The third matchday of the Belgian Pro League had some interesting matchups on the programme. One of them being the game between Standard Liege and Genk. Standard were on maximum points going into this game by winning their opening games against Cercle Brugge with coach Paul Clement who is former...
With the Belgian First Division A recently starting its 2020/2021 campaign, it is vital that each team gets off to a bright start. In this match, Anderlecht faced Royal Excel Mouscron. Anderlecht had just received confirmation that their player-manager, Vincent Kompany, would be retiring from playing to focus solely on...
Waasland-Beveren were perhaps fortunate to even be playing first division football in Belgium when the league was brought to an abrupt end. It took countless meetings with officials before the league was extended to 18 teams and they were allowed to remain, even though they finished bottom of the shorter...
Last weekend The Belgian Pro League were the first ones to kick start the 2020/21 football season after it was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As the first matchday had some interesting matchups on the programme, the second one promised to be another exciting weekend full of football games....
With the Belgian First Division A recently starting its 2020/2021 campaign, it is vital that each team gets off to a bright start. Champions in recent seasons, Genk, finished in a disappointing 7th place last season. Hoping to push for the UEFA Champions League and beyond, Genk wanted to start...
Matchweek two of the Belgian Pro League saw the first Friday night kick-off of the 2020/21 season, with Royal Excel Mouscron hosting KV Mechelen. Both sides had picked up a point from their opening fixtures against what many would consider to be stronger opposition, so they came into this game...
Belgian’s Pro League was one of the first to curtail the season after the advent of the COVID-19 crisis. Club Brugge were awarded the title and after a few meetings it was decided that the next season would constitute 18 teams, rather than the usual 16. The Pro League made...
The EPL, La Liga and Bundesliga were all completed in the 2019/20 season. However, the Belgian First Division A was one of the first leagues in Europe to be permanently cancelled due to COVID-19. Whilst the league was not fully concluded in 2019/20, the restart of the competition for the...
Up until Friday, both OH Leuven and Beerschot Wilrijk were set to face each other in a winner-takes-all promotion decider, with the away side taking a slender advantage into the second leg. However, the Belgian football authorities, in agreement with the clubs, decided to extend the Belgian Pro League to...
Corner kicks are a vital part of football. Whilst the corner kick is sometimes misconceived due to an overinflated perception of success, the set-piece can differentiate between winning, losing and drawing outcomes in an instant, therefore, highlighting the need to repeatedly investigate corners. Studies have shown corners to result in...
KRC Genk suffered a disappointing season in the Belgian Pro League 2019/20. Finishing down in seventh, they ended up five points adrift of European qualification, far below their expectations. Former Bundesliga manager Hannes Wolf struggled to bring success to a side who lost key players such as Mbwana Samatta, Leandro...
Madagascar has never been considered a hotbed of football talent within the African continent. However, their performances at AFCON 2019 certainly turned some heads, and they quickly became a team favoured by the neutrals for their exciting brand of football and gung-ho approach to games. Their 2-0 victory over a...
For most leagues, consistency is the key to success, with usually those who are the most consistent over the course of a full season winning trophies and getting promoted. In the Belgian second tier, this is not the case. Split into two phases, a side only needs to win one...
Royal Antwerp were one of the strongest sides in the Belgian Pro League during the 2019/20 season. The goals from former EPL striker with Hull and Norwich, Diermerci Mbokani, were a crucial factor in their finishing fourth overall and qualifying for the Europa League next season. One player who was...
When it comes to possession, many of us expect that the top teams in any given league will be the more ball-dominant. Stronger sides are expected to see more of the ball, especially as so-called lesser teams will set up in a more defensive way and look to play on...
Gojko Cimirot is a defensive midfielder playing for Standard Liege in the Belgian First Division A. Cimirot, originally from Bosnia and Herzegovina, has been highlighted as an exciting, young, defensive midfield player in a recent data analysis piece by Toni Bilandzic. The data analysis piece analysed all central and defensive...
Aleksandar Vukotic is a 24-year-old centre-back for Waasland-Beveren. The club signed the player from FK Krupa, based in Bosnia and Herzegovina, for €350,000, a club record fee at the time, highlighting that the Belgian club rated Vukotić highly. Since then, Vukotić has been highlighted as a standout performer in a...
Abdoulaye Seck is a 27-year-old central defender for Antwerp in the Belgium First Division A. The Senegalese, Seck, has been identified by Toni Bilandzic in his data analysis piece on centre-backs in Belgium. The data outlined Seck as an effective central defender overall, with impressive comparative data in defensive duels,...
This is the last part of ‘’Finding the best players in Belgian Pro League’’ series that was based on data and statistics. The final data analysis will show us the best forwards in the league this season. Our dataset consists of players who mainly played as forwards and played at...
In this part of finding the best players from the Belgian Pro League, we will search for best offensive midfielders. This data analysis contains statistics from season 2019/20. We filtered players who spent most of their playing time as attacking midfielder and winger, played at least 600 minutes in the...
