Carrick's Youri Tielemans approach is paying off, he shut down a narrative despite draw vs Everton

Michael Carrick has questions to answer again after draw against Everton, but his Youri Tielemans approach is certainly paying off. It was the third start in a row for Youri Tielemans under Michael Carrick, which is some feat, considering he missed a lot of pre-season. Tielemans hasn't had the best start to his Man Utd career, especially on debut against Hull, when he got dominated. However, the Everton fixture showed that Carrick's approach with the Belgian is slowly but surely paying off. Photo by Ash Donelon/Manchester United via Getty Images What are your early thoughts on United right now? Is there a KEY change Carrick needs to make? What is it? Or does the team just need consistent selection, for the players to play themselves into form? Getty Images Michael Carrick identified the issue with Youri Tielemans From being dominated by Hull to getting bypassed by Ipswich with alarming ease, Tielemans was already facing a lot of questions. Was he the right profile to play in defensive midfield? Did his defensive nous allow him to help Kobbie Mainoo, or was Mainoo still covering for two players? There were concerns over his tactical fit as one of the players in the deep pivot, but Carrick identified the issue clearly. More United News The problem wasn't his fit, but rather his fitness. Tielemans was clearly not match-fit to start the season, because he showed against Everton that he's slowly getting back into his groove. He has always been brilliant on the ball, but Tielemans showed immense improvement in his defensive work, plugging gaps, winning the ball back, and engaging in duels with abandon. This improvement should have been expected, but the way the first two games went, it wasn't clear whether this would happen or Tielemans was just not suited to this system. After all, he had two defensive-minded runners next to him at Aston Villa, which wasn't the case at United. After his performance against Everton, it's clear that the problem was never his fit. He just wasn't fit. Tielemans' leap opens up Carrick's options Now that Tielemans is doing better than expected off the ball, it opens up Carrick's options because he can pair him with attack-minded options. Another TOP performance from Kobbie Mainoo! What did you like most about it? Did Michael Carrick make a mistake by taking him off? Getty Images Mainoo is the best of both worlds, but if he needs preserving, then Carrick can easily go to Mason Mount or Andrey Santos next to Tielemans. The Belgian can be a proper box-to-box player, especially against teams who cede possession, and United won't look defensively suspect. His minutes will still need managing, but his skill set won't, which is a huge boost to Carrick's tactical options.