Youri Tielemans says settling into Michael Carrick’s system at Manchester United has come naturally, describing the adjustment as “smelling football.”
The 29-year-old midfielder, who joined from Aston Villa last month for £35m, made his debut in Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Paris Saint-Germain in Gothenburg. He has spent the past 10 days integrating with the squad on the club’s pre-season tour.
Tielemans first played for Anderlecht at age 16, moved to Monaco in 2017, joined Leicester in 2019, and signed for Villa four years later. With 579 career appearances, he says Carrick’s demands do not trouble him.
“He has got his structure. He wants to have the ball, he wants to press in certain ways, you know. 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,” Tielemans said.
“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.”
Tielemans made only 25 Premier League starts last season due to injury. He also picked up a hamstring problem in the warm-up before Belgium’s World Cup quarter-final against Spain in July. Despite that, and 13 years of playing in midfield, he rejected the idea that Carrick will need to rest him regularly.
“Not really. 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.”
United had shown interest in signing the Belgium captain in 2019 and 2022, according to reports. “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,” Tielemans said.
United triggered his release clause and faced no competition for his signature. “Not that I am aware of, no,” Tielemans said.
Source: www.theguardian.com — Read the original article
