Neville Is Right: Man Utd Must Drop Youri Tielemans

· GiveMeSport

Gary Neville argues Tielemans and Mainoo cannot coexist in United's midfield after disappointing draw vs Tottenham.

It was another disappointing performance from Michael Carrick's side, and more importantly, a disappointing result.

Drawing against Tottenham in isolation isn't a major issue, but the manner of the draw was unacceptable. Even failing to beat Spurs at home is disappointing, but they are still a side with plenty of good players.

Throwing away the game after going a goal ahead, with Spurs then going down to 10 men, was completely unacceptable.

The performance leading up to that wasn't good enough, and it's been a similar story throughout the whole season.

United have won just once in the Premier League so far this campaign, and that came against a newly promoted Ipswich Town side.

Carrick needs to change things around, and there's one alteration he can now make which is fairly obvious.

Speaking after United's draw against Tottenham, former United player Neville claimed that the partnership of Tielemans and Mainoo in midfield simply doesn't work . Individually, they are good players, but the partnership doesn't work.

> “I don’t want to be too drastic, but I’ve seen enough of it to think that’s not a midfield that is dynamic enough to play at this football club in the Premier League.

> “I think they are both good players, by the way, individually, but sometimes you just have players who don’t quite knit together and don’t quite sort of suit each other."

Neville has praised United's midfield after Carlos Baleba was introduced, and that does feel like the obvious change that needs to happen.

The former Brighton midfielder offered a lot of energy in the middle of the park, was comfortable in possession, and was putting himself about out of it.

It's understandable that Baleba hasn't been given opportunities due to arriving at Old Trafford injured, but Carrick has now excuse not to start him going forward.

With a handful of minutes under his belt, plus some game time during the international break when United played a friendly, Baleba should be straight into the starting XI going forward.

Michael Carrick has big fixtures against Atletico Madrid and Leeds United this week, and could face a familiar problem at left-back.

Tielemans certainly feels to be more of the issue than Mainoo, and the pair combined together, as Neville mentioned, don't work.

The Belgian midfielder, who was given a 3/10 for his performance vs Spurs , is a little sluggish and can't get around the pitch as well as someone like Baleba, or even Mainoo.

If one of them is going to be sacrificed for Baleba, it has to be Tielemans instead of Mainoo.

Carrick might be hoping to try to find a way to fit them all in, but a partnership of Mainoo and Baleba could be the ideal solution to United's problems in the middle of the park.

There's no reason why United's performances couldn't be transformed by adding Baleba in for Tielemans, as the midfield dynamic is clearly their biggest issue at the moment.

In reality, it could be a decision that saves Carrick his job. The United manager is clearly under huge pressure to turn things around, and he needs to do something to change their fortunes.

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