Football Season Guide

The Canaries and their new Japanese owners, only last October they bought the team, opted to go for a relatively inexperienced manager this summer in Marc Brys. He arrived from the second Belgium division where he managed Beerschot in 2017/18, with his experience before that being 3 years in charge of Saudi Arabian teams. Brys is yet to sign enough players and he is finding it difficult to convince some of his targets to join Sint-Truiden. That said, apart from the six players on loan that returned to their parent clubs nobody else of the regulars was sold so far and the backbone of the team should be very similar as it was last season. Knowing Sint-Truiden’s transfer activity in recent years they are very likely to increase their depth with the accusation of several players on loan late in the transfer window. For now Brys is using mainly 4-2-3-1 as a formation in the friendlies, but he also tested 4-4-2 with decent success and both Ceballos and Boli are happy enough to play as a front duo, or as sole strikers. Nazon’s signing gives the Canaries an extra option up front, with the defence also strengthened with the signing of three new players. Sint-Truiden had difficulties on the road pretty much every season since returning to the top flight in 2016 and this is likely to continue because the main weakness of the current line-up seems to be the lack of options in the heart of the midfield. Veteran De Petter is the only typical holding midfielder in the squad and, despite the fact that Asamoah, Bezus and De Sart have been rotating to partner him in the double-six role, none of them are defensive-minded players and regularly this exposes the back line. The other concern is the fact that Dussaut is the only typical right-back in the squad at the minute, but Brazilian Thallyson has played in the role back in South America and he could even be the preferred starter on the right side of the defence as the season progresses.