Since Miron Muslić took over at Cercle Brugge in September of 2022, the Belgian side have been constantly improving.
Now, in 2024, the Belgian side started the post-winter break in Belgium with a dominant performance against last seasons league runners-up, Genk.
Muslić’s side were unlucky not to leave the Cegeka Arena with three points, with the match ending 1-1.
This tactical analysis will examine three key tactical trends from the match against Genk, while also utilising data and analysis from previous games this season to demonstrate that Cercle Brugges performance was essentially complete, with the scoreline being the only negative aspect.
We will examine the match against Genk in the context of Cercle Brugge’s season, highlighting the identity that Muslić aims for his side to possess and the tactics he intends to employ.
Pressing shape caused Genk problems
Before we delve into the analysis of Cercle Brugge’s pressing and their pressing shape from the match against Genk, it would be beneficial to start by examining their statistics in this metric this season.
Cercle Brugge’s PPDA of 6.78 is far and away the lowest in the division, highlighting the rate at which Muslić’s side press, as well as how successful they have been.
As the title of this section states, we are going to take a deeper dive into the pressing shape of Cercle Brugge against Genk, with Muslić’s goal to prevent Genk goalkeeper Maarten Vandevoort from using his back line to build from the back, as well as limiting the time the backs were on the ball if they did receive possession.
The image above shows a pressing phase from Cercle Brugge early in the match off of Genk’s goal kick.
Typically, Wouter Vrancken’s side look to play possession-based football, with it common for Genk’s back line to play between each other, looking to break opposition presses down before playing line breaking passes, either into the wide channels or centrally, with Genk’s defenders across the back line all very good in possession.
Muslić
