Football Season Guide

Last season Union Saint-Gilloise missed dramatically on the title. Yellow and Blues were comfortable winners of the regular season. Only 2 defeats in the first 30 rounds gave them a commanding lead heading into the play-offs. However, crucial narrow defeats in the post season against the 2 teams from Brugge (2:3 against Cercle and 1:2 against Club) meant that Union finished a point behind Club Brugge in second place. Despite this set back the positives from last season were many. The first main issue of the summer was to address the managerial position. After only 1 year in charge Blessin left. Of all the possibilities out there Union’s leadership decided to go for a high-risk appointment. The 37-year-old Sébastien Pocognoli was put in charge in what will be his first-ever job at a senior level. He comes from managing Belgium’s U18s, while before that he was manager of Racing Genk’s U18s. The new manager saw his attack being stripped immediately after he took charge. Both Amoura (18 league goals last season) and Nilsson (16 league goals last season) left. Mohammed Fuseini and Promise David were signed as replacements. From them only the former is seen as a regular starter though. Kevin Rodríguez or Dennis Eckert Ayensa could be given more starts this season, but both of them are prone to injuries. There has been no other major changes to the squad with the same core in defence and midfield that carried the load still there and available to the new head coach. Pocognoli used a 4-man defence often in pre-season but last season Union did best when trusting the 3-4-1-2 shape, so it is not clear which formation will be favoured.