After Jan Vertonghen and Romelu Lukaku, who has the most caps to his name in the current crop of Red Devils? Well, that’s Youri Tielemans. Since his 19th international and announced as the man who would take over the torch. But… Tielemans is now far from certain of a starting place.
Domenico Tedesco has already tried it a few times: Tielemans next to Manala, Vranckx or Onana. But each time what the Aston Villa midfielder showed was not entirely convincing.
In the meantime, Tedesco has tried other combinations and has arrived at another central pairing: Onana-Mangala. The two complement each other’s qualities and have a natural connection on the field. A connection that Tielemans was unable to make last year.
Careful choices
The 65-time international should actually become the next captain of the national team, but – despite his obvious talent and quality – he has not yet been able to take the big step. And that step should be a truly top team.
Tielemans has always made very careful choices: Monaco, Leicester and Aston Villa. Nice clubs, but not those clubs where he has to challenge himself. He had to fight his way into the team at Aston Villa, but the pressure is not immense, even though they are competing for European places. And there were options, even if he wasn’t sure about playing.
At the age of almost 27, Tielemans has played 20 Champions League matches, 10 of which were while he was still at Anderlecht. These are the matches where he has to show himself to the world, the biggest stage at club level.
Leap into the deep end
Tielemans will soon have to dare to take the plunge. Just like Amadou Onana will do this summer, or like Romelu Lukaku did at a young age.
His career has been good so far, but lacks that ‘grand cru’. If he wants to keep his place with the Red Devils in the coming years, he will also have to prove that he can handle that role of leader.
2024-03-22 14:00:00
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