Belgium are ‘moving towards a duel’ between Nottingham Forest midfielder Orel Mangala and Aston Villa’s Youri Tielemans.
That’s according to Sud Info and journalist Guillaume Raedts, who says a competition is inevitable between the two to take a midfield role alongside Everton’s Amadou Onana.
The idea of Mangala and Tielemans being in competition was first raised this week, with the Nottingham Forest man insisting when asked about the idea that there was no fight between him and the Aston Villa player.
The reality, though, is that there are several players competing for one place in the team and Domenico Tedesco needing to choose what’s best for his team.
Sud Info state that while youngster Mandela Keita is also in the squad his youth and lack of service means he’s unlikely to be number one choice. So the country are ‘moving towards a duel’ between the Nottingham Forest and Aston Villa men.
In terms of Tielemans, he has ‘plenty of experience’ at international level under his belt with a tally of 64 caps, a number which is the fourth highest in the current group.
He, though, is carrying the last few months, even years, ‘like a burden’ in the national team, a place where he has never managed to achieve his best performances.
That’s certainly been seen against some of the bigger teams, where he’s struggled with their pressing and had a ‘hard time’ in general.
Mangala, meanwhile, has ‘certainly scored points’ since Tedesco’s arrival, particularly in the win over Germany in Cologne.
He has the ‘physical dimension’ that the Belgium boss wants and has proved to be a good partner for Onana when deployed as such. Those things would seemingly put him ahead of Tielemans for now.
There is also the option of all three being used in a different system, but for now that hasn’t happened and it seems a battle is on between Mangala and Tielemans, despite the latter insisting that isn’t the case.
