Football Season Guide

Charleroi enjoyed very good campaign last term, with coach Belhocine having successful first year as manager. He trusted almost unchanged line-up for most of the matches and this consistency helped the Zebras to be very solid all throughout, never lost more than 2 games in a row in 2019/20 season. The off-season has seen only 2 important players leaving so far, but even before left-back Nurio and striker Rezaei were gone Charleroi had quality replacements for their positions so the impact should be minimal. The only notable new signing so far is veteran goalkeeper Guillaume Gillet. Based on his first season Belhocine is likely to stick to his favourite 4-2-3-1 formation and use very settled starting XI once he figures out his best squad. Charleroi are likely to add at least 1-2 big names to their ranks in the coming months, but even without any reinforcements the squad looks ready. Fluid forward passing at every opportunity and extensive use of the overlapping runs amongst the main strengths of Belhocine’s tactics. Also after a year of adjusting to the league Jamaican forward Shamar Nicholson is expected to be even more devastating inside the box and he is tipped to have 20+ goal season by many pundits. The main weakness in the current squad is the lack of cover at both full-back positions. Have strong regulars in Busi and Willems, but really only other quality full-back in squad right now is Marinos. Also main playmaker Morioka is currently indispensable so keeping him fit will be very important.