The bad start in numbers

OTHER Only twice in club history did Anderlecht had a worse start than this season. Moreover, the numbers show that purple-white has performed worse in several areas of play this season than under Mazzu's predecessors Vincent Kompany and Frank Vercauteren.


Only in the 1998-1999 season with 11 points and in the 2019-2020 season with 9 points did Anderlecht have fewer points after ten playing days. In both cases, that had consequences for the coach. In 1999, Arie Haan was fired on Sept. 16. In 2019, Simon Davies had to step down on October 3. Quite a contrast to the 2003-2004 season.

Then Anderlecht started with 28 out of 30. In the past decade, purple-white barely reached 20 points or more three times.

Win rate

Sporza took a closer look at several statistics. These show that Felice Mazzu is inferior to his predecessors. We go over the numbers.

Mazzu won four of his 10 league games with Anderlecht so far. That's 40 percent. Kompany achieved a winning percentage of 44 percent, Vercauteren of 48 percent.

Goals and passes

Anderlecht is also scoring less under Mazzu than under his two predecessors. On average, purple-white is scoring 1.6 goals per game this season. Under Kompany they were 1.7 and under Vercauteren even 2.0.

The number of "expected goals" is also lower: 1.4 under Mazzu versus 1.7 under Vercauteren and 1.8 under Kompany.

Furthermore, it is hardly surprising that the number of passes is lower than under Kompany. Then Anderlecht averaged 525.2 passes per game, now only 465.9. Under Vercauteren they were 474.6.

It's not that Anderlecht is conceding fewer goals now either. With an average of 1.1 goals against per game, Mazzu is doing as well as Kompany. Vercauteren did better with 1.0.

The switch

Mazzu was brought to Anderlecht to bring more vertical football. High pressing and sharp counters were his recipe for success at Union, but at Anderlecht this formula is not yet catching on. Indeed, in this area, Mazzu's predecessors even performed better.

'High turnovers' is the term that reflects when a team captures the ball in the 40 meters in front of the opponent's goal. Under Mazzu, Purple-White averaged 6.3 high turnovers per game. Under Kompany, there were 8.2. Even Vercauteren does better with 6.5.

The number of goals after such high turnovers this season is 40 percent. Under Kompany it was still 44 percent and under Vercauteren 48 percent.

The fast breakouts and goals after fast breakouts are quasi equal for the three coaches. Mazzu and Vercauteren provided 0.3 fast breakaways per game, Kompany 0.4. The number of goals this resulted in is the same for the three at 0.1.