Reunited for Success: Steuckers and Fink’s strategic partnership at Genk in 2024/25 – scout report

Jarne Steuckers has had a very good first two seasons at senior level in professional football. After being promoted from the Sint-Truiden U21s at the end of the 2021/22 season, Steuckers was sent on loan to Dutch Eerste Divisie side MVV Maastricht. There, he excelled for the second division side, finishing with nine goals and eight assists. He played in a more attacking midfield role while also drifting wide right and playing in a wider position. 

After returning to Sint-Truiden last summer, the 22-year-old Belgium became a favourite for new manager Thorsten Fink, with the German deploying him as one of the two central attacking midfielders in his preferred 3-4-2-1 formation, usually playing on the right. He also was used at times by Fink as the right-sided wide forward when the formation was altered to a 3-4-3. He had another great season, with seven goals & six assists in all competitions for the Belgian side. 

His performances persuaded Genk to sign the youngster this summer, with Steuckers re-joining the club he played with at youth level for a bargain fee of only €800,000, due to a release clause in his Sint-Truiden contract. The move for Steuckers also reunites him with Fink, with the German recently being announced as their new manager. Fink likely played a role in the transfer, with Steuckers being a perfect fit for the tactics he will likely deploy at Genk. This tactical analysis and scout report will take a detailed look at Jarne Steuckers and what Genk fans can expect from him. 

Positional overview 

For Sint-Truiden this season, Jarne Steuckers played a prominent role. The Belgian youth international is normally deployed on the right-hand side, whether that be as a wing-back, attacking midfielder, or even further advanced as a wide forward. 

The heatmap shown above is able to give us a bit of a more in-depth picture of the areas on the pitch that Steuckers tends to find himself. The 22-year-old is heavily involved on the right side of the pitch, with most of his involvement coming in the attacking half. Steuckers tends to operate in either the wide channels or the half-spaces, where he looks to try and get in possession as often as he can, with his ball distribution one of his strengths, especially passes to the final third and into the penalty area.