Carlos Baleba: the essence of De Zerbi

The definitive SCOUTED50 profile on Brighton's press-breaking midfielder.

SCOUTED50 is our collection of the fifty young talents we believe are best positioned to break into the mainstream during 2023/24. Throughout the season, we’ll be detailing all fifty in definitive profiles.

Read the full list here. This focuses on Brighton’s box-to-box Carlos Baleba.

This profile was produced as part of a commercial collaboration with SkillCorner, SCOUTED’s official data partner. SkillCorner’s tracking and performance data is used by more than 150 of the world’s biggest clubs, leagues and confederations. Learn more.

All stats correct as of 10/05/2024 unless otherwise noted.

Brighton’s season started with great promise. It has ended in difficulty, its back half dominated by a truly insane run of injuries.

After the summer sale of two key first-team pillars - Alexis Mac Allister and Moises Caicedo - Brighton were always going to be on the back foot once the injuries piled up.

The Seagulls have won just two matches since February 4, with one of those a dead-rubber Europa League second leg against Roma after they were demolished 4-0 in the first.

But, as the saying goes, every cloud has a silver lining. For Roberto De Zerbi, this crisis — especially after banking so many points early in the season — presented an opportunity.

His squad is stretched to breaking point, but he's spent the back half of the season laying the foundations for the next: who is reliable? Who needs more time? Who might need a loan?

Jack Hinshelwood, Facundo Buonanotte, and more recently, Valentin Barco, have all been major beneficiaries of this injury crisis — although Hinshelwood has unfortunately succumbed to injury himself, and been sidelined since early February.

Amongst all this chaos, one player has turned my head most: Carlos Baleba.

With Mac Allister and Caicedo vacating space in midfield, we’ve seen lots of Brighton’s next man up. Naturally, having played just 700ish minutes of senior football before this season, Baleba was never going to play every second - but the time he’s spent on the pitch has been largely well spent.

He has now played around 1,300 minutes and started seven of Brighton’s last nine Premier League fixtures as they lurch towards this season’s end.

With those performances, a player Brighton likely considered a long-term project has quietly pushed himself onto an accelerated timeline. His hustle and bustle has added steel to a lightweight team and carved his name into De Zerbi’s current, as well as future plans.

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In this profile:

• How Baleba’s bizarre profile helps Brighton beat the press

• De Zerbi definitely did not steal Baleba’s tactical role from basketball, confirmed

• The makings of an out-of-possession juggernaut

• Comparisons to Kanté - could he really be that good?