Youri Tielemans | 2026/27 Performances

I don't know why people are making excuses for him and others. Isn't he a professional athlete? Arsenal are playing England and Spain players from the start and they looked neither unfit or tired.

This guy plays a couple of games at the World Cup and somehow needs 2 months off and then to slowly build up his fitness... Has he been gourging on Kebabs all summer or something? If players at other teams are fine then there is either something wrong with our players or there's something wrong with whoever designed our preason planning. It feels like the last decade has really lowered the standards of so many people.
 
Theres been a lot of talk about Tielemans' and Andrey Santos' speed in the past week or two. And while its true that they're actually our slowest players so far other than Lammens, with 28.4 km/h from Tielemans and 27.8 from Santos, here are the CMs from other premier league teams in comparison from the opening day, putting it into context :

Joe Willock 33.9 km/h
Enzo Le Fee 33.7 km/h
Dom Szoboszlai 33.5 km/h
Ryan Gravenberch 33.4 km/h
Elliot Stroud 33.1 km/h
Habib Diarra 32.9 km/h
Phil Foden 32.9 km/h
Alex Scott 32.7 km/h
Lewis Cook 32.7 km/h
Noah Sadiki 32.7 km/h
Ethan Ampadu 32. 6 km/h
Sandro Tonali 32.6 km/h
Joshua King 32 km/h
Xaver Schlager 31.9 km/h
Brendan Aaronson 31.7 km/h
Alex Iwobi 31.7 km/h
Anton Stach 31.6 km/h
Frank Onyeka 31.6 km/h
Martin Odegaard 31.6 km/h
Rodrigo Bentancur 31.5 km/h
Matt Crooks 31.4 km/h
Archie Gray 31.3 km/h
Declan Rice 31.3 km/h
Kiernan Dewsburry-Hall 31.2 km/h
Lewis Miley 31.1 km/h
Sander Berge 31.1 km/h
Reece James 30.7 km/h
Alaji Bamba 30.6 km/h
Ibrahim Sangare 30.6 km/h
Bruno Fernandes 30.5 km/h
Caleb Yirenkyi 30.3 km/h
Harrison Armstrong 30.1 km/h
Lamare Bogarde 30.1 km/h
Mathias Jensen 29.9 km/h
Elliot Anderson 29.8 km/h
Matt Grimes 29.7 km/h
Kobbie Mainoo 29.6 km/h
Sean Steur 29.5 km/h
Yasin Ayari 29.5 km/h
Alex Toth 29.4 km/h
Boubacar Kamara 29.4 km/h
Regan Slater 29.4 km/h
Adam Wharton 29.2 km/h
Pascal Gross 29.2 km/h
Lucas Bergvall 29.1 km/h
Sasa Lukic 29.1 km/h
Jacob Ramsey 29.0 km/h
Tyler Adams 28.9 km/h
Myles Lewis-Skelley 28.8 km/h
Mateus Fernandes 28.7 km/h
Vitaly Janelt 28.7 km/h
Yehor Yarmoliuk 28.6 km/h
Alexis Mac Aliister 28.5 km/h
Mamadou Sangare 28.5 km/h
Granit Xhaka 28.4 km/h
Jack Hinshelwood 28.4 km/h
Youri Tielemans 28.4 km/h
Victor Torp 28.3 km/h
Enzo Fernandes 28 km/h
Hayden Hackney 28.2 km/h
Conor Gallagher 28.0 km/h
Andrey Santos 27.8 km/h
Shea Charles 27.5 km/h
Daichi Kamada 27 km/h
James Garner 27 km/h
Romeo Lavia 26.7 km/h
Ross Barkley 26.3 km/h
Joao Gomes 25.9 km/h
Mikel Damsgaard 25.8 km/h
Sean Longstaff 25.7 km/h
Eberechi Eze 25.6 km/h
Mikel Merino 25.6 km/h
Martin Zubimendi 25.3 km/h
Charly Alcaraz 24.9 km/h
Mateo Kovacic 24.6 km/h

There are 50 listed midfielders, but fotmob divides players by what they deem their positions to be. So I added James who is listed in the fullbacks, and went through the attacking midfielders list and added who I thought had maybe played central midfield a few times as well - its possible I've included 1 or 2 AMs who have never been played in a CM position, if so I apologize as I tried not to and left out the likes of Cole Palmer and Morgan Rodgers for that reason. So the idea is just for CMs/Dms. About 75 players on the list overall

Its 1 game so a lot will change on that list as the season goes on. But it is a bit interesting to see that a lot of the players at the biggest clubs in the league are on the slower side so far.

Of the top 4 + Chelsea who were 10th :

Arsenal have Odegaard and Rice who are 4th and 5th if Foden counts - I think hes played cm 1 or 2 times? If not, 3rd and 4th. No surprise Szoboszlai is 1st but Liverpool were playing him fullback last season so it'll be interesting to see if he does stay in midfield this season. But Arsenal also have 4 on the slower side with Lewis-Skelley, then Eze, Merino and Zubimendi among the slowest. Bruno is 7th from the players at the top clubs, Mainoo is 10th right behind Elliot Anderson. Tielemans 13th and Santos 15th for players at the top clubs out of 20. So while certainly on the lower side, they're in good company for players from the other top teams. Tielemans and Santos were a bit faster than Chelsea's starters this weekend Enzo and Lavia. Arsenal's midfield is certainly faster with Rice and Odegaard, then Skelley who is just ahead of Tielemans. Also no speed number for Bruno G yet, but I understand it'll be fairly low speed.

City with Anderson and Kovacic is middle of the pack and the actual bottom of the pack. So I think its pretty even with Tielemans and Santos with 1 ahead and 1 behind. Liverpool are obviously strong here with Szoboslai and Gravenberch as the top 2 fastest out of the top clubs and 3rd and 4th out of all midfielders so like Arsenal, clearly faster than our midfield but I've seen plenty of posts slating their midfield so despite being the fastest they dont seem to be rated very highly. I think that puts into perspective how much the speed actually matters. Villa have Kamara who was middle of the pack and Gomes who was 5th slowest in game 1. They do also have Bogarde who came on and hes 8th of the top clubs players. But overall certainly no faster than our midfielders.

Then of course we've just signed Baleba and we'd expect him to be our fastest midfielder now. At his top speed recorded he's faster than any of the speeds from day 1, but thats of course an unfair comparison as Baleba's own speed was not taken from 1 attempt on the first day of the season. I think its reasonable to expect him to be just behind Gravenberch as, it seems Gravenberch's top speed recorded ever was 34.84 km/h and Baleba's is 34.8 km/h. Foden's is lower than both and Szoboszlai's is 36.76 km/h so I think he'll remain fasest for a good while.
 
Shit first half, was decent in second and improved like most of our players
 
Improved a bit in the second half, but still quite loose and slow.
 
Grew into the game. Don’t think he should start for us once Baleba is ready
 
Was awful in the first half, better in the second. He raises the technical ability of the team but also contributes to the general issue of the team being well below average off the ball defensively.
 
Gave the ball away in 2 very bad positions today. That just can't happen for a player of his experience. Mainoo definitely the better of the two today.
 
Not the best but he'll prove to be a useful signing even if he's not first choice. Not overly worried at the performance as I think his limitations were well known anyway
 
Still hasn't gotten into the pace of the game yet but a lot better 2nd half.
 
His match sharpness is seriously lacking. I was surprised he was picked ahead of Santos to be honest.
 
He’s not great under pressure, which is a bit of a worry with how slow he is. In open space we all know what he can do on either foot though
 
Grew into the game I felt.
I feel it'll time him a few more games to really get up to speed though.
 
Looked pretty weak until Ipswich stopped pressing us in the second half. Was carried by Mainoo today, needs to do better to start games for us.
 
Still not enamoured with this signing. Improved as the game went on, but lacks any physicality
 
I didn’t want him when he left Leicester for free three years ago but I was hoping he’d just gone stale there. He’d need to be Paul Scholes incarnate on the ball to make up for how much of a liability he is defensively. Looks like he’s been playing in a different league with the amount of time he wants on the ball.
 
Poor first half but like a lot of players was quite good in the 2nd half. Involved with some good passing moves with Santos after he came on
 
Feels like he wants to take too long/too many touches on the ball at times. Needs to quicken things up
 
Realistically I think he's competing with Mainoo for one spot, and Santos and Baleba will compete for the other. Early days but Youri is at the bottom of the pecking order once everyone is fit imo. Would rather see Santos and Mainoo start the next match.
 
Started poorly, but improved as the game went on. Whether that's due to him actually improving or whether it was due to Ipswich really falling off and making it easy for him I'm not sure. Hopefully it helps kick-start his time here though.
 
His passing is crisp and clearly very high level but as some have mentioned he seems to want to take 1 extra second everytime he has the ball. Maybe he didn't have a lot of defensive responsibility at Villa due to playing with Onana + Kamara but here he'll have to be alot more vigilant in the pivot.
 
He seems like a Casemiro replacement alright. Pedestrian and sluggish on the ball so far.
Needs to find space to thrive. Good vision, composure and creativity when he gets it but under pressure he is lost. Lots of ability in him still, hope he can gear up soon.
 
Too slow off the ball, more concerningly too slow on the ball. Was United's least effective starter. Hopefully still getting fully up to speed, but regardless he and Mainoo does not seem the best idea as a CM pairing - unless during a match which United are either already well on top of, or desperately need to get a goal back during, or will be playing far more compact as a whole team during. Even then might not be ideal.

In that first half United were back to playing with too much space left in the midfield, and Tielemans is not someone you really want to be trying to cover that space. Even Mainoo got about the pitch quicker than him.

Bebe said:
Realistically I think he's competing with Mainoo for one spot, and Santos and Baleba will compete for the other. Early days but Youri is at the bottom of the pecking order once everyone is fit imo.
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Yep, unless in very specific circumstances. Though I think all 3 of the other CMs there can potentially work with each other. It's Mainoo + Tielemans that looks probably the most fragile right now. He needs to gain a yard of pace from somewhere compared to what he showed today regardless.
 
Looked alright. We should be using him as a great rotational player, not as Kobbie’s partner.
 
He wasn’t as bad as many posts here. Great movement and technical abilities. Though could do better when pressed. Also clearly isn’t a holding midfielder and hopefully e we don’t try and shoehorn him into one. But will we be able to hold defensively with him in there?
 
CG1010 said:
He wasn’t as bad as many posts here. Great movement and technical abilities. Though could do better when pressed. Also clearly isn’t a holding midfielder and hopefully e we don’t try and shoehorn him into one. But will we be able to hold defensively with him in there?
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He wasn't holding. He was just poor. The team stepped up in the second, which made him seem serviceable, but he was a massive hole. Our issues defensively weren't great, but Ipswich would not have been in position to take advantage of it if we had better space coverage in midfield. Mainoo was having to cover everywhere. He didn't set tempo deeper on the pitch, he didn't carry, didn't having line breaking or progressive passes and was a major hold defensively.

Then we turned up the gear and started playing exclusively in their half, and even then, he wasn't anywhere as influential as I thought he would be around the final third. For me, he's squarely 4th choice.
 
Better than against Hull but still doesn't look quite right. Mainoo did more to help him than Santos did last week at least.
 
Still getting up to full fitness so I’m not worried, he and the other midfielders we have now have raised the floor, what we need now is Kobbie, Santos and Bielba to go and become world class or at least very good players.

We know what Tielemens will provide when fully on his game.
 
I think he grew into the game as it went on. I did see someone say he’s a notoriously slow starter in seasons gone by. Hopefully that’s the case here. I was surprised to see he did come back earlier than expected. On one hand, it’s great to have that level of professionalism and dedication. On the other, I wonder whether he should have just taken an extra week of leave.

Centre mid is probably the section of the field where it can take the longest to get used too for players moving between teams, since it requires a lot of positional awareness to know where your attackers and defenders are at any given time. Our centre mid has been totally changed over the summer too so it’s probably going to take a few games before we can see the best of him hopefully. Playing the full 90 minutes probably helped a lot, next to Mainoo and a cameo with Santos.
 
tjb said:
He wasn't holding. He was just poor. The team stepped up in the second, which made him seem serviceable, but he was a massive hole. Our issues defensively weren't great, but Ipswich would not have been in position to take advantage of it if we had better space coverage in midfield. Mainoo was having to cover everywhere. He didn't set tempo deeper on the pitch, he didn't carry, didn't having line breaking or progressive passes and was a major hold defensively.

Then we turned up the gear and started playing exclusively in their half, and even then, he wasn't anywhere as influential as I thought he would be around the final third. For me, he's squarely 4th choice.
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He wasn’t playing as a holding midfielder today. I thought he did better as a receiver facing back to opposition goal than as a passer which is what everyone expected.
 
CG1010 said:
He wasn’t as bad as many posts here. Great movement and technical abilities. Though could do better when pressed. Also clearly isn’t a holding midfielder and hopefully e we don’t try and shoehorn him into one. But will we be able to hold defensively with him in there?
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I know right? I thought he did well. Created the mist chances, covered the most distance and had some very nice touches. People here need to rewatch the game.
 
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