Aston Villa are dominating quite a lot of the domestic transfer talk as the European Championships take centre stage.
It’s not what Unai Emery would have wanted, but Douglas Luiz is expected to head for the exit door and it leaves a big hole in Aston Villa’s midfield.
This now means that the current stars in B6 have to step up and be counted as they prepare for Champions League football next season.
If Euro 2024 is anything to go by, then the attacking side of Luiz’s game won’t be missed too much because Youri Tielemans can fill that role.
The 27-year-old joined Aston Villa on a free after Leicester City’s relegation and proved to be an unsung hero during the recently concluded campaign.
Despite that, it was a big surprise to see Tielemans on the bench for Belgium’s opening Euro 2024 clash against Slovakia – they lost 1-0.
That same mistake wasn’t made against Romania on Saturday, with the Villa man coming back into the XI and inside a few minutes, he was on the scoresheet.
Ian Wright dubbed the midfield technician as a ‘big game player’ after his brilliant strike from the edge of the box, as he told ITV Sport.
Belgium went on to win the game 2-0, with Kevin de Bruyne getting the second goal, and now every team in Group E is on three points.
Beat Ukraine in their final game, and Belgium are through, with Wright speaking highly of Tielemans after his 72 minutes against Romania.
Youri Tielemans stars as Belgium beat Romania at Euro 2024
“Youri Tielemans, he is a big game player and scores big goals,” said Wright. “He is the one who sets this off (chases down Romania midfielder and wins the ball back). He really gets about them there.
“Once he wins that, (plays a through ball), then Lukaku does brilliantly to keep it going and plays it out wide. When Tielemans comes into his space (on the edge of the box) nobody is coming with him.
“But this is good play from Doku. Like I am saying about Lukaku there, doing that centre-forward work (holding the ball up) in the box, linking and then (laying it off for Tielemans) and that’s a great strike through the bodies. It’s going to be tough to save that one.”
Youri Tielemans at Aston Villa next season
Not many players in the Villa squad have Champions League experience, but Tielemans has it from his days at Monaco.
Add in the fact that Luiz is leaving, it makes Tielemans’ role next season even more important because Boubacar Kamara is still recovering from his ACL injury.
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The Frenchman will certainly miss the start of the season, so that’s two midfielders Emery won’t be without when the new season begins.
That’s why the two familiar faces – Tielemans and John McGinn – are going to be very important in Villa challenging for European places once more because it’s going to be tougher than ever before.
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