Youri Tielemans Adapts to Michael Carrick's Manchester United
Youri Tielemans says adapting to Michael Carrick’s Manchester United has been as natural as “smelling football” for a midfielder who has seen almost everything the game can throw at him.
The £35m signing, 29 and already a veteran of 579 senior appearances, has slipped into United’s pre-season rhythm over the past 10 days, capping that spell with his first outing in the 1-1 draw against Paris Saint-Germain in Gothenburg on Saturday.
‘Just smelling football’
Tielemans, who broke through at Anderlecht at 16 and has since taken in Monaco, Leicester and Aston Villa, sounds utterly unfazed by Carrick’s demands.
“He has got his structure. He wants to have the ball, he wants to press in certain ways, you know,” he said. “It might be different than what you are used to, what I have been used to before, but it is logical things in my opinion. It is just smelling football, and that is what I have been doing from when I was young at Anderlecht.
“So for me, nothing changes, but it just needs to gel together. Then when you follow those principles, then you can add your offensive qualities, especially in the last third where everything is a bit more in freedom, without obviously overcommitting and keeping the defensive line in place, then I think we can do good things.”
The picture is clear: Carrick lays down the framework, Tielemans intends to colour it in.
Fitness questions brushed aside
Last season raised doubts about his durability. He managed only 25 Premier League starts at Villa, and his summer was scarred by a hamstring problem suffered in the warm-up before Belgium’s World Cup quarter-final against Spain in July.
Tielemans rejects the idea that Carrick will have to wrap him in cotton wool.
“Not really,” he said. “The thing is, at the World Cup, I think we played 120 minutes against Senegal [before Spain], and from there we had less time in between games. So we played the US I think three or four days later [actually five days] and then three days later we played against Spain. In the warm-up, my body just switched off for some reason.
“Now, I do not think I am a player that I absolutely need a rest. Obviously, there are a lot of games and the manager needs to manage the team, but when I am good, I am good, you know.
“Unfortunately, my body is … when it does not go well, then I will know straight away and I will alert the manager, but it does not happen often.”
In other words, he trusts his own warning signals and expects to be available more often than not.
A move long in the making
United’s interest in Tielemans is not new. The club tracked him before, but only now has the move actually happened.
“There has been two times that I spoke with the club, but it did not achieve to anything, so I was just very calm about it. It was way after Anderlecht,” he said.
This time, United triggered his release clause and, according to Tielemans, did so without a fight on the market.
“Not that I am aware of, no,” he replied when asked if there had been rival bidders.
After years of watching from a distance, United finally have the Belgian at the heart of their project. Tielemans, for his part, sounds ready to repay that faith the way he knows best – by smelling the game early, and dictating it late.
