3 - Alejandro Balde

[Temptation]

Mane also wouldn't have been able to play top-level football if he had been slow. A player is the combination of his skills😅

Casual take.

Mane was an excellent dribbler, had a great first touch and close control. Great ball striking ability with either foot, strong in the air and one of the best defensive forwards off the ball.

Mane had plenty of top attributes and was never a pace merchant. He finished 2nd in the Bdor lol.

Theo Walcott was a pace merchant.

 

[Titan98]

Casual take.

Mane was an excellent dribbler, had a great first touch and close control. Great ball striking ability with either foot, strong in the air and one of the best defensive forwards off the ball.

Mane had plenty of top attributes and was never a pace merchant. He finished 2nd in the Bdor lol.

Theo Walcott was a pace merchant.

I didnt say he was a pace merchant but his pace was his best strenght. For me, an excellent dribbler would be someone like Yamal, Neymar, Hazard, or Salah (I could also mention Messi, but "excellent" isn't quite the right word). Mané was good, but nothing special (his dribbling). His dribbling was only good because he could execute it at high speed. His heading was certainly good, but not comparable to the best and tallest players. His first touch was very good. All in all, if he had lacked pace, he would still be a professional footballer, but certainly not at the top of the world.

But what I actually wanted to say is that it doesn't matter what if. Balde was very strong last year, and this year he's in worse form than, it seems, the whole team.

 

[Gnidrologist]

His main problem as with most of his kind of "one thing merchants" that he's a bit dumb to become top dog. He can do couple of things very well, but has no clue on most others and even, when he does the first two, he fails to deliver significant contributions, because again, no clue what to do after. Make great run with dribbling then give the ball away without challenge is his most typical thing. His main asset for now is ability to speed dribble out of press through the middle and deliver ball to somebody with a clue.

 

[MonteCuler]

For me the things he has to improve is his crossing, weak foot and probably a couple more things. A lot of idiotic takes in this thread though. I don't give a fuck if he's "pace merchant". Pace is very very important for modern fullbacks and it's a huge bonus he's one of the fastest LBs on the planet. His technique is not bad at all and I don't think he is dumb either

This is speaking of Balde at his absolute best. Currently he is clearly not on that level. Last season he had a stellar streak of games somewhere in February-March I think. He will be back to his form

 

[Temptation]

I didnt say he was a pace merchant but his pace was his best strenght. For me, an excellent dribbler would be someone like Yamal, Neymar, Hazard, or Salah (I could also mention Messi, but "excellent" isn't quite the right word). Mané was good, but nothing special (his dribbling). His dribbling was only good because he could execute it at high speed. His heading was certainly good, but not comparable to the best and tallest players. His first touch was very good. All in all, if he had lacked pace, he would still be a professional footballer, but certainly not at the top of the world.

But what I actually wanted to say is that it doesn't matter what if. Balde was very strong last year, and this year he's in worse form than, it seems, the whole team.

Salah isn't an excellent dribbler at all. Not even close. He has some excellent dribbles like the one against City or Watford (had a few good dribbles in his first season too) but he's notorious for trying and failing to beat his man most of the time. He tries a lot of shit and mostly fails when it comes to dribbling. Infact PL fans often make fun of Salah being poor on the eye test. Paul Scholes called him the worst best player in the league. If you watch Salah week in week out, you'll very quickly realise that his dribbling ability is a complete myth. He's an ugly player on the ball.

Mane is a much better dribbler. Still nowhere near as good a dribbler as Hazard and Neymar.

I was actually a big Balde fan when he broke through but he hasn't really grown much over the years. Where's the improvement as a young player?

Man glides past players like they don't exist. Looks very promising but no clue about how he's defensively.

Terrific prospect. Fantastic potential and very exciting to watch.

Love him but he's still very raw. Questionable decision making. But the guy has so much potential