Waasland-Beveren suffered very painful relegation in the end of what was difficult campaign right from the start. The Lions suffered 6 defeats in the first 7 rounds to set the tone for campaign of struggle and they were never outside the bottom 4 during the entire length of the season.
Run of 5 consecutive games with 3 or more goals conceded early in the campaign cleary showed where the main issues were, with Waasland never finding defensive stability once captain Caufriez was sold 4 games into the campaign. Without him the Lions looked lost in the heart of their defence all throughout and this single decision most likely the main reason why relegation was suffered.
Coach Heyen was never threatened with a sack as it was clear from early on that struggle for survival could be expected, lack of finances saw many young players thrown into the fight while the few valuable pieces from previous campaigns left in the summer.
Heymans had the most impressive breakthrough from the youngsters and, despite the fact that most of his major contributions came in 2020, the 21-year-old still could be happy with 8 goals/7 assists contribution in just 24 starts.
Frey also played well after joining in October and his goals late on were the main reason why Waasland avoided direct relegation in the final round. They still finished in the bottom 2 though and had to play play-off for survival against Seraing in May. The first leg seemingly put Waasland in command after 1:1 away draw and when they took early lead at home it all seemed to be pointing towards survival, but yet another awful defensive collapse led to 2:5 defeat and relegation.
After this huge setback the entire future of the club is under question now with COVID seriously squeezing the finances.
