GAMES Anderlecht have made a good start in Europe, but now they also need to turn their full attention to the league. Under the old format, every game is worth the same number of points, and so dropping points at home — with all due respect — against La Louvière is absolutely out of the question. There is still just under a month left in the transfer window, so it is extremely important to lose as few points as possible in the opening matches. Anderlecht's start to the season could have been much tougher, so in theory a strong start is within reach.
But Anderlecht, too, hopefully still has plenty of homework left to do in terms of incoming transfers, while there will also still be some players leaving. Although the results in Europe have been good, we should not close our eyes to the rest. The team already had a solid structure in place, but the purple-and-whites were only at a high level offensively for one half. That was enough to make the difference. Because coach Bruno currently has a limited number of viable options from the bench, especially at the back, too many changes do not seem to be on the cards compared with Thursday.
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Continue reading It does not seem like a good idea to start this match with both Kana and Llansana in the team, so Saliba is likely to start. In the press, coach Bruno floated the idea of playing on Monday after a European match, but Anderlecht should not really go along with that line of thinking. The question itself is not unreasonable, but it applies to every club in Europe, and that is simply the price you pay for European football. You have to make sure your squad is prepared for it mentally, physically and in terms of rotation options.
If Anderlecht want to reach the group stage of one of the two European competitions, they will often be playing twice a week until January. If Anderlecht want to close the gap on Club and Union, they will have to be 100% focused on the league.
