Club Bruges Struggles to Find Form Amid Defensive Concerns and Fan Pressure

The honeymoon is over. And if it is obviously too early to talk about divorce, we will have to avoid missteps. Because Club Bruges is not shining. With four shares of rank and a record of 16 points out of 27 which puts them in fourth place in the ranking (but three small points behind Union and Ghent), Ronny Deila’s men approach the European trip to Bodo, this Thursday, and especially that at Standard on Sunday with a certain pressure on the shoulders.

Defensively, it’s scary

Bruges’ main concern is in defense, where goals fall too easily. In the last ten matches played by the Blauw in Zwart, they have always conceded. Only Kortrijk is worse with 12 matches conceded in its last 12 outings. “We are unstable,” admitted Simon Mignolet, tired of having to turn around. “When the opponent decides to play his game, he can have fun offensively,” analyzed Marc Degryse in HLN last weekend.

Behind avoidable defensive errors and a vulnerable block lies Ronny Deila’s difficulty in finding the right formula, both at the level of his rearguard and in the midfield. The substitutions of Boyata and Onyedika at half-time in the match against Sint-Truiden are proof of this. Just like the fact that the Norwegian coach (who will return to his native country this Thursday evening) brought Eder Balanta out of the closet during the last two matches.

The audience tenses

The best barometer in Bruges is often its public. And against Sint-Truiden on Sunday, he rumbled. A first time when Ronny Deila replaced Thiago with Ferran Jutgla instead of combining them. Then a second time at the end of the match, during which the Bruges players received numerous whistles. When the players took their victory lap, the stadium was almost empty.

We feel it: the demanding audience at the Jan Breydel stadium is tense. Accustomed to excellence under Philippe Clement or Alfred Schreuder, he has had to make do with less for several months. After a big transfer window (Thiago, Vetlesen, Zinckernagel, etc.), the summer augured the best following the arrival of Deila, but the month of September was absolutely not reassuring. So much so that Deila has fewer points than a certain Carl Hoekfens after nine days (16 against 19 for his predecessor). Less than three months later, the latter was dismissed from his position.

Joined at the end of the match against Besiktas, Bruges can bite their fingers

A balance to find

If it is still looking for itself defensively, the Club can count on Skov Olsen (nine goals and three assists), Vanaken (four goals and six assists) and Nusa (two goals and three assists) to make the difference offensively. But the latter’s injury has clearly left a void in recent weeks. And highlighted the fact that the Bruges force was more individual than collective.

Overall, it lacks harmony. “I have to make my mea culpa: this 3-5-2, which I thought was a good idea against Sint-Truiden, did not work. We didn’t work on him enough,” Deila admitted last weekend, pointing out his own responsibility, as he had already done several times at Standard last season.

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We don’t have enough time to practice because we play all the time.

But the deficiencies go further than a simple choice of system. The start of matches has rarely been good in recent weeks (against Anderlecht, Genk and Saint-Trond, the Bruges suffered from the start) and Deila’s half-time speech has often had an effect upon returning from the locker room, without his team however managing to turn the match around.

But the human management qualities of the Norwegian coach, who no longer needs to be introduced, have their limits. If everyone in Bruges agrees that he has brought back the good atmosphere to the Knokke training center, insisting as at Sclessin on the “gang” spirit, his game plan lacks clarity.

“We don’t have much time to train because we have matches every three or four days,” Deila defends. It’s fun to play so much but it prevents you from working on certain aspects. Despite everything, I am convinced that we are on the right track.”

The coming week is the right opportunity to show it. At the risk of already finding yourself on the unenviable list of threatened coaches. Which, after a trip to Standard, would still be quite a snub.

Bruges have not won since September 16 against Charleroi.
2023-10-05 10:04:00
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