Youri Tielemans\u2019s unusual penalty routine became one of the talking points from Manchester United\u2019s 5-2 win over Ipswich Town, but the midfielder has now clarified why he does it.<\/p>\n
Much of the attention from that match centred on Bruno Fernandes\u2019s hat-trick, Kobbie Mainoo\u2019s display and even the hole in Old Trafford\u2019s roof. Yet Tielemans\u2019s ghost-like approach to penalty moments drew its own share of debate after Sunday\u2019s victory.<\/p>\n
Asked about the copycat run-up by Manchester United\u2019s in-house social media team, Tielemans gave a simple explanation: \u201cIt\u2019s to time my run into the box.\u201d<\/p>\n
The reasoning is practical. Team-mates who enter the penalty area too early can commit an offence if they rush in before the ball is struck and have a clear effect on the outcome. With Fernandes using a small hop in his penalty technique, Tielemans said he preferred to be certain about his timing rather than risk being caught out.<\/p>\n
In the end, Fernandes scored, which meant the precaution was not needed. Even so, Tielemans was first to reach him and celebrated with a tight embrace.<\/p>\n
It was not the first time Tielemans has used this method. He also did so during his spell at Aston Villa, including an FA Cup quarterfinal against Preston North End in March 2025, when he was in effect shadowing the steps of Marcus Rashford, now one of his Manchester United team-mates.<\/p>\n
There is also the possibility that the idea was shaped by Austin MacPhee, Villa\u2019s set-piece specialist at the time. The details coach handled dead balls under Unai Emery before later being poached by Chelsea over the summer.<\/p>\n
Tielemans has already faced questions about adapting to Michael Carrick\u2019s demands this season. \u201cIt might be different than what I am used to, but it is logical things in my opinion. It is just smelling football,\u201d he said. He later started his United career with a poor performance.<\/p>\n
After a difficult outing against Hull City on the opening Saturday, he looked more settled alongside Kobbie Mainoo against Ipswich Town, though the match remained finely balanced for much of the first hour. United now turn to Everton on Sunday, with Tielemans and Mainoo expected to operate behind Fernandes again, although Mason Mount\u2019s return from injury leaves that selection open.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Tielemans has explained his penalty run-up, linking it to timing his movement into the box.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19176,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[687,1083,179,172],"tags":[1162,180],"class_list":["post-19177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-everton","category-man-utd","category-manchester-united","category-epl","tag-analytics","tag-player-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19177"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19177\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}