Aston Villa duo Youri Tielemans and Amadou Onana “let down” Kevin De Bruyne, leading to his comments in the defeat to France.
That’s according to Wim De Coninck, via Voetbal Primeur, who believes the Aston Villa duo are the men who should be taking the blame for De Bruyne’s unhappiness.
Belgium were comfortably beaten 2-0 by France on Monday, with Didier Deschamps’ side running out as comfortable winners in a game they dominated.
The fallout from the Belgian camp has been almost spectacular since, with De Bruyne seen to be telling the country’s technical director that he was done, leading to fears he’s about to retire.
He followed that up with incendiary comments to the country’s media afterwards, criticising the rest of his teammates and manager Domenico Tedesco’s tactics as not being good enough.
His major gripe was that the team had been too defensive, allowing France to dominate the ball and go on the offensive but also leading to a disconnect across the Belgian team.
That idea of being too defensive falls on Onana and Tielemans according to De Coninck, who has criticised the Aston Villa midfielders following De Bruyne’s comments.
“When he talks about six defenders, he also includes midfielders Onana and Tielemans, who folded back. This gave the French too much space to play football,” he is quoted as saying.
“In the beginning we surprised the French with high pressure, for example. This is in contrast to what we did at the European Championship.
“There was still hope beforehand that our triangle could dominate the technically inferior midfield of the French, but it was actually mainly Tielemans and Onana who let De Bruyne down.”
At the moment, especially after his tantrum, it feels a bit too much like looking for what Belgium can do for Kevin De Bruyne… rather than the reverse.
