The Jupiler Pro League (JPL) starts tonight and Club Brugge lead the chasing pack by two points. That’s a telling comment on the quality of the league as the Blauw-Zwarts were one of only two clubs that lost all their games at the group stage of this season’s Champions’ League. The JPL has been a… Read More »
Adrien Trebel has joined Anderlecht from Standard Liege. There are no protests in the streets of Liege yet but fans of Les Rouches are never happy when their players move over to the Constant Vanden Stock stadium. The ex-Standard captain has been angling for a move for some time and the club recently refused to… Read More »
1 Playing with a back three has proved successful and gives Belgium an option when they want to avoid playing central defenders at full-back. However, it has yet to be tested against the strongest opposition. 2. Whatever formation is chosen, Kevin De Bruyne must play centrally and never be shunted out wide. 3. The introduction… Read More »
So far there has been little criticism of Roberto Martinez. He’s won all the games he had to win and he’s already experimented more than Marc Wilmots ever did. Maybe it’s an exaggeration to say it’s a honeymoon period but with the opposition in his World Cup qualification group, he could avoid serious censure from… Read More »
Watching the Netherlands-Belgium game last night with its plethora of Belgians who play, or have played, for Chelsea, a chance conversation led to a challenge to pick an eleven of such players. I tried but I needed to take a little poetic licence in order to field a full team; I did this by adding… Read More »
Wallonia has been in the news recently. Its regional government voted against the EU-wide trade deal with Canada, prompting comments of “this obscure place” from UK Tory politicians. (ED: more people live in Wallonia than in Wales.) But Belgium politics is not that simple – there are seven regions and communities that would have to… Read More »
With World Cup qualifiers on the horizon, Roberto Martinez will have to deal with the problems that were often faced by his predecessor Marc Wilmots, namely injuries and a lack of the playing time by many squad members. The wear and tear on those playing regularly in the Premier League is well documented and, ironically,… Read More »
1. Roberto Martinez has a lot of work to do but he has to be given time. Marc Wilmots made no progress with the team in the last two years and there had to be change. 2. Thierry Henry will be useful if he can find a way of making his 150 million euro strike… Read More »
Today, Roberto Martinez will reveal his first Belgium squad after replacing Marc Wilmots in the summer. The main interest will be on the number of new faces he may bring in. If Martinez wants an injection of youth, the best bets seem to be Anderlecht’s Youri Tielemans, Mönchengladbach’s Thorgan Hazard and Club Brugge’s Bjorn Engels.… Read More »
The Belgian second division starts tonight and – surprisingly – it only has eight clubs. In an effort to reduce the number of clubs facing financial ruin, the number of professional clubs in Belgium has been reduced from from 34 to 24: 16 in the Jupiler Pro League (the first division) and eight in the… Read More »