‘I came to Aston Villa to play’ – Tielemans hits out at ‘not pleasant’ situation and reveals Emery talks

Joe Williams
Aston Villa midfielder Youri Tielemans
Youri Tielemans joined Aston Villa in the summer on a free transfer.

Youri Tielemans is already growing frustrated at his situation at Aston Villa and has revealed he’s already held talks with Unai Emery over his lack of game time.

The Belgium international moved to Villa Park on a free transfer in the summer transfer window after his contract at relegated Leicester City expired.

Tielemans impressed at Leicester in his three-and-a-half-year spell, though his 2022/23 campaign was very disappointing as the Foxes were relegated from the Premier League.

He scored the only goal of the game in the 2021 FA Cup final against Chelsea, engraving his name into club folklore.

Tielemans has come off the bench in all four of Emery’s side’s Premier League matches this season with his only start coming in the Europa Conference League against Hibernian.

And Tielemans didn’t hold back when asked by the Belgian media about his first couple of months in Birmingham with the Belgium international pleading for more game time from Emery.

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Tielemans said in a pre-match press conference: “The situation is not pleasant. I told the manager that I came to Villa to play. He understands me, but at the moment, he prefers to play with the two midfielders from last season. He told me that soon, there will be a succession of games and I’ll get more playing time.

“I know that answer doesn’t get me anywhere, but what should I do? As soon as I get the opportunity, I want to take it. So far, I’ve started once, in the Conference League.”

Former Liverpool midfielder Danny Murphy can see why Tielemans has been left out of Villa’s side so far this season as he fails to work hard.

“I think they have done some good business,” Murphy said on Rio Ferdinand Presents FIVE. “I’m not sure on Tielemans, you know. Super talented, but I’m not sure he puts the graft in.”

Aston Villa’s final match before the international break saw them lose 3-0 to Liverpool at Anfield and Emery explained why he thought they came unstuck on Merseyside.

Emery said: “It’s difficult to win here, it is difficult. The first half was the key. After the first goal we conceded, we were not bad. We created chances.

“We were trying to impose our positioning, it was not easy to do it, but when we were pressing we got in their box and we created four chances to score in the first half. We were not clinical and defensively we were weak in some moments. They were clinical and 2-0 was not what we deserved in the first half.

“The second half we were speaking about scoring one goal and having the possibility to get back. We had two chances at the beginning of the second half, but we didn’t score. They created a chance in transition when the match was so tight. They scored the third goal and then the match finished.

“We tried to be focused in our game plan because here, like in Newcastle, we lost the last 30 minutes with five goals and really, I didn’t want that today after the first goal. I can accept winning, but I can’t accept to let them score more goals against us.”