Youri Tielemans: The man Jose Mourinho should be paying special attention to
Manchester United need a new midfielder this summer. Well, they have needed a new midfielder for pretty much every summer in living memory. Paul Pogba, Ander Herrera and Marouane Fellaini have all been signed in the post-Ferguson Old Trafford bubble, but still they are left short of quality in the middle third.
This has disturbed successive managers, with Jose Mourinho suffering from similar team balancing issues that David Moyes and Louis van Gaal were all too familiar with. Peculiar combinations, dysfunctional systems and the subsequent poor performances have been all too frequent since Ferguson left the club. Since the days of Paul Scholes’ return from retirement, the illness suffered by Darren Fletcher and the best of Michael Carrick, Manchester United’s midfield has been teetering on the brink of sheer mediocrity.
Investment has been slapdash throughout, which has only made the situation worse. Names like Thiago Alcantara and Toni Kroos have briefly been touted, but only Pogba comes close to rivalling the reputations of the aforementioned duo. Neglected in Ferguson’s latter years, the club are still paying a steep price for a bodged squad, something that is no more obvious than in the centre of the team.
One of the best possible options for the club this summer will be on the opposition’s side on Thursday night.
Anderlecht’s Youri Tielemans is understandably renowned as a delightful prospect. The Belgian’s age would be held against him in a Mourinho squad, however, which directly undermines any link there could be to the player. Tielemans, though, has a ceiling higher than almost anyone around European football right now.
In a Manchester United side that has often looked lumbering and without an injection of pace, Tielemans would be an ideal igniter. Henrikh Mkhitaryan has been able to provide similar bursts of energy into the side, but Anderlecht’s boy wonder could do so from a deeper position, driving forward with the ball and playing hard passes into the feet of his team-mates.
Where Pogba’s role is undetermined, Tielemans would bring flexibility. His age means he can be moulded into whatever United would desire, too. With the engine he possesses and eye for goal, playing as an eight or a more defined attacking midfield role would be ideal. Either of these could work in a three man midfield with Pogba, but it leaves Mourinho still in dire need of his long-term Carrick replacement that has been the real bane on the side.
Tielemans might be ideal for United at this juncture. But he does not offer a solve-all solution in midfield. He would simply be a better component than the current available, but one that may step on Pogba’s toes. Without addressing the need for a natural deep-lying playmaker, United are only thinly papering over the greatest cracks from the post-Ferguson era.