Football Season Guide

Charleroi barely escaped relegation last season. The Zebras had a very inconsistent campaign. They struggled in attack for many months. The main striker Dabbagh went without scoring for nearly 6 months. The Zebras ended the regular season having the third-weakest attack, only 26 goals scored in 30 games. This resulted in them finishing in the bottom 4. Coach Mazzu was sacked before the start of the play-offs and Club Brugge’s assistant Rik de Mil took over. Credit to De Mil he managed to improve the form vastly during the play-offs – 5 wins, 1 draw and 0 defeats. This was enough to secure survival. Now in his first summer at the club De Mil tries to rebuild his squad. As it was expected many players, including the 2 most important ones – goalkeeper Koffi and captain Ilaimaharitra – are no longer in the team. Charleroi already added 2 new goalkeepers and it seems experienced Defourny will be the new number one. The options in defence remain very limited though. After 5 centre-backs left this summer and only 1 new one has been signed Charleroi are really stripped for options in defence right now. In the middle of the park it seems a new Algerian duo will be pulling the strings. Zorgane was solid last season and now he’s expected to team up with the newly signed Titraoui. Up front there has been no changes this off-season.