Tanvir Juneja
As Manchester United signed the defender they had always been on the look out for, the Ivorian youngster hopes for a long-lasting capped career at Old Trafford. He has come out to be quite a success story so far joining the Red Devils for a transfer fee of £30million from Villareal where he had first arrived from Spanish club Espanyol for €5.7 million. No wonder, he has so much more pinned on to him not only from his new club’s expectations front but also from his own career perspective since he is just a 22-year-old centre back who has a long way to carve out a niche for himself like all greats managed to do in the past. When all the other clubs are feeling that they lost out on getting Bailly home especially arch-rivals Man City, Bailly is sure to turn the tables as the lowest signing for the Red Devils this season.
Here are th 3 Reasons, why Erik Bailly could become the next Nemanja Vidic for Manchester United:
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Bailly has the potential to start building the team’s defence from the front like a commander-
The £30million defender might just roll out to be the best transfer Mourinho has finalized for the season in spite of the fact that this is probably the least talked about the transfer. When everyone’s glued to Paul Pogba or the big man Zlatan in the United jersey, I think Eric Bailly is a fine prospect with the hopes of a structural lift tied on to the back of his shirt. He could be responsible in rebuilding the Red Devils’ struggling back line since the void left by former greats Ferdinand and Vidic looms rather large over the shadows at Old Trafford.
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He represents Manchester United’s first major investment in a central defender since SAF’s exit-
Bailly had been raked in for quite a lot, some would say but hello, he is our first major signing in a central defender’s role from the time when SAF left the club to Moyes then to LVG and now to the Special One. At the helm of the defence, he has the qualities of what it takes to replace Ferdy or Vidic’s role, allowing Mourinho to use him to United’s full advantage and dealing with strike forces like Jamie Vardy as was seen in the the Community Shield victory over Leicester at Wembley. He was resolute in dealing with Vardy and read the striker’s next move in an instance to react and stop him from entering into dangerous territory. Every time and again, he was getting loud cheers from the crowd as he pushed and outmatched the ball’s pace to his own.
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The Ivorian’s natural style reminds you of Ferdinand’s calm and collected defending to inspire many clean-sheet for United just like Rio and Vidic used to-
His innate talent draws you to believe that he reads the game well in a bid to outsmart the attacker so as to leverage defensive duty for his manager. A trait someone like Mourinho would love to have in his ace central back defender. With the kind of transfer fee spent on him, there seems to be a bit of fortune cookie over there as the £30m fee is symbolic for United’s defense as it is the same amount the Red Devils paid for Ferdinand when they signed him from Leeds in the summer of 2002. He is definitely going to fly away with a lot of credit if United succeed which they will further ahead in the season due to Bailly’s noteworthy valiant defensive efforts like he performed against Vardy shoving him off the ball at many occasions. Here, the ball is going to be the Premier League title, that’s the only difference.
