Football Season Guide

Charleroi had a decent last season despite the very difficult start and once again coach Mazzu showed great ability to squeeze out the best of his players. That said the Zebras got lucky on many occasions because they ended up scoring 7 goals inside the final five minutes of the games and if it wasn’t for Perbet’s amazing contribution inside the box Charleroi could have even been in relegation trouble. Perbet was only on loan though and this year he will be playing for KAA Gent and a new hero is needed. Mazzu brought in two new centre forwards but both Bakar and Bedia are of unknown quality and the early rounds will show much better how good they are. Pollet and Ferber are also hoping to get more chances now as last season Perbet’s form rooted the two of them to the bench. Surely from the four main centre forwards at least one will be showing good form at any point. Other than that no new names are signed at this minute, excluding Zajkov’s permanent move after a loan spell, and the two departed players operating as right wingers suggest that it is time for Clinton Mata to start more games. Mazzu has the pleasure to work with pretty much the same group of players for some time now and if nothing else Charleroi are expected to start the campaign well and maybe even stabilise in the top six in the first month or two. 4-2-3-1 will remain the favourite formation and the January arrivals Ninis and Benavante are expected to be much more influential this year. Ninis proved himself to be an excellent free-kick taker and in just 9 starts he provided 5 assists from set pieces last season and scored two direct free-kicks. This suggests that Charleroi will be scoring many goals from such situations, with their two centre-backs Dessoleil and Martos already finding the back of the net two times each in the pre-season games.