On match day one we immediately get a nice poster in the battle for a place in play-off 1. Can Charleroi continue the line of the last years now that Felice Mazzu has been looking for other places? Gent is very active on the transfer market and is aiming higher than last season. Will they succeed too?
Sporting Charleroi:
A new era starts this year on Charleroi: year one after Mazzu. After a period of boom (three Play-off 1 times and even European preliminaries once), this preparation is mainly dominated by question marks. Question marks to which nobody has an answer. With Karim Belhocine, Charleroi got a relatively inexperienced trainer with no honors list as head coach. Belhocine deserves time, in every dressing room where he passed he was praised for his good relationship with his players. At the same time, that also threatens to become a pitfall as head coach: now it is he who makes the choices.
The program of Charleroi the first five match days (Ghent, Kortrijk, Antwerp, Zulte Waregem and Club Brugge) is not out of the question. So in the battle for Play-off 1, the Carolos immediately know where they stand. The preparation was not yet an unqualified success and in terms of transfers it remains very quiet in the Black Country: Charleroi only got Modou Diagne, a Senegalese central defender who was at the end of the contract, in the Ligue 2. The African Cup also made the preparation difficult: strongholds Marco Ilaimaharitra and Victor Osimhen did not train yet, although Charleroi no longer takes into account that Osimhen will still play for them. On the other hand, Charleroi with Massimo Bruno and Ryota Morioka has two offensive pawns on which some teams in Play-off 1 would even be jealous.
Karim Belhocine therefore faces the difficult task of succeeding Felice Mazzu at Charleroi. “I prefer to work hard instead of talking about our ambitions,” the French Algerian says. “One calls it humility, the other will talk about a lack of ambition. But it is on the field that it has to happen this season. We should not talk too much in advance and afterwards we should not look for excuses. But everything is available to make it a great season. ”
Gent:
For the past three years, AA Gent has qualified twice for Play-off 1 with sweaty sweat. Last year a final sprint of twelve out of twelve was needed. The Buffalos did not wait until their luck ran out and broke with the tradition of selling their strongholds year after year. Vadis Odjidja received a new two-year contract, prodigy Jonathan David was not allowed to leave under any circumstances despite wide interest. During the gala match against AZ, AA Gent was more reminiscent of a team in October: a team that has been decoded. The main question after that match: who will populate the six after the departure of Birger Verstraete? For Anderson Esiti, a million dollar offer from PAOK is on the table.
AA Gent took the most goals out of the top ten in the regular competition. Defensive reinforcement was the priority and it was deployed with three internationals: Michael Ngadeu, Milad Mohammadi and Mikael Lustig. With Alessio Castro-Montes, Jan Van den Bergh and Reuben Yem, Thorup also got back-ups. Yuya Kubo, back from Nürnberg, showed AZ that he can again achieve goals. David must be able to do even better than last year and Laurent Depoitre would like to see the Buffalos coming.
Ghent ended the season with a nine out of nine in a 4-4-2 with a diamond. You don’t need real wingers, so there was no bet on a substitute for Stallone Limbombe. AA Gent could not participate in the million dance of Genk, Club and Standard. Thorup already talked about place three and the cup, but Ghent seems to be accepting more than other years in the role of underdog among the top six teams. That seems sensible and realistic.
PREDICTION: Both teams to score / YES @ 1,65
