Youri Tielemans Adapts to Manchester United's Style
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 slotted into United’s pre-season work over the past 10 days and made his first outing in Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Paris Saint-Germain in Gothenburg. For a player who debuted for Anderlecht at 16 and has since gone through Monaco, Leicester and Aston Villa, Carrick’s demands hardly come as a shock.
“He has got his structure. He wants to have the ball, he wants to press in certain ways, you know,” Tielemans explained. “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 provides the framework, Tielemans plans to colour it in.
No fear of the schedule
Last season raised questions about his durability. Tielemans managed only 25 Premier League starts at Villa because of injury, then suffered a hamstring problem in the warm-up before Belgium’s World Cup quarter-final against Spain in July. It was the kind of moment that sparks talk of careful load management and rotation.
He is having none of it.
“Not really,” he said when asked if Carrick would need to rest him regularly. “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.”
The message is blunt: trust his experience, trust his instincts. If there is a problem, he will say. Until then, he expects to play.
A long courtship finally ends
United’s move for Tielemans has been a slow burn. The club had tracked the Belgium captain for years and held talks in 2019 and 2022, only to walk away each time.
“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 there was no hesitation. United triggered his release clause and, according to Tielemans, did so without facing a battle for his signature.
“Not that I am aware of, no,” he said when asked if any other clubs tried to intervene.
Now, after years of near-misses and background interest, he finally has the shirt and the structure he says he understands instinctively. The question is no longer whether United will get him. It is how quickly he can turn that “smell of football” into control of their midfield.
