Mazzu: "Players showed they wanted to win"

INTERVIEWS Felice Mazzu must have been relieved when he spoke to the press after the game against KV Mechelen. But whether he will now also permanently change his playing system, he would not say.


"Based on our second period, the victory is deserved," Mazzu said. "I want to point out the reaction of the players at the end of the first half and in the second. They corrected our catastrophic start of the game like that. The players showed willingness to respond after the deficit and that they wanted to win."

"Next positive things I want to remember: the will of the players, a young player from the club who scored our first two goals and extra aggressiveness in the second half. The players wanted to show that we are still here together and that we want to move forward together. Not everything was perfect, but I hope we will remember the positive rather than the negative. The players proved that they deserve to be treated positively."

"KV Mechelen played a lot over the sides. Because of those circumstances, I decided to change the system. "Whether we will continue with a four-man defense? We'll see, but this victory makes me rethink everything.

"Players like Stroeykens are Anderlecht's future."

Finally, Mazzu also spoke briefly about Stroeykens. "Mario is very young, so I'm not going to be too quick with him. Players like him are Anderlecht's future. He can play in the striker position, but during his training he sometimes played a little lower. After a good start, he had some difficult weeks. He gained confidence at U23 and has a great mentality. I'm happy for him."

"Today he didn't come as a second striker. He had to play in the midfield triangle and infiltrate. He managed to do that well. We are still in the Anderlecht project: we are trying to get young people playing as quickly as possible who deserve it. Experience is good, but when young people deserve it, they are on the field."