Youri Tielemans discusses his life after leaving Leicester City and Aston Villa’s struggles.
Youri Tielemans, a former Leicester City player, has been speaking to the media ahead of Aston Villa’s Europa Conference League match against Legia Warsaw.
Youri Tielemans believes he is finally settling in at Aston Villa after leaving Leicester City nearly six months ago.
After joining on loan from Monaco, the Belgian international spent three and a half seasons at the King Power Stadium, making 195 appearances. However, his contract expired when the Foxes were relegated, and he became a free agent.
Within a few weeks, he made the somewhat surprising decision to join Villa, and it wasn’t until recently that he made his first Premier League start for Unai Emery’s side. Along the way, there was speculation on the continent that he was dissatisfied with how his Claret & Blue career had begun.
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Emery, it turned out, was giving him more time to understand his role on the field in his new system. Tielemans started Villa’s first two Europa Conference League group stage matches before the trip to AZ Alkmaar, but struggled in the defeats to Legia Warsaw and Zrinjski Mostar.
His performance and goal in the 4-1 win in the Netherlands were significant steps forward, and he has been much more influential since then, even setting up Villa’s winner at Tottenham on Sunday. The narrative surrounding him has now shifted.
“It’s about adapting, but I think the more you play in this team, the better you understand the position,” he said at the pre-Legia press conference. “I know I have the ability to play higher up or as a central midfielder in my locker.” To be honest, it doesn’t really matter to me.
“My confidence had always been there; it was just a matter of having that reference game for myself to have a really good performance and then build on that.” The last few weeks have been fantastic, and I want to keep it up.
“I am the same man and player. I’d changed clubs, and you know the rest. The last few weeks have been fantastic, and I am overjoyed. I just want to keep going and continue in that positive direction.”
When asked what drew him to Villa during the summer, he replied, “Everything.” I believe that as a team and as a club, we are demonstrating why I signed. I had the impression that Aston Villa was on the rise as a club and as a team.
“The performances last year, especially under this manager, were really good, and getting European football was a very positive sign in the end.” That was one of the reasons I signed.”
