Youri Tielemans believes he is finally starting to settle at Aston Villa – nearly six months after leaving Leicester City.
The Belgian international spent three-and-a-half seasons at the King Power Stadium and made 195 appearances after arriving initially on loan from Monaco. However, the Foxes’ relegation coincided with the end of his contract and he became a free agent.
Within a matter of weeks he made the slightly surprising decision to go to Villa and it wasn’t until a few weeks ago that he actually made his first Premier League start for Unai Emery’s men. Along the way there was speculation on the continent that he was not happy with the way things had gone at the start of his Claret & Blue career.
It turned out that Emery was giving him more time to understand his role on the pitch in his new system. Tielemans had started Villa’s first two Europa Conference League group stage matches before the trip to AZ Alkmaar, but appeared to struggle in the defeat at Legia Warsaw and the late 1-0 win over Zrinjski Mostar.
His performance and goal in the 4-1 win in The Netherlands was a major step forward and since then he has been much more influential and even set-up Villa’s winner at Tottenham on Sunday. The narrative around him has now changed.
“It’s about adapting but I think the more you play in this team the more you understand the position,” he told the media in the pre-Legia press conference. “I know I have it in my locker to play higher up or as a central midfielder. It doesn’t really matter to me to be honest.
“My confidence had always been there, it was more so having that reference game for myself to have a really good performance and then to build on that. That last couple of weeks have been really good I want to continue like this.
“I am the same man, the same player. I had moved clubs and you know the rest. The last few weeks have been really good and I am really happy with that. I just want to carry on and I just want to continue in that positive way.”
Asked what appealed to him about Villa in the summer: “Everything. I think as a team and as a club we are showing why personally I signed. I felt like Aston Villa was on its way up as a club as a team.
“The performances last year especially under this manager were really good and to get European football in the end was a very positive sign. Those were some of the reasons why I signed.”