Football Season Guide

After two barren years, Anderlecht celebrated a deserved title last season and this achievement cemented coach René Weiler's position. The Swiss specialist was very pleased with the contributions from loanees, Łukasz Teodorczyk and Uroš Spajić, which naturally saw him signing them on permanent transfers this summer. Anderlecht start every campaign with only one goal in front of them – 1st place – and Weiler needs to be prepared to keep the displays as intense as possible. The Purple & Whites tend to dominate on the domestic stage year after year and this summer they actually strengthened their squad more comparing to last season. It is true that Anderlecht filled their bank with the selling of the team’s biggest star Youri Tielemans to Monaco, but Weiler signed as his replacements the very experienced Sven Kums and the extremely talented Pieter Gerkens. With Adrien Trebel and Leander Dendoncker already in the squad, Anderlecht definitely have enough depth in the heart of their midfield. Not just that, the gaffer added more firepower to his squad in the form of Henry Onyekuru andS ilvère Ganvoula M'boussy who returned after a successful loan spell. This should provide plenty of cover for Teodorczyk up front. Captain, Sofiane Hanni will once again be organising things right behind the target man in the 4-2-3-1 formation, while the competition for starting places down the wings is fierce. All of Andy Najar, Nicolae Stanciu, Alexandru Chipciu and Diego Capel are hoping to be regular starters so they will need to convince Weiler that they have a place down the wings. The gaffer also likes to use the overlap a lot and, with the aggressive full-backs Ivan Obradovic and Dennis Appiah tipped to be starters, Anderlecht will continue being a menace when they attack from the wide positions. In the heart of the defence Spajic and Kara Mbodji will be the obvious choices, but both Bram Nuytinck and Olivier Deschacht provide solid cover. The loanee, Matz Sels, will be the first choice between the posts.