Belgian First Division A 2020/21: Anderlecht vs Royal Excel Mouscron – tactical analysis

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 management. This was the former Bundesliga player, EPL winner and ex-Manchester City captains first match in a dedicated managerial role. The hosts went into the match unbeaten after a win and a draw in their opening matches. Royal Excel Mouscron were looking for their first win of the season after a draw and a loss.

The match finished 1-1 but was not without incident. Anderlecht dominated the match in terms of possession, pressing and front foot tactics. Mouscron had a man sent off in the first half which seemingly put the writing on the wall for an Anderlecht win, given their underlying performance statistics throughout the match and their extra player. Anderlecht got the breakthrough in the second half via a penalty. However, after the goal, surprisingly, possession statistics became closer and Mouscron were able to score an equaliser in the 90th minute.  This tactical analysis will break the match down into various game moments to provide further analysis and insights into the tactics utilised by each team.

Line-ups

Anderlecht lined up in a 4-4-1-1 shape on paper, whereas Royal Excel Mouscron went for a 4-2-3-1. After the red card, Mouscron moved to a 4-4-1.

However, such line-ups and formations were not constant throughout different game phases. This can be seen by analysing the image of the average positions below. On average, Anderlecht played a 2-3-2-3 whilst Mouscron went for a 2-4-4.

Match statistics

The average positions also give us an insight into the match statistics. We can see that Anderlecht were positioned much higher up the pitch, whilst Royal Excel Mouscron adopted a deeper position. This is reflected in the possession, pressing intensity and xG.