Football Season Guide

Beerschot returned to the top flight after winning the second tier title last season. Despite not having the best attack or the best defence in the Challenge Pro League the team from Antwerp still accumulated the most wins – 17 in 30 rounds – and topped the final standings by 2 points. Relegated only in 2022 the Violets still have a squad with lots of players that have rich experience at the top level. Beerschot continue to rely on many players from the Dutch league too, which is explained by the fact that their head coach is the legendary Dutch striker Dirk Kuyt. Kuyt preaches attacking football and his preferred formation is 3-4-2-1. Reyners operates on the right wing in this shape but in many games last season he also started as a false nine. Reyners ended up being the only Beerschot player with double digit goals in the previous campaign – 10. The main departures in the off-season were at the full-back positions. Nzita and Van Beijnen are no longer in the squad. However, with Kuyt preferring to play wide midfielders instead of typical full-backs in his system this was somewhat expected. Beerschot so far added 2 new centre-backs, both from the Dutch league, and 2 interesting inner midfielders. On top of that Wright-Phillips comes to boost the attack. He can play both on the flank and through the middle, so fits perfectly the fluid attacking tactics used by the manager. The main concerns right now are on goal. Just a week before the start of the new season the only senior goalkeeper in the squad is the relatively insecure in his displays last term Davor Matijas. Beerschot are actively looking to add more depth in this position but if they stick with Matijas this could spell trouble. He’s struggling to deal with crosses often and also lacks speed when it is needed to intercept long through balls ahead of charging strikers.