Football Season Guide

After a few seasons in Second Tier Cercle Brugge are delighted to be back in the top flight, where they will hope to establish. Despite securing promotion in style last season Cercle underwent changes during the summer months. The promotion-winning coach left for France and as his replacement was appointed Laurent Guyot, he was manager of Toronto FC in Canada for the last 3 years. Soon after arriving Guyot saw both starting full-backs from last season and the most creative player and main assists’ provider, Crysan, leaving as their loans ended. However, Cercle Brugge are sister-club of the French giants Monaco and, after having 5 of their players on loan last season, this term as many as 8 will be helping. From them the most important seem to be goalkeeper Nardi and the natural goalscorer Cardona, who not only spent last year in Brugge too, but seem to have promised starting roles. Cercle Brugge are likely to operate with five at the back, especially against the best teams in the league. The fact that all five of the centre-backs are aged 30 or older, no one is older than 33 though, means that defensively Green and Blacks intend to be a very tough nut to crack. Despite missing the starters from last season at full-backs, Cercle made sure to have options and they currently rely on 3 left-backs and 3 right-backs to choose from. The departure of Crysan means that playmaker Mercier will be the main creative force from the number ten role, but the new gaffer added also to the group Lusamba from Nice and he is expected to share the creative responsibility with the former. With only three typical wingers in the books and not very high-profile players as full-backs Cercle are likely to focus on being nuisance defensively and looking for attacks through the middle. There might be change in the system up front, last season Cercle used to play with two centre forwards. Now it seems more likely that only one of Cardona or Bruno will be starting, but if Cercle chase games the well-working duo could be playing together again late in matches.