Carlos Baleba

Baleba closes down space with real physical intent, arriving into challenges with enough strength that opponents often lose the ball before they have properly controlled it. What separates him from a purely defensive midfielder is what happens next, because he rarely just lays the ball off sideways once he has won it. He drives forward himself, covering ground at a pace that drags the whole team ten yards further up the pitch in a single move.

The tension is whether that appetite for carrying the ball forward ever leaves Brighton exposed behind him, particularly against teams built to break quickly on the counter. A midfielder this aggressive going forward has to trust the players covering his space, and that trust does not always hold up under real pressure. How his manager balances that attacking instinct against defensive discipline shapes how the whole midfield functions.