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DerbyshireFox

Tielemans

By DerbyshireFox, in Leicester City Forum

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urban.spaceman

urban.spaceman

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How Youri Tielemans became a key figure in Brendan Rodgers' Leicester City revolution

Youri Tielemans displays a maturity beyond his years Credit: getty images

Leicester fans sing a song about Youri Tielemans, the lyrics too robust for publication in a family newspaper, but which can essentially be boiled down to: he plays in blue and white, and he is dynamite.

Tielemans is emerging as one of this Premier League season’s most gifted players, an increasingly key figure in the Brendan Rodgers revolution, and Manchester United and Arsenal fans are already demanding to know how he slipped through the fingers of their own clubs as they struggle to hang on to their place in the division’s gilded top six.

The 22-year-old midfielder has been involved in six goals from his last four games for Leicester and Belgium, scoring four himself, and will face Crystal Palace on Sunday in arguably the best form of his career.

He remains Leicester’s record signing but must be considered one of the bargains of the summer, a triumph for the club’s recruitment team and evidence of the transformation under Rodgers.

Telegraph Sport can reveal for the first time that the fee to sign Tielemans from Monaco in July was £32million, after Leicester successfully persuaded the Ligue 1 club to lower their initial asking price of £40m. In an age when players are routinely transferred for twice that fee, but deliver half the impact, it represents staggering value.

Ominously, Rodgers believes there is far more to come. “I was very fortunate when I came in because he was already here [after signing on loan in January]. You could see he was enjoying playing and obviously towards the end of the season we knew there was going to be interest,” he said.

“But we had a few long chats in terms of mapping out how it would look for him if he joined here on a permanent basis. He was keen to come but of course he had to explore the other possibilities, of which there was a number.

“He can come here and develop and flourish more as a player. He then may have other choices again later on but from a football and family perspective, this was the best option for him.”

United were indeed an option for Tielemans in the summer, but it was all dependent on whether Paul Pogba was sold to Real Madrid. Tielemans was not prepared to wait, and informed both Monaco and his representative that a permanent move to Leicester was the preferred next step in his career. 

Jon Rudkin, the club’s director of football, was worn down by weeks of bartering with Monaco but agreed a deal shortly before Leicester flew to France for a pre-season training camp.

Tielemans is now fully settled in north Leicestershire with long-term partner Mendy - they met in their early teens while Tielemans was at Anderlecht - and last month they welcomed a new addition to the family: daughter Leana, who is the baby sister of Melina.

“For Youri, football and family is key for him,” said Rodgers. “I think he wanted to come to a club not just for his football, but for the family. Bringing a young wife here, this is a club which is absolutely the perfect fit for him because it’s a really good family club, a community club.

“He came back a little bit later in pre-season and wasn’t quite up to speed, but now he’s up to that level with his fitness. He’s got a wonderful view of the game for a 22-year-old, compared to lots of 22-year-olds I’ve worked with. He’s got a real football brain, he understands the game absolutely 100 per cent. He’s been given a great education in football and he takes that onto the field.”

Tielemans in enjoying life in the Midlands  Credit: Getty Images

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Tielemans is already in Leicester’s ‘leadership group’ - which consists of Jamie Vardy, Kasper Schmeichel, Wes Morgan, Jonny Evans and Ben Chilwell - and when you speak to people about his career the one striking aspect for many is his maturity.

He only turned 22 in May but it feels like he has been around for years, one of Belgium’s most hyped young talents. Captain for all of Anderlecht’s teams at junior level, he made his senior team debut as a 16-year-old and was the Belgian player of the year in 2017. The move to Monaco later that year never really worked out, mainly due to a fractious relationship with manager Leonardo Jardim, but joining Leicester has sparked his career back into life.

With an eye for goal and a wonderful wide range of passing, he is one of the catalysts for the press which Rodgers feels is so crucial to his high-intensity style of play.

Only Liverpool’s Andy Robertson and Trent Alexander-Arnold have made more passes into the final third than Tielemans this season, while he has provided more assists than any other Leicester player since February.

Leicester appear genuine contenders to secure a top-four finish, and last week booked their place in the quarter-finals of the Carabao Cup and signing Tielemans was a huge statement for Rodgers.

“I think he gets recognition but he’s not overly bothered by it,” said the Leicester manager. “That’s not why he plays the game. He plays the game to win and be the best he can be. He really is a fantastic player.”

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Charl91

Charl91

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Yeah, not at his best at the moment. Seems a streaky player - when he's good, he's really good, but it's very noticeable if he's not having a good game. When Maddison's not at his best, he's still fairly reliable and keeps the ball well, but when Tielemans not on form he's quite sloppy with it, and gets dispossessed quite often.

 

Praet might be feeling a little aggrieved for not getting on the pitch recently, but can definitely see Brendan's dilemma.

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majaco

majaco

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Tiellemans is fantastic.  Let's not go FT judgmental.  If opposition teams succeed in nullifying him, another of our gifted players will prevail.

 

Against Everton, he looked ordinary.  When Brendan changed the formation , he looked like he had the key to unlock them.

 

N'didi is indeed unbelievable.   Choudhury could rise to the top.  Madison is magnificent.  Drinkwater drank more than water.

 

But our best midfielders of recent times may be Kante, Tielemans and Cambiaso

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Sampson

Sampson

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8 minutes ago, majaco said:

Tiellemans is fantastic.  Let's not go FT judgmental.  If opposition teams succeed in nullifying him, another of our gifted players will prevail.

 

Against Everton, he looked ordinary.  When Brendan changed the formation , he looked like he had the key to unlock them.

 

N'didi is indeed unbelievable.   Choudhury could rise to the top.  Madison is magnificent.  Drinkwater drank more than water.

 

But our best midfielders of recent times may be Kante, Tielemans and Cambiaso

No one's saying he's not good, just that he's having a very streaky/inconsistent season and he's currently in one of his out of form streaks where he constantly dwells on the ball and slows down our counter attacks and he looks knackered and the player who needs resting the most when we're playing 2 games a week though.

 

On your last point mind, Maddison is unquestionably better and more consistent than him. As said above, when Maddison is having a bad game at least he still keeps the ball moving quickly and still makes the simple passes, Tielemans doesn't - when he has a bad game he seems to play much slower and misplace even the simple passes.

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Leeds Fox

Leeds Fox

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1 hour ago, Sampson said:

No one's saying he's not good, just that he's having a very streaky/inconsistent season and he's currently in one of his out of form streaks where he constantly dwells on the ball and slows down our counter attacks and he looks knackered and the player who needs resting the most when we're playing 2 games a week though.

 

On your last point mind, Maddison is unquestionably better and more consistent than him. As said above, when Maddison is having a bad game at least he still keeps the ball moving quickly and still makes the simple passes, Tielemans doesn't - when he has a bad game he seems to play much slower and misplace even the simple passes.

 

Didn’t know where to put this or even whether to post it at all... but for all the class and experience that Tielemans has, Maddison is the better player.

 

There’s no need to judge them against each other really but this season Maddison has added so much to his all-round game that he just edges it. To have them both, plus Preat, with the options of N’Didi and Hamza behind them is utterly ridiculous for us. 

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deanolegend1989

deanolegend1989

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Thing with Tillimens is he’s so good that when he’s off the ball it’s obvious. However when he’s off the ball he’s still got such a good brain a positioning and works well with Ndidi.

The best thing we will see with Tillimens is if he’s not on the pitch. the difference will be noticeable. He’s the main reason we’re doing so well, as Kante was in 15/16. Never change the heartbeat of the team.

I see it as keep the same 11 until this run ends. Don’t change it when it’s not broken. Same 12 for villa.

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worthosoriginals

worthosoriginals

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20 hours ago, majaco said:

Tiellemans is fantastic.  Let's not go FT judgmental.  If opposition teams succeed in nullifying him, another of our gifted players will prevail.

 

Against Everton, he looked ordinary.  When Brendan changed the formation , he looked like he had the key to unlock them.

 

N'didi is indeed unbelievable.   Choudhury could rise to the top.  Madison is magnificent.  Drinkwater drank more than water.

 

But our best midfielders of recent times may be Kante, Tielemans and Cambiaso

 stop praising our players, this is foxes talk you're supposed to be negative and hate them all. 

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CosbehFox

CosbehFox

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21 hours ago, Sampson said:

Been back to his awful early season form the past 3 or 4 games since getting back from international duty.

 

Desperately needs resting for Praet right now.

He really wasn’t awful. 

 

When he went off last night we struggled to keep the ball in the 4-3-3 formation. Whether that’s positional in what Youri does is hard to tell

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LC/FC

LC/FC

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2 minutes ago, StanSP said:

Why is he wearing nappies? I know he's one of the younger ones in the squad but come on... 

No sure if you're joking or didn't know but he's had a baby this year iirc. 

There's been a few Leicester babies being born this year actually, Danny Ward and Jonny Evans included. 

And I think Demarai Gray and Hamza Choudhury had kids last year too. 

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StanSP

StanSP

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3 minutes ago, LC/FC said:

No sure if you're joking or didn't know but he's had a baby this year iirc. 

There's been a few Leicester babies being born this year actually, Danny Ward and Jonny Evans included. 

And I think Demarai Gray and Hamza Choudhury had kids last year too. 

I was joking and knew he's now a father :P

 

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