I won't be the first to tell you, but I will tell you someting about the Belgians in the Barclays Premier League. It's considered one of the biggest competitions in the world, and maybe even the biggest. And there are a lot of Belgian players there. Kompany, Vermaelen, Vertonghen, Mirallas, Lukaku, De Bruyne, and so on. What is the reason for all these Belgian players? I think I found a possible answer.
It all started with Vincent Kompany, who was not only the first of the golden generation, which did so well in the qualifications for the world cup, he was also the first to go to England. He moved from Hamburg to Manchester City when he was ready to do it. It was a success tale. He played every match, next to a lot of stars, and he became a star on its own. Now he's captain at Man City, and he always plays good. The story of Kompany inspired a lot of other players to go to England, and they also seem to attract other players. In my opinion, that's the reason why there are such a lot of Belgian players in the BPL.
Everyone thinks they know the best central midfielders of Belgium. The triangle of Standard, Witsel-Fellaini-Defour is considered very good, and Dembele can replace them as number 10, or central attacking midfielder. Hazard and De Bruyne can also play in the middle, but besides them, most people can only think of Timmy Simons. But they all seem to forget Radja Nainggolan.
Nainggolan plays for Cagliari, in the Serie A. He's wanted by teams as Inter and Juventus, but because of financial problems they weren't able to buy him. But now there's a new president at Inter, and he wants to complete the transfer as fast as possible. And he's totally right. Nainggolan is one of the best midfielders in the Serie A, which is an honor, because he is compared with top players like Arturo Vidal and Claudio Marchisio. But even Marc Wilmots doesn't seem to want him, as he always forgets him. It's a mystery to me, the mystery of Nainggolan.
The big happiness the Belgian national team experienced after winning their qualification group, is now officially gone. Two matches against countries who are considered equal to Belgium, have destroyed the happiness, and as a result of this losses they're back with their both feet on the ground. Even a child could see that the Belgians weren't good enough to compete against this kind of teams. The Colombian team was more efficient, and Japan was just better. The road to Brazil is still long, but they also need to do a lot of work.
The transfer market isn't even close to its opening, but there are already a lot of rumours about Kevin De Bruyne. The young belgian, who was bought by Chelsea this summer, doesn't play there. 'The Special One' thinks he's not good enough to join the team. And of course, everyone wants the Belgian talent.
2 rather unrealistic candidates are Werder Bremen and Atletico Madrid. The first isn't realistic, because it was his team last season. He needs to make progression, and he won't be able to when he stays at the same team. Atletico isn't realistic either, because it's a well organised team. They're winning most of their matches, the team is okay, so the chance that De Bruyne will gets his chance isn't big.
The team that could be the one, is Wolfsburg. They're 'the best of the rest' in Germany, as Dortmund and Bayern are considered unbeatable. But they have their demands, and they won't make it easy. They want to be able to buy De Bruyne, and Chelsea doesn't agree. To be continued in january...
A few days ago, Anderlecht lost the game against PSG. Did anyone expect something else? I guess no. But the poor gameplay, the big difference between the two teams, and the mentality of the players really shocked me, and not only me. The difference between the two teams was not immediately visible. The first quarter, PSG wasn't awake I guess, because their passes weren't that accurate, and the difference between the two teams wasn't even there. But then Ibrahimovic woke up. He started his one-man-show and scored four goals in the first half. And as if it wasn't enough, he even scored his fourth in the second half. All of them were goals Anderlecht can only dream about. Cavani even made the fifth goal, and humiliated Anderlecht completely.
But the thing that shocked me the most, was the mentality of players and coach. Before the match even started, they were convinced they were going to lose. They couldn't do anything about the world stars of PSG. Only because of this mentality you will lose every single match against teams like PSG. The same mentality was found during the game. The only thing Anderlecht tried, was defending. Mitrovic was the only player who was attacking, and Suarez was not a striker, but a defender. You can't win a match when you're playing the whole match like this. So they didn't. But the thing that shocked me the most, was the mentality of the trainer afterwards. He said his team wasn't ready for the champions league. Were has the respect for your team gone?
