Pre season prognoses 2006-2007

Well, time to make some prognoses again. I'll start evaluating the teams from 1 to ... If you have any remarks or disagree, just mention.

 

Champion: Anderlecht.

Despite losing Kompany, Tihinen and Wilhelmsson Anderlecht looks stronger than ever. One major question this season will be the defense, which looks rather shabby.
Goalkeeper will be Zitka, until Proto returns from injury. This definitely is a solid part of the team. Central defenders are Van Damme and Juhasz. Both are quite underestimated IMHO and will do better than most people expect. Big question is what will happen if one of them gets injured, which could happen as both seem injury prone. Pareja might be an option, but I don't know how good he is, and I haven't heard too much flattering stuff from Argentina about him yet. At left back Deschacht is still first option. He's ok for the Belgian competition, but we all know he can't follow on a higher level . And then the strangest position of the team: right back. This place was initially taken by Vd Borre, but he seems to be moving up. Rumours are that Vercauteren wants Legaer there. He is a young talent from the youth academy that normally plays right wing. Let's see how this will work out.

In opposition to the defense are a great midfield and attack with Biglia, one of the ten biggest Argentinian talents, Hassan, reportedly the best African player, Frutos, the crowbar in attack, Boussoufa, best player in Belgium last year, Vanden Borre, still one of the biggest talents in Belgium (maybe even Europe) and Serhat, one of the better Turkish players. Add to this some young players like Lamah, Allagui and Siani and some older ones like Goor, Vanderhaeghe, Leiva and Anderlecht is set for the title. I fear they will have a bad start, but in the end everything will work out fine for them.

So, in short, they look brilliant up front and shabby in defense.

 

Runner up: Club Brugge.

Club will end close this year. They haven't done much transfers, but the players they bought are either very talented or very mature. Daerden will prove his worth but the big guy up front will be the major revelation on all stages: Ibrahim Salou is the name, remember it, 'cause he will only get better. He can be replaced by Ishiaku.
Chavez might be his assistant up front. He seems to be a major Peruvian talent I haven't seen play yet. The other transfer, Dreesen (CB) should be seen as one for the future, but he might get some chances earlier than expected.
They also still have Maertens, De Cock, Klukowski, Gvozdenovic (left and right backs) Clement, Valgaeren and the big talent Vandelanoitte in the back. This defense will be lead by Stijn Stijnen, who managed to impress some Italian clubs last year when playing Juventus.
Except for Daerden I still have some doubts about the Brugge midfield. Leko, Vermant, Dufer, Englebert; they have proven their worth in the past but I wouldn't want them in my team. Let's hope for them I have to swallow these words fast.
They also keep some talent on the bench with Roelandts (who IMO is one of their better midfielders), Blondel and Van Heerden.

The best transfer of Club seems to be the coach, Emilio Ferrera, who is really fit to coach a top team.

They seem ready for the big work and I don't see many teams stopping them. They will end close to Anderlecht.

You will hear who ends in third spot soon enough. It will be the surprise team of the season. Guesses are always welcome...

 

On demand...

 

3th place and big surprise of the season: GBA

GBA managed to keep its defense together and lost topscorer Dosunmu and defensive mid De Decker. IMHO these are not too big losses, especially the fact that they could keep their defense together is a good thing, as it is quite underestimated.
GBA bought a lot of Argentinian players. I don't know if they're any good but the pre-season matches looked very promising and I've heard some promising stuff about some of them too. They also have a large squad, which should make it easy to counter injuries and suspensions. They might just be the surprise of this season, although this is rather based on subjective guesses than on fact material.
I'm hoping Cruz will find his good form again and will lead this team to glory...
I also see them get far in the cup.

 

Stekke, why do you rate Charleroi that high?

 

Somehow I totally seem to have forgotten about Balaban in the Brugge analysis. Do you guys think he will play much this season?

 

4th place: Standard Liège

I initially had my doubts about Standard, but they seem do be doing quite alright on the transfer market. If they can keep this team together and buy another good defender/striker (I don't know if Sa Pinto still is any good) they might be able to compete with A'lecht and Club. I fear somehow that they will have to let go of Onyewu and maybe even Geraerts, which would be a big loss. Standard did one of the transfers of the year by buying Steven Defour, the 18yo talented playmaker from RC Genk. If he can become the new leader under the wings of Sergio Conceicao this Standard might do very well. I also heard some promising stuff about Jovanovic, the new left winger who has scored in practically every preseason game. For the rest they have a vast amount of talent and now we can finally see Dupré at a top team (if he can get past Deflandre).

Latest rumour (news?) would be that Stipe Pletikosa is joining Standard. Would be nice...

And of course we are all looking forward to match day 3, when Steven Defour will be playing against his former team Genk (for those who don't know: he left for peanuts, everybody was angry and the chairman resigned).

 

5th place: RC Genk

A young team with the same problem as last year: no leaders. May be some guys will stand up again (possibly Vrancken en De Decker) but I still have to see it. Bosnjak might be a good transfer but I don't know if they will have the needed quality/mentality to run a good championship. If they start ok and have few injuries they might do better, but I rather see them underperform than the other way around. For the rest it is counting on their good youngsters, like Pocognoli or Verdonck to develop in a good way.

 

6th place: Zulte-Waregem

Despite being the deception of the first match day, they will have a pretty good season IMO. They lost some valuable players but did some good transfers with Roussel, Janssens and De Vlieger. Combined with their mental force and their great coach they might be the surprise of the season again.