Youri Tielemans is confusing what’s ‘totally normal’ at Man Utd with football in general

We suspect any private meeting between Michael Carrick and Lisandro Martinez in the wake of the defender breaking ranks to point the finger of blame at Jason Wilcox involved a lightly slapped wrist followed by a long, tender embrace as the Argentinian expertly moved the narrative on from ‘Michael Carrick must be sacked’ to ‘poor, hamstrung Michael Carrick’.

As is so often the case, two things can be true at once. Carrick has indeed been dealt a duff hand by Wilcox and the INEOS financiers at Old Trafford but should also be doing better with what he’s got. There’s no reason they should be worse than last season.

Martinez’s comments also resulted in Youri Tielemans’ post-match interview, in which he dissected the Manchester United performance in Madrid, being used purely as fodder for ‘Man Utd star reacts to Martinez comments’ articles.

Aside from a notable furrowing of the brow upon being told that his teammate had criticised the United bosses, there was no reaction. “I’ve got no comment on that,” Tielemans said.

In normal circumstances, the Amazon Prime reporter – who was rushing through the initial questions to get to content-driving bombshell – might have asked a follow-up to a startling “totally normal” Tielemans admission.

Michael Carrick revealed ahead of the game that the plan was to deploy Tielemans in the No.10 role ahead of Andrey Santos and Carlos Baleba in a bid for “control” they’ve been lacking pretty much since he became caretaker manager in January.

“Yeah, we want a lot more control in the game, really,” Carrick explained. “I think in certain games we’ve been a little bit open and we want to try and change that and make a difference in that way, you know?

“We want a bit more control without the ball and we want a lot more control with it within the game.”

Most watching the game would attest that there was more control despite the 2-0 defeat. There weren’t the same gaping holes we’ve become accustomed to seeing when Bruno Fernandes plays as one of the three in midfield.

Tielemans agreed that “we had more compactness at times”, but then made a quite extraordinary 21-word admission.

“At times we were found out because they have the quality to play through us, which is totally normal in football,” he added.

Is Tielemans describing what’s “totally normal in football” or what’s become the norm at Manchester United?

Being “played through” by a pretty good but by no means great Atletico Madrid is indeed typical for a Red Devils side; especially one with a ponderous Tielemans ambling about in midfield as they’ve discovered to their cost this season.

But we can’t imagine Carrick has accepted that as a reality of football in general and consents to them being cut open like hot knife through butter as part and parcel of the game.

Surely there should be a message of defiance; a ‘you shall not pass’ mantra, particularly on European away days.

How often do we hear commentators and pundits lauding defensive units for not giving opposition teams any space whatsoever to operate in between the lines? They can go round or over but they will not come through. Manchester United could do that too.

Or at least they should recognise that it’s possible, rather than believing that being “played through” is as inevitable as conceding a throw-in or committing a foul.

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