Ball, Youri Tielemans.
Youri Tielemans, ball.
They were likely the only two thoughts whirring in Morgan Gibbs-White’s head in the first quarter of an hour of Aston Villa’s 2-1 win over Nottingham Forest. His neck appeared on a constant swivel, cranking tirelessly between catching a glance as to where Villa had possession and scanning for Tielemans.
The Belgium international is Villa’s chief build-up conduit and the one player who has started every league match this season and accrued the most minutes. Even in a game when Unai Emery broke his managerial convention and made eight changes to the starting lineup, he remained.
Tielemans is not the most athletic, agile or explosive, yet his speed of thought is swifter and above any of those attributes. It made Gibbs-White — the opponent tasked with stopping passes into him and reducing his threat — perennially aware and concerned.
Villa scored twice in 138 seconds and, in the opening 15 minutes, blowing Forest’s usually bolted defensive doors off.
Tielemans provided the assist for Villa’s first and orchestrated the best period of play in their campaign. Gibbs-White, who would increasingly become a threat in the second half, kept on scanning. But Tielemans kept on disorganising a typically well-drilled out-of-possession team. With the influence he yielded, the passage determined the victory.
The first indications of Gibbs-White’s remit were striking. Villa had won possession and Forest quickly retreated into their fixed shape. Amadou Onana, Tielemans’ midfield partner, drove forward and into space.
Despite initially being closer to the path of the ball, Gibbs-White stayed with Tielemans and scanned to see where he was. This meant Anthony Elanga had to make the longer, more taxing run to close Onana.
Villa maintained possession for 50 seconds, with Forest passive and aiming to condense space in midfield. In principle, this was through Forest’s frontline remaining narrow and Gibbs-White tracking Tielemans which would, in turn, stop Villa’s most progressive passer opening up central areas.
This season, only Chelsea attack centrally more than Villa. Tielemans is largely responsible for this. Before Forest’s visit, the 27-year-old had made 188 progressive passes — defined by a pass that moves the ball at least 10 yards upfield — nearly twice as many as Villa’s next highest player, Morgan Rogers (95).
In this one passage, Gibbs-White scanned 16 times. This equated to checking for Tielemans’ whereabouts roughly every three seconds.
Here the England international glances over his right shoulder — note Tielemans is directing Axel Disasi to pass out wide.
Villa progress the ball down the right and Tielemans, recognising he is goal-side of Gibbs-White, edges closer to the box. Ryan Yates points at Gibbs-White, asking him to recover into a position in front of Tielemans.
Counter-intuitively, Villa took early control through Tielemans’ lack of involvement. For all of Gibbs-White’s awareness, Tielemans did not touch the ball in those 50 seconds.
Instead, he stayed central and subtle, hardly roaming but moving enough to occupy his designated marker. In Forest’s desire to stop passes into Tielemans, they were vulnerable in wide areas, with Villa overloading the flanks.
Gradually, Tielemans’ presence was felt. He started to move and craft, offering a way of breaking down Forest’s disciplined defensive shape.
At first, he dropped deeper to receive and switch play, as illustrated in the example below.
He then moved away from play which, in turn, distracted Gibbs-White.
In this example, Tielemans takes a few steps back and coaxes his direct opponent to do the same. This gives Ian Maatsen space to drive into the box.
The next ploy was for Tielemans to pull out of midfield and take up a left-back position. This gave Gibbs-White a problem: should he block midfield passes — per his manager’s instructions — or get tight onto Tielemans, also per his manager’s instructions?
Tielemans is not the most fleet-footed, but neither can he be allowed much of a head-start. Here, he begins to walk behind Gibbs-White who, for once, does not scan.
A walk turns into a sprint and Tielemans manages to get around Gibbs-White’s blindside. Disasi plays through Forest’s frontline into Tielemans, who then receives in a dangerous area and shoots just wide.
The series of cat-and-mouse games took place in the first nine minutes; nine minutes of coaxing, teasing, pushing and prodding. All of which put a physical and mental toll on Forest’s players until half-time.
Any slip in concentration is often fatal against high-level players. And, in the 13th minute, the first error occurred. Gibbs-White was out of position and Villa’s quick free-kick meant Tielemans — for the first time — had clear time and space.
Forest defender Morato was similarly guilty of a lapse in focus. As shown in the screengrab, the defender is correcting his shinpads when Tielemans receives the ball.
Tielemans did not need any further invitation, lifting his head to dink a pass over Morato. Rogers’ first touch was exquisite, setting himself up to move in on goal and slide a shot through Matz Sels’ legs to score.
“I saw Morato not looking and once Youri gets the ball, I had to make the move,” Rogers told Sky Sports after. “He has the quality to pick me out from anywhere.”
Forest were without an archetypal No 9 and struggled to respond with any punches of their own. Gibbs-White kept scanning, but team-mates questioned who was following Tielemans. He would spin inside from wide areas and ahead of Onana, using Gibbs-White as a shield to play around.
In the below instance, the latter checks to see where Tielemans is, yet the Villa midfielder is already behind him.
“We started the game really bad, we were not organised and we didn’t close the lines,” Forest manager Nuno Espirito Santo told BBC Radio 5 Live. “Villa broke us many times.”
The pattern continued as Tielemans generated attacks and progressed play forward. Gibbs-White would turn the tables in the second half. But because of the damage inflicted in the first 15 minutes — with Donyell Malen also scoring — Forest were left pushing water uphill.
It was Tielemans and Forest’s seeming awareness of him that encapsulated the decisive period.
“He’s a very important player,” said Emery. “Sometimes we need him to take (control) the tempo of the field.”
Tielemans roared at full time while team-mates hit the floor, exhausted. In a team that made eight changes in search of fresh energy and with the intention to hit Forest early, Villa staff recognised how critical Tielemans is to the overall functioning of their system. Evidently, Forest did too.
Tielemans, however, has tended to be one step ahead this season.