of being a good defender. The problem is he simply seems to need someone to coach him defending basis from the start. His awareness of his surrounding and positioning scream lack of maturity. I have said previously defenders who always have to do last ditch tackles like Bailly and Jones is a very bad indication that he screws it up a lot and puts himself in such position a lot. Best defenders are those who don't make last ditch tackles often because they don't need it.

He needs intense coaching and intense training on defense and defensive basis because defense isn't just guts and heart like he's taking it.
 

Alemar

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Shit performance, seriously. On such a great night he was the only one who didn't deliver. Dissapointed by him :(
 

Bojan11

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At fault for two goals in both games. In these type of games you can’t be sleeping like that.
 

kouroux

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Let’s not be too harsh on him. He was playing out of position after all.

It was the right decision to sub him off. He was a liability out there and Dalot should have started for sure.
Playing out of position doesn't excuse his lack of focus for when the ball was crossed.
He is a pro defender, he should follow his man inside the box
 

kouroux

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On a night where Fred, Lukaku, Shaw, McTominay and Smalling all produced doubter smashing results people still decide to write off one of our players.
By this logic, there is hope yet for Sanchez. Ole is doing a fantastic but he won't work his miracles on every single one of them
 

Footyislife

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He has a potential of being a good defender. The problem is he simply seems to need someone to coach him defending basis from the start. His awareness of his surrounding and positioning scream lack of maturity. I have said previously defenders who always have to do last ditch tackles like Bailly and Jones is a very bad indication that he screws it up a lot and puts himself in such position a lot. Best defenders are those who don't make last ditch tackles often because they don't need it.

He needs intense coaching and intense training on defense and defensive basis because defense isn't just guts and heart like he's taking it.
Spot on. He's got 90% of the skills required to be a beastly defender. Just needs to fix those two things, which really is about maturity. Being focused 0-90 & sound decision making regarding positioning/aggressiveness. Easily fixable. Bad job today but hope he keeps working hard.
 

zenith

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I'm gonna give him the benefit of the doubt. He undoubtedly had a bad game and was deservedly hooked off but it was in an unfamiliar position with Young almost offering no support for much of his time on the pitch.

He just needs to put it down to experience and make up for it in his next opportunity. I still think there's a monster of a CB in there and its up to him and the coaching staff to coax it out of him.

If Jones and Smalling (notwithstanding games like today) have been allowed to fester for as long as they have, then Bailly deserves another season here.
This

He's a young defender playing out of position and woefully out of form. We've seen the best of him and I have high hopes that he can be a brilliant CB. Just needs patience and working with him, a lot
 

mu4c_20le

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Best thing he did was giving PSG a false sense of security thinking this was going to be easy
 

RedCurry

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Ole will work his magic on Bailly in due time. Needs a pre-season with new tactics.
 

Rozski

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The fact that he was the one that didn’t step up and kept Mbappe onside and then also failed to track his man for the goal is pretty inexcusable if you ask me. That has nothing to do with playing out of position. That’s just concentration errors and basic poor defending and I’m not conviniced it’s as easy to fix as some on here. I’m not saying he needs to be sold in the summer but he has a lot to learn to reach the required level and he should be 4th choice behind Jones for me.
 

marktan

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On a night where Fred, Lukaku, Shaw, McTominay and Smalling all produced doubter smashing results people still decide to write off one of our players.
Ive backed Shaw, Smalling and Mctominay from the start. Shaw even when Van Gaal and Mourinho refused to play him, Smallings always been our best pure defensive player for me and Mctominay has always been solid for a 22 year old and will only improve with age.

Fred I thought in his first few games he looked good on the ball, but still yet to decide if he has it or not. Lukaku can destroy our build up every now and then but his goal record speaks for itself.

Thing with Bailly is that he's never defensively convinced me, ever. He's had so many blunders in his 2 and a half seasons with us, and he gets a pass because he's okay on the ball and can be aggressive. But he lacks serious awareness and that raw defensive ability. He played PSG onside for the first goal and then let the man behind him run past him, and should've covered Mbappe in the first leg. Smalling in that position concedes neither of those goals. Imo he'll be closer to a player like Mustafi by the end of his career than someone like Rio. But I did write Lindelof off after his first season with us and he's been great this season so I could well be wrong, but I just haven't seen it with Bailly yet.
 

kouroux

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Spot on. He's got 90% of the skills required to be a beastly defender. Just needs to fix those two things, which really is about maturity. Being focused 0-90 & sound decision making regarding positioning/aggressiveness. Easily fixable. Bad job today but hope he keeps working hard.
Those 10% you're talking about are the most important things a CB could have. It's not easily fixable otherwise Bailly would have made a tiny bit of improvement there. He's been like this most of his career, club and national teams. Maybe with time he'll get there but it's not easy by any means.
 

Intilo

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. But I did write Lindelof off after his first season with us and he's been great this season so I could well be wrong, but I just haven't seen it with Bailly yet.
Lindelof issues was his physicality and aggression which in my opinion , is much easier to fix than Bailly's issues , his brain.
 

Mcking

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Spot on. He's got 90% of the skills required to be a beastly defender. Just needs to fix those two things, which really is about maturity. Being focused 0-90 & sound decision making regarding positioning/aggressiveness. Easily fixable. Bad job today but hope he keeps working hard.
90? Not really, barely 10%. He's got great physical attributes, but so do the guys that play football in the streets around here. He barely has what seperates top pro defenders from street footballers. He lacks composure, concentration, awareness and he does not even have enough on the ball to compensate. There is little that screams decent defender about him, and I'd have him as the worst CB in the top 6 teams.
 

Suedesi

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You would have done worse than that, he was absolutely shocking.
PS. I would say the part he played in PSG's goal is worse than what Kehrer and Buffon did for Lukaku's. He played Mbappe onside, and then completely let Bernat in. He was not even on the screen when Bernat finished. It was just shocking defending, you would barely see that kind of defending in a school playground.
I just don't see it with this guy at all. Makes me question people's sanity when they rate him highly. He's our most braindead defender.
 

Jeffthered

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He’s woeful. I’m glad the weird cult of Bailly appears to have disbanded, because their perpetual defence of his weekly chaos, and somehow demonising Smalling for his shortcomings was borderline deranged.

Every time I watch him, I see this....

Really? That's what you think of when you watch Eric Bailly?

Shows me much about you. V much. The comparison is out-of-place, and steeped with other negative and social connotations. Hope you're comfortable with that.
 

A-man

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I don't know how positive it is to talk about him after such a joyous result but I don't think we would have won if Verratti hadn't tackled him and I don't think we'd have conceded at all if Ole had just played Young at RB and started Dalot.
I thought that limping off was more of a theatre and that the sub was planned, because it was obvious that it was needed. A player who’s playing the wrong position and get such a bad start against very talented opposition, needs to be subbed early, grab a sports drink and come back mentally for the next match. Because there is very little chance he will work his way back in to the match and it will cost.

I feel sorry for him because he has played well as CB in his last matches and played decent as RB/extra CB when he has come in playing last minutes. Now he got this position against a top team. I hope it didn’t totally destroy him.
 

11101

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He was all over the place but you feel for him because he was sold down the river again by Young. He had no idea what he was supposed to be doing on the right.
 

RC89

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Between Young and himself, it was as though they couldn't have done a better job in offering PSG our right flank. Granted, he was out of position but the goal they scored was inexcusable by him. Completely switched off.
 

RC89

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He was all over the place but you feel for him because he was sold down the river again by Young. He had no idea what he was supposed to be doing on the right.
I was beginning to think this aswell, when they had the ball it appeared he was consciously moving more central and my guess is that Young should then have slotted in on the right side to track back. Instead Young decided he wanted to stay in CM.

Just a side note, sick of Young doing more pointing at other players than anything of note himself .
 

Kostov

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While in no way I am excluding him from the blame for their goal, I think he was left hanging in the dry by Young. Luckily it didn't cost us, but he needs to improve if he wants a career here.
 

AgentP

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Such a contrast between Bailly and Lindelof. I think we fans get easily impressed by the physical attributes of a player while undervaluing the mental part. Bailly needs to work really hard on his positioning, defensive awareness and decision making which are all simply not good enough.
 

11101

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I was beginning to think this aswell, when they had the ball it appeared he was consciously moving more central and my guess is that Young should then have slotted in on the right side to track back. Instead Young decided he wanted to stay in CM.

Just a side note, sick of Young doing more pointing at other players than anything of note himself .
Hard to tell if that was the instruction or Bailly just wasn't comfortable being out wide. Whichever it was, one of them was at fault for the goal.
 

RC89

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Hard to tell if that was the instruction or Bailly just wasn't comfortable being out wide. Whichever it was, one of them was at fault for the goal.
Yeah, I thought I'd figured it out a couple of times but it was so inconsistent what they were doing it became hard to tell.
 
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