Carlos Baleba has finally played football for Manchester United — and nobody outside Carrington was allowed to watch. The £70 million summer signing started the reported 2-1 behind-closed-doors win over FC Lausanne-Sport, completing his long road back from the ankle injury that has kept him sidelined since his move from Brighton. For Michael Carrick, whose side have taken five points from five games and sit ten adrift of Manchester City, the Cameroonian’s return is not a bonus. It is the rescue mission the entire season may depend on.
The secret debut at Carrington
There were no fans, no television cameras and no official team sheet — just a training pitch, an international break, and a Swiss side owned by the same man who owns Manchester United. But for Carlos Baleba, Friday’s behind-closed-doors friendly against Lausanne-Sport was everything. The 22-year-old started the reported 2-1 victory at Carrington, playing his first minutes in a red shirt since completing his £70 million move from Brighton in the final days of the summer window, as first reported by The Sun and confirmed by the club’s official website, which announced Baleba had “got his first minutes in a United kit”.
Baleba arrived at Old Trafford carrying an ankle problem sustained in the final weeks of his Brighton career and went straight onto the treatment table. He was named among the substitutes for the 1-1 draw at Fulham before the international break — the only competitive matchday squad he has made — but Carrick opted against risking him. Friday was the carefully planned next step: a specific training programme over recent weeks, then a real game against real opposition, alongside senior players including Harry Maguire and Matheus Cunha, as detailed by Football London.
The game also featured a number of academy players — Carrick’s son Jacey, Amir Ibragimov and Victor Musa among them — because the majority of the first-team squad is away on international duty. That made it the perfect low-stakes environment for a £70 million midfielder to remember what it feels like to play football again. And by all accounts, he was heavily involved.
Why Carrick desperately needed him
Context is everything here. United have won once in five Premier League games. They took five points from the first fifteen available — their worst start since 2014, as we covered in our tactical breakdown of Carrick’s nightmare opening — and the 1-1 draw at Fulham that preceded the break was another drift through a winnable game. Ten points behind leaders Manchester City already, the season is threatening to slip away before October is out.
The single biggest structural problem has been midfield. Fellow summer arrivals Youri Tielemans and Andrey Santos have played in Baleba’s absence, but both have struggled to cover ground and neither has been able to showcase their ability on the ball, according to Sports Mole’s analysis. Kobbie Mainoo has experienced similar issues trying to carry the pivot alone, and it is difficult to see any of United’s current midfielders excelling without an athletic partner next to them. That is precisely the profile United spent £70 million on — and precisely the profile that has been sitting in the treatment room for six weeks.
The ball-winning numbers
What exactly does £70 million buy you in the modern market? In Baleba’s case, it buys the most coveted currency in elite midfield play: ball-winning at volume, without sacrificing athleticism.
Last season in the Premier League, Baleba ranked in the top 8% of players for combined tackles and interceptions, and — more remarkably — in the top 1% for second balls won. That second statistic is the one that should excite United supporters most. Second balls are the loose change of football: the knockdowns, the ricochets, the duels nobody is favourite for. Dominating them is what turns a midfield from passive to oppressive, and it is the trait that separates functional destroyers from genuine game-controllers.
At 22, with a contract running to 2031 and an option for a further year, Baleba is not a short-term patch. He is the athletic foundation around which Carrick can build a functioning midfield for the next half-decade — assuming, of course, that the ankle holds.
How he fits Carrick’s 4-2-3-1
Carrick has been remarkably consistent about what he wants from his marquee signing. “Carlos is desperate to get out there and be part of the group, training fully with the boys,” he said last month. “He’s a quality player, that’s why we bought him. And he balances off the dynamics of the midfield particularly well.”
That phrase — balances off the dynamics — is the tactical key to everything. Carrick’s 4-2-3-1 asks its double pivot to do two jobs at once: protect the back four and progress the ball. Right now, United’s pivots can do neither reliably. Baleba gives Carrick the destroyer half of that equation, which in turn liberates the other half. Pair him with Mainoo, and suddenly you have the classic modern blend: one to win it, one to play it. Mainoo’s progressive carrying — wasted so far this season because he has been firefighting — becomes a weapon rather than a survival mechanism.
The knock-on effects ripple forward. Matheus Cunha, brutally axed from the Brazil squad by Carlo Ancelotti and a participant in Friday’s friendly, gets a platform behind him that actually recycles possession. The wingers get earlier, cleaner service. The centre-backs — and we will come to the returning De Ligt — get a shield that has been missing all season. One signing does not fix a team, but one profile can fix a structure, and Baleba is the profile Carrick’s structure was built around.
The Spurs test: ‘El Sackico’ on October 10
United return to Premier League action next Saturday, October 10, when Tottenham visit Old Trafford — a fixture already being billed as ‘El Sackico’ given the pressure on both dugouts. Spurs sit bottom of the table with two points from five games under Roberto De Zerbi, and our analysis of the five tactical fixes that could rescue De Zerbi’s rock-bottom side details exactly how they will try to play through the middle of the pitch.
That is where Baleba becomes non-negotiable. Tottenham may be last, but if Carrick’s side are to prevent De Zerbi’s team from strolling through central areas with ease, the Cameroonian’s energy and presence are required. The question is whether 60-odd minutes against a Swiss side bottom of their league is enough to convince Carrick to throw him into a game both managers realistically need to win. Expect a start on the bench and a second-half introduction — with a full debut to follow against Atletico Madrid in the Champions League.
The De Ligt bonus
Baleba was not the only comeback story at Carrington. Matthijs de Ligt started the Lausanne friendly — his first appearance of any kind since November 2025, ending 306 days on the sidelines after back surgery, as reported by The Peoples Person.
The Dutchman did not feature at all under Carrick after the head coach replaced Ruben Amorim in January last season, so this was overdue in every sense. De Ligt offers something United’s defence has lacked: an organiser. Typically partnered with Lisandro Martinez and previously used as part of a back three under Amorim, his return gives Carrick an experienced alternative at centre-back just as the fixtures thicken. Two returning players, two positions that have been patched up all season, one afternoon. Fridays do not get much more productive than that.
The risks: ankles, adaptation, expectation
None of this is guaranteed, and the caveats deserve honest treatment. First, the ankle. Baleba arrived injured, his recovery already took longer than Carrick’s initial three-week estimate, and ankle ligament issues have a habit of recurring when a player returns to the intensity of Premier League midfield combat. United’s medical team were right not to rush him; the test now is whether they can manage his load through a congested autumn.
Second, adaptation. Baleba was excellent at Brighton, but he is 22, new to the club, and stepping into the most scrutinised midfield in English football during a crisis. The £70 million fee buys expectation as well as talent, and Old Trafford has swallowed promising midfielders before. The Lausanne friendly was behind closed doors for a reason — Carrick is protecting his investment, and he should continue to do so.
Third, the system around him. A destroyer is only as good as the structure he destroys within. If United’s press remains disjointed and the full-backs keep getting isolated, Baleba will spend his season plugging holes rather than controlling games. The signing fixes the personnel; Carrick must still fix the patterns.
Verdict: the season’s turning point?
It is a strange thing to say about a friendly nobody watched, but Friday at Carrington may be remembered as the day Manchester United’s season started. The £70 million man is finally a footballer again rather than a medical file. The midfield has its missing piece. And with Tottenham arriving at Old Trafford next Saturday in a game neither manager can afford to lose, the timing could hardly be better.
Carrick pushed to make Baleba the final signing of his first permanent transfer window for a reason: he balances the dynamics of the midfield like nothing else in the squad. Now we get to see whether the theory survives contact with the Premier League. On the evidence of those ball-winning numbers — and the wreckage of United’s season so far — it has to.
United’s rebuild is far from finished — the club remain in the hunt for Europe’s most in-form winger — but for the first time this season, the midfield has a foundation. Sometimes the most important debuts are the ones nobody sees.
