Following a €15m move from Porto this summer, Manchester United fullback Alex Telles is still working on his adaptation to English football.
The Brazilian has seven appearances for the Red Devils so far, and when interviewed by ESPN Brasil this week, he admits he’s been working to get on the same pace as his teammates.
“I know this is a much more intense and physical football, so I’m also working more, in a way, focusing more on fitness, so that I can also be on the same level or even more than all of them”, Alex Telles told ESPN Brasil.
For the past few years, Alex Telles had an impressive record of assists for Porto. He now explains how he became a crossing specialist, and even though he’s only made one pass to goal at Manchester United, he claims to continue working on it.
“I was always a guy who liked to take set-pieces from the grassroots categories, I always wanted to stand out in something. I knew I had a good left foot, and at some point I needed to refine myself and be able to train this type of foundation further. About five years ago, I started to force this type of play more, and it started to work very well.”
“When I went to Galatasaray, I didn’t have many assists. After I went to Porto it started to grow very big, and I started to really have that confidence and to realize that I could help the team in the offensive part, even playing in a back row. I started working on this, I started to improve after training, and I’m very demanding with myself. I don’t leave training without feeling that I have evolved in any way, even if it’s a cross, a set piece.”
Alex Telles has also talked about his love for music and the many instruments he can play, as he’s taken several of them to Manchester already.
“One of the first things I wanted to bring here on the move was my instruments. It’s one of the refuges I have for me, at some more troubled time I can get a little distracted.”
“Since I was eight I play the guitar, I learned about two years ago piano, and percussion instruments of samba and pagode I know practically all of them. I like drums too, I had one at home. It’s that adventure that we keep venturing out and keep distracting, for me it’s very good.”
The Brazilian shows some big admiration to NBA star Lebron James, claiming he gets inspiration from the Los Angeles Lakers player both on and off the courts.
“I like basketball a lot, I’ve been watching it for some time. LeBron is a guy that I see a lot as an example for the way he works, the mentally strong way he is. By the age he already has today. Even so he manages to improve his teammates, being in the finals, giving his best, always one of the best players in the competitions.”
“He’s an example of an athlete, he’s won everything, he already has his history, but even so he succeeds with each passing year and manages to be better and beat his records. He’s also a guy who has his foundations, helps people, and I also do in Caxias, Brazil, I also have my social project. So I really like this type of athlete, of mentality, so he really is a guy that I get a lot of inspiration from.”
