Football Season Guide

Mechelen had a quiet and very even last season that saw the team never moving higher than 9th place and dropping lower than 13th. This wasn’t ideal for coach Jankovic and his players but they made too many mistakes in winnable games and this proved costly. The summer hasn’t been kind to the squad in terms of protecting the core and four hugely important players departed. Goalkeeper Gillet was amazing for Mechelen last term but his loan ended and he didn’t renew it, while Hanni’s departure sees Yellow and Reds losing their leader both in assists and goals scored. To try and fill his place on the left wing the manager brought four left midfielders already and he will keep rotating them in the early rounds until one shows better things than the others. At the minute Moris is the new number one and he will have to come big if this remains so as Mechelen don’t have a great defensive track record over the past few years. Jankovic keeps insisting to play with three at the back and despite the few times he used 4-2-3-1 in the pre-season the most likely starting formation for most games will be 3-4-2-1. Cocalic, Bjelica and Vitas will form the protecting shield, with Paulussen and Chen competing for the right wing-back position and Volkov or any of the four newly arrived left midfielders options for the other flank. In the heart of the midfield the departures of Cisse and De Petter mean that newcomer Zeljko Filipovic will be the new key figure with his vast experience, while Rits started most friendlies so far as his partner and he should be regular this term. Matthys and maybe Kolovos or Schouterden will support the lone striker Verdier. The latter needs to be in good form because the robust typical number nine Veselinovic is waiting on the bench for a chance to shine. On paper Mechelen have a decent enough squad to achieve another mid-table position easy, but as the ambitious manager wants more he is likely to push his squad hard in search of first top six finish after the regular season in eight years.