Finally, Brian Riemer has a complete core at his disposal. All the summer transfers are ready to play, but will any of them make the cut?
The transfer window for RSC Anderlecht was gargantuan, but Brian Riemer was unable to work with all his summer reinforcements for a long time. Thomas Delaneyclearly arrived to be the boss of the midfield, in fact injured his collarbone at the end of September, after 4 matches.
This time, everything is in place: Delaney made his return to the Tivoli pitch, and even if he came out during the break, no worries. “It was planned that he would only play half time. Thomas was already ready last weekend, but we decided to wait a little. Here, the objective was to see his reactions to the shocks in a match situation,” explains Brian Riemer.
The Dane clearly did not play his best half, but the main thing was elsewhere: he did not feel any discomfort, and should therefore be able to start on Sunday at Cercle de Bruges. It remains to be seen who will pay the price.
Mario Stroeykens or Mats Rits?
Unless there is a surprise, namely that Delaney does not return to the eleven while Brian Riemer discusses his case every Friday since his injury, we will therefore have to part ways with a man in the Leoni-Rits-Stroeykens trio. And Théo Leoni, best Mauve since the start of the season, seems untouchable.
The one who took advantage of Thomas Delaney’s injury was of course Mario Stroeykens. Not immediately: Amadou Diawara initially took the Dane’s place, without much success, and Stroeykens was then included in the eleven against Mechelen. He hasn’t left it since, and finally seems to have found his cruising speed.
Can we send back to the bench a player who has 2 goals and an assist in three games (and was rather good when he was not decisive, at Sclessin)? That would send a strange message to the locker room, and Brian Riemer knows he has to juggle a large core. If you take your chance with gusto, but are benched when a player like Thomas Delaney returns from injury, motivation will take a hit.
© photonews
The one who should therefore in our eyes fear for his place is well Mats Rits. Never bad, the ex-Bruges player has also not shown all the qualities expected of a player of his caliber: few infiltrations, little impact, even if his positioning is always impeccable. In a role of 6, Delaney seems capable of replacing him without problem.
Towards a Delaney-Leoni-Stroeykens milieu?
Since the start of the season, Brian Riemer has regularly aligned defensive trios in midfield: Arnstad-Ashimeru-Diawara at the start of the season, Leoni-Diawara-Rits before the arrival of Delaney and after his injury, and again Arnstad-Diawara-Delaney this Tuesday in the Cup. The result has almost never been brilliant.
The Delaney-Leoni-Stroeykens trio, on the other hand, would be unprecedented. Is he balanced enough defensively to hold his own, especially with Thomas Delaney barely back from injury? It’s up to Riemer to judge. But Mats Rits probably hasn’t won many points in recent weeks…
2023-11-02 10:30:00
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