Sint-Truiden had disappointing campaign, with the main reason for that the unsuccessful experiment attempted last summer when lacking experience out of Australia coach Kevin Muscat was trusted to lead the team.
Bringing with him attacking tactics from a very different league was always going to be tough project for Muscat and, despite given time to adjust, he never found a way to correct his mistakes. Sint-Truiden started to play decent football only after his sacking 16 rounds into the season.
Run of only 2 wins in the first 16 rounds and pathetic away form, just 2 points from the opening 8 away games, doomed Muscat to failure, but the Canaries managed to avoid disaster once Peter Maes took charge.
Under Muscat many players were used out of positions and also the all-out-attack tactics regarding the wing-backs kept backfiring. Under Maes the formation stayed similar, but no longer the wide defenders were given total freedom to only attack and 5 wins in the first 7 games under the new manager quickly moved Sint-Truiden out of the bottom 2.
Late in the season the form declined again, but still crucial wins against direct rivals for survival Cercle Brugge and Waasland-Beveren were enough to secure safety with 2 games to spare.
Top scorer Yuma Suzuki was again the most reliable forward asset, while the other players that played crucial roles in 2021 were actually January signings. All of Lavalée, Bruls and Mboyo became important figures the moment they joined and Maes clearly showed great ability to improve the squad with transfers.
The plan for the summer seems to be to cash in on the top scorer for the past 2 campaigns Suzuki, with the hefty fee expected for him likely to be enough to secure financial stability and allow Maes to add new pieces to his team.
