Westerlo 2022/23: How Jonas de Roeck has guided the newly-promoted side to top eight of the Belgian First Division A – scout report

In 2019, the Westerlo 2024 project became official. The purchase by the Turkish businessman Oktay Ercan was just the start of what would be the financial, social and competitive rise of the Belgian team, which at that time was in the second division. Ercan decided to carry out a project with quite clear objectives to transform KVC Westerlo into one of the most complete teams in the country, with a short-to-medium-term view of becoming one of the best teams within the 16 of the Jupiler Pro League.

The appointment of the former assistant coach of Vincent Kompany at RSC Anderlecht, the young Jonas de Roeck in the 2021/22 campaign was the clearest step for the institution to achieve the first objective: promotion. They qualify in the first position of the league table. With him in his first season as their manager, they thrived to the Belgian first tier.

Not satisfied with just that, they invested in their squad with intelligent signings and very good scouting, which keeps them in seventh place in the Jupiler Pro League as it stands, with fun, purposeful and courageous football even against the greats of the competition.

That is why we are going to carry out a tactical analysis in the form of a scout report of the tactics implemented by Jonas de Roeck with Westerlo in the Belgian first division, as well as an analysis of each phase of his game.

Aggression in a mid-block

Normally when the teams play in a mid-block, even almost low, the aggression is not as clear as the teams that want to go and press high. Much of what is sought here is to wait for the rival and allow them to make the first pass, but after progression in the area where they do not want them to advance, it is where the most aggressive defensive actions will exist.

This is exactly how the Westerlo block is, with several triggers that they press but normally the majority of aggressiveness in their defensive approach is on the midfield. However, it is not only about going to cut and tackle those in charge of this area, the midfielders, but there are also other behaviours that they carry out that we are going to break down in this section.

The defensive solidity has not been one of the best in the league, with a statistic of 38 goals conceded and despite handling interesting ideas, some things should improve throughout the season. With matches ending 5-4 or 6-1 down, the numbers have swelled vastly.

The first thing we can see in Westerlo when they seek to defend against the rival is their positioning. They do not press that high, as they prefer to close down the middle third to the opponents. The team defends in a sort of 5-3-2 that is created in a back-five as a result of former Spurs player, Nacer Chadli, the winger, which drops down the left flank and this allows the entry of Maxim de Cuyper, the full-back into the line of central defenders. However, it is something that can also happen on the other side of the formation.

The line itself does not become a total five, and the idea is that the winger is always in front of his full-back, not to his side, so that he deploys the first jump to try and win the possession, instead of the full-back so that can protect his back line. The idea of the team is that, with this positioning and help from the wingers, the teams find it extremely uncomfortable to progress on the outside.

Despite