Bailly, Blind admit language barrier an issue along Man United backline

Posted Saturday, October 08, 2016 by nbcsports.com

As a defensive unit in the Premier League, one might assume that being able to communicate with the players either side of you would be of the utmost importance, given the world-class attackers constantly making your job one of the toughest in world sports.

To hear Eric Bailly and Daley Blind tell it, turns out that assumption is 100 percent correct, and it’s been a huge problem along the Manchester United backline in early days of the 2016-17 season.

Bailly, who was born in the Ivory Coast and has only ever played professionally in Spain prior to moving to Man United for $44 million this summer, speaks French and English. The 22-year-old has started all seven of United’s PL games this season, playing all 630 minutes thus far (plus another 180 in two Europa League games). Starting to his left has been an Englishman, Chris Smalling, on three occasions, and a Dutchman, Blind, the other four. Antonio Valencia, from Ecuador, and a born Spanish speaker, has started to his right in all seven games.

Bailly and Blind, on the hurdles presented by the language barrier — quotes from the Mirror:

Bailly, Blind admit language barrier an issue along Man United backline

The summer arrivals of Bailly and Henrikh Mkhitaryan ($37 million), an Armenian, brings the total number of nationalities to play for United to 40, most of any club in the world. Bailly isn’t the first to struggle with communication at United, and if history bears a view into the future, he won’t be the last.