After this first international break of the season, we resume the league with a trip to Anderlecht. A real winner, if we include the standings. The main thing will be to be alert, because mauve-white will punish every mistake mercilessly.

KVC Westerlo

The surprise in Genk was, of course, that Lucas Stassin was no longer entered on the match sheet. Indeed, a few hours before kick-off in Limburg, he was definitively sold to French tradition club Saint-Etienne. So we lose a second tastemaker in this summer Mercato. It does show that our club is doing well in training – and giving them the chance to play – young players. Apparently, we even rank third in Europe in terms of playing opportunities for young players aged -23. Only prestigious Ajax Amsterdam and French Racing Strasbourg do better.

In midfield, someone extra joined us. Alfie Devine, like Luka Vuskovic owned by Tottenham, is a young Englishman who has played several games in the Championship anyway. It is someone who can run and play well between the lines. Even though the transfer period between the clubs has finally ended, a player without a contract can still be recruited. Thus, the search for a possible deep striker will continue, in the current core a possible temporary solution can always be found dixit our coach Timmy Simons. The latter does have a handsome statistic in his career as a player against Anderlecht. Every time he scored, (4x) his Club (Bruges) did not lose!

In terms of selection news, we can report that we can choose from the entire core, it will depend on how our internationals have digested their (sometimes long) flight. The final training session on Friday morning will reveal a lot.

RSC Anderlecht

In the media, we already sometimes get to read that Anderlecht’s football is not always pretty, but this is to say that they are deadly efficient if you look at their current position in the standings. Their preliminary 3 home games gave the following results: STVV (1-0), OHL (1-1) and against Dinamo Minsk they were also 1-0. The balance in their 7 games played is that they have not lost yet and have a goal difference of 9-3. Businesslike taking home the points they call it then. Remarkably, they are now embarking on a quartet of home games in 11 days. First we visit, then it is the turn of Genk, Charleroi and Hungarian Ferencvaros.

The current starting eleven consists of a mix of Belgians and Scandinavians. Coosemans, Sardella, Rits, Leoni and Verschaeren represent our homeland and Jörgensen, Augustinsson, Dreyer and Dolberg can be found on the list of overseas players. Serbian Jan-Carlo Simic, acquired from AC Milan, has secured his place at the centre of defence and only at the left-back position there have been switches. In the last 2 encounters, Ecuadorian Nilson Angulo was posed there.

During the international break, Leander Dendoncker was rented from Aston Villa. The defensive midfielder, he can also play centrally in defence, left Lotto Park in the summer of 2018. So, after Wolverhampton, Aston Villa and Napoli, he will now be back on familiar ground until the end of the season.

Nathan Verboomen

Nine times in the past he was our matchkeeper, only once did we go off the pitch victorious: on 7 December 2023, we won 1-0 against Kortrijk at the Kuipje then.

The three away games with him, Union (3-1), Cercle Brugge (2-1) and KV Mechelen (3-1) were all lost.

Nice fact is that this 36-year-old Bachelor LO, affiliated with Bertem-Leefdal, has been refereeing since 2010 and that he had his debut in the highest division at Kuipje, when Eupen visited in 2016 (1-2).

Text and statistics: Peter Boons