‘It is just smelling football’: Tielemans says adjusting to life at United has come naturally

Youri Tielemans has stated that adjusting to Michael Carrick’s vision for Manchester United has been as easy as “smelling football” for the vastly experienced £35m midfield signing.

The 29-year-old, who joined from Aston Villa last month, made his debut for Anderlecht at the age of 16. He has been integrating with the United squad during the past 10 days of the club’s pre-season tour, making his first appearance in the 1-1 draw with Paris Saint-Germain in Gothenburg on Saturday.

Tielemans left Belgium for Monaco in 2017 and joined Leicester in 2019, before signing for Villa four years later and has 579 career appearances, so any demands from Carrick do not faze him.

Tielemans said: “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.

“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 was limited to only 25 starts in the Premier League last season because of injury and also sustained a hamstring problem in the warm-up before Belgium’s World Cup quarter-final against Spain in July. Yet despite this and having already played for 13 years in midfield, Tielemans denied that Carrick will need to rest him on occasion.

He said: “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 previously showed interest in signing the Belgium captain, reportedly in 2019 and 2022. “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, who triggered his release clause, did not face any competition to sign the player. “Not that I am aware of, no,” Tielemans said.