How Carlos Baleba has made an impression at Brighton

Carlos Baleba was used as left-back, centre-back or not at all in Albion’s pre-season friendlies and first-day fixture.

The way he is striding on to centre stage now an opportunity has arisen is one of the highlights of what remains a positive start to the campaign, despite two points dropped here.

Baleba has not just put his foot in the door after other midfielders either left the club or suffered injuries. He has barged it wide open.

Looking strong, confident and unhurried, he produced a performance which suggests he enjoys the responsibility of being the main midfield man.

His performance built on what he showed at Arsenal and, according to reports, two stand-out displays as the fulcrum of his national team in Cameroon.

Baleba has qualities which at one stage it looked like Fabian Huerzeler was looking to crowbar into his side at left-back when he had the luxury of James Milner, Mats Wieffer and Billy Gilmour competing for midfield roles But there are early signs that Baleba can trace a path similar to that of another former Lille man, Yves Bissouma, in becoming a big hit after an initial season of finding out what the Premier League is all about.

He still has a few rough edges. Albion put out an enjoyable montage of his best bits on their social channels after this game.

Two of the clips were of a lovely body swerve to create space and a determined tackle to win possession. But they edited out the bit in the middle of that sequence, where his pass gave the ball away.

So Baleba wasn’t perfect. But he has been very good and it was probably accurate to suggest that most of the reporters speaking to Huerzeler after the game were keen to ask about the big man in midfield.

It actually fell to another substantial on-field presence in his playing days, former striker Tony Cascarino, who offered an observation rather than a question.

He told Huerzeler: “I just really like him. From a lad that I saw last season, this year how he has matured so quickly. Physically he is immense.”

Huerzeler replied: “True! He played two great games for Cameroon.

“He is still very young, we shouldn’t forget this. We have to prepare well for the season.

“Also Yasin Ayari beside him – very young players, big potential and that is the way for Brighton.

“We try to use these players, we try to give them game time that thy can develop and they are doing it good so far.”

Huerzeler felt his side went away from the plan at times in the eagerness to force a goal.

He said: “You can’t create big chances every minute but we were dominant.

“We kept the ball in their half. We were good at stopping their transition moments.

“I think they had one transition moment in 90 minutes.

“In the end they defended with ten men and we had to find solutions.

“In some moments we were getting too wild, getting out of our match plan and out of our structure.

“Then it doesn’t work and it is a thing we have to learn.

“But I think there were enough chances to win.”

Baleba was among the players denied by Ipswich keeper Arijanet Muric, the man whose feats offered two possibilities for those wanting a villain-to-hero storyline.

Muric was sent home from the Kosovo squad during the recent international window.

Of more interest in these parts, he gifted Albion a point playing for Burnley last season with a calamitous error.

Here, he denied them two points.

His save from Baleba was low to his left after the midfielder made a high ball his and aimed an effort towards the bottom corner.

Muric kept out a Danny Welbeck header but his best work was the double stop from Georginio Rutter’s shot and the follow-up by Kaoru Mitoma, who really should have scored.

In the second half, he saw efforts from Welbeck, Rutter and the returning Evan Ferguson go narrowly wide of his post and defenders get in their way of several shots.

The Ipswich goalkeeper was also a big presence on crosses while his full-backs did good work against Mitoma and Yankuba Minteh.

Amid the eagerness and increasing impatience to see a goal, it was perhaps easy to overlook the quality of some of Albion’s attacking football.

They worked clear chances beautifully and also moments which should have brought more, such as when Mitoma took a heavy touch when he looked to have a clear path to goal after a Welbeck flick.

Maybe we arrived looking for confirmation that Albion and their manager of the month were off to a flyer and would remain among the pacesetters.

Instead, the confirmation was that no game is easy - and this one would have been even tougher had Liam Delap found the far corner rather than the far post after a terrific second-half breakaway.

Albion: Verbruggen; Veltman, Dunk, Van Hecke, Hinshelwood (Kadioglu 68); Baleba, Ayari; Minteh (Adingra 68), Mitoma; Rutter (Enciso 67); Welbeck (Ferguson 85). Subs not used: Estupinan, Moder, Steele, Webster, Julio.

Yellow card: Minteh, Hinshelwood, Veltman, Verbruggen.

Ipswich: Muric; Tuanzebe, O’Shea, Greaves, Davis; Morsy (Luongo 85), Phillips; Burns (Ogbene 59), Hutchinson (Chaplin 85), Szmodics (Clarke 59); Delap (Hirst 59). Subs not used: Cajuste, Johnson, Townsend, Walton.

Yellow card: Morsy, Phillips, Hutchinson.

Referee: Sam Barrott.

Attendance: 31,573.