Standard Liege v Gent

The first game of the 2022-23 season in Belgium’s Pro League kicks off Friday evening in Standard Liege’s grand old Maurice Dufrasne Stadion, one of the nation’s largest. Ronny Deila’s side play host to the reigning Belgian Cup winners Gent, who look to be building something this season.

Both sides arrive after relatively quiet summer transfer windows, with their squads largely intact from where they stood at the end of 2021-22. Liege are marginally weaker by my estimation, and could certainly do with a couple of signings to improve their squad depth, but they should be comfortably mid-table. After years of play-off finishes this may be a disappointment to fans, but they must do more in the transfer market to compete at the sharp end of the table once more.

The Reds have signed promising young forward Noah Ohio from Austria Vienna, arriving with 5 goals and 2 assists in the Austrian Bundesliga last season from only 10 starts. The former Manchester City prospect is the only major signing for the club this summer, but they have lost two regulars from last season in Samuel Bastien and Niels Nkounkou and this does leave the club short in midfield and at left-back.

Gent meanwhile look to have strengthened, but not by a huge amount. I would expect to see them challenging for the top-4, but unlikely to make a sustained title challenge over the course of the entire season. The major acquisition they have made is poaching Hugo Cuypers from Mechelen. The striker had 13 goals and 8 assists, the joint-most assists and the second-most goals at the club last season, and not only does this bolster Gent, it weakens a rival in Mechelen, making this signing even shrewder.

The striking options of Tarik Tissoudali, Laurent Depoitre and Cuypers at Gent’s disposal are potentially the best in the division, and with the retention of their excellent defence from last season, they look well placed to kick on and consolidate the top-4 spot they probably deserved last season.

For this tie, I cannot see past Gent starting off their season with a win. They are a much better team that Liege, and they have had a much better window also. They have a settled manager, with silverware under his belt already and the potential to kick on further.

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Sporting Charleroi v Eupen

Sporting Charleroi have had a few years of bouncing between being competitive and being stuck in mid-table in the Belgian Pro League, but they were a good side last year who struggled against the top sides but tended to clean up against the sides in the bottom-half. Manager Edward Still did a solid job last year, and will hope to build on that this year. He has been backed in the transfer market, with solid signings all round.

Charleroi have done a good job picking up both Jonas Bager and Damien Marcq from last season’s regular season champions Union St. Gilloise, adding strength at centre-back and solid squad depth in midfield. The one major departure is Vakoun Bayo, signed and then immediately sold to Watford for €4m profit, a great bit of business for a club of this size. They should still be set up front, but reinvesting some of that money in another striking option would be a good idea.

Eupen had a rollercoaster season last year, although perhaps not the most exciting rollercoaster as they went from title contenders in the first half of the season to sitting just above the relegation zone by the end of the season. They have had a tumultuous summer, with 8 of the 17 players who managed more than 1,000 minutes for Eupen in the Pro League last season leaving the club, and a raft of new arrivals replacing them.

Almost the entire defence from last season is now gone, and the new defensive options look like good signings, but with the majority of the previous defence being very experienced, and many of the replacements being 20-22 years old, there is a lot of inexperience which could be a problem for Eupen, and I am concerned for them this season. The signings they have made are solid and it could be a fairytale year for this almost entirely brand-new squad, but they will need to bed in extremely quickly.

Charleroi were strong at home last season, and with a much more settled squad I would expect that they start the stronger of the two sides. Eupen are something of an unknown but I still expect that Charleroi will walk away with the three points here.

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Kortrijk v OH Leuven

Next up on Saturday afternoon in the Pro League are two mid-table clubs who have had interesting summer windows. Whether or not either side is any stronger for their summer activities is hard to tell at this point, but one does look to be in a slightly better situation than the other for my money.

Hosts Kortrijk have lost two defenders in Trent Sainsbury and Lucas Rougeaux. Sainsbury is the more important of the two, but they have not made any signings to offset these departures. They now have only three senior centre-backs, of which only Radovanovic was a consistent, proven starter last season. Other options Watanabe (7 starts last season), and Joao Silva who arrives from the Spanish third tier are unproven and this is a concern.

They have also lost the services of Manchester City loanees Ante Palaversa and Marlos Moreno who both featured in nearly every game last season. They have at least replaced these two however, signing Massimo Bruno who knows the league well already to replace Palaversa, and taking Youssef Challouk from Deinze in the First Division B to play right-wing in place of Moreno. Both look to be solid signings, but you do worry about the defensive situation.

Visitors Leuven look to have had an even more unpredictable window. They have solid depth in all positions except up front, with the departure of 10-goal top scorer Sory Kaba leaving Ukrainian Mykola Kukharevych as the only option left at the club. He scored no goals in six games and 223 minutes last season, and the next highest scoring player remaining at the club from 2021-22 scored only three goals. The most goals any of their new signings scored last season was 5 goals from right-back Joren Dom, and it seems unlikely that a right-back is the solution to their potential goalscoring issues.

They have made some good signings, but they have tended towards inexperienced young players, and have lost a huge amount of talent, with last season’s top scorer, highest assist maker, and both of their two most used centre-backs are gone, along with both Romo and Runarsson, both of their goalkeepers who started 17 games apiece last season.

This is almost an entirely new spine of the team, and whilst they have made some promising signings, they really are relying on a lot of young players hitting the ground running, and I cannot confidently predict this strategy will work out for them. A slow start seems likely, and though Kortrijk have a changed defence, they have better squad chemistry and much more continuity from last season’s Pro League campaign than today’s visitors, and I back them to take the win here.

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Zulte-Waregem v Seraing

The 2021-22 Pro League season saw these two sides finish 16^th and 17^th respectively, with Seraing surviving a relegation play-off to retain their top-flight status for a second season. Neither side has been especially active in the transfer market, but Zulte-Waregem do look to have done the better business so far. They have lost promising youngsters Ewoud Pletinckx and Cameron Humphreys, but the signing of experience Borja Lopez provides solid cover, and should enable them to cope with these departures.

The hosts had been an upper mid-table side for some years, but last season their defensive frailty prevented them from reaching those heights again. The experience of Lopez could help solidify the defence again, and allow them to move up the table, as their attack is amongst the most efficient in the bottom-half, and they have kept it mostly intact from last season.

Seraing meanwhile have lost three of their most productive players from last season, with their top scorer Georges Mikautadze leaving, their second-highest scorer and top assist maker Youssef Maziz and winger Albie Jallow also departing this summer. Regular starter Benjamin Boulanger has also left the club, the 32-year old being replaced by the signing of two young French centre-backs Tremoulet and Tshibuabua.

They have also signed promising young forward Simon Elisor, who scored 17 goals in France’s third tier last season, but whether he can step up to the Belgian top flight remains to be seen. They look to be considerably weaker this season, and they were way off the pace for the majority of last season. New manager Jose Jeunechamps has a real task on his hands to keep this squad up, as on paper they look to be at the very least one of the worst sides in the league.

I do expect Waregem to consolidate themselves further up the table this season, whilst Seraing are likely to struggle, and the hosts will be confident of securing points in this first game of the season, in front of their own fans.

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Sint-Truiden v Union Saint-Gilloise

The final game of Saturday sees last season’s regular Pro League season champions making the trip across to Limburg to face Sint-Truiden. The hosts pushed hard for a play-off spot last season, where a lack of a goalscorer was perhaps the main reason they could not quite get over the line at the expense of regional rivals Genk.

They have taken steps to rectify that this season however, with two signings, first getting Fatih Kaya in as a promising youngster with plenty of upside, and the signing of Gianni Bruno, who hit 20 goals in 34 games for OH Leuven two years ago. He did not feature much for parent club Gent last year, but he could really thrive in this Sint-Truiden side and I am a big fan of this move. It may not work out, but if he can recapture his 2020-21 form then this side can go far this season.

Taichi Hara leaving is not ideal, but if they can replace his 10 goal contributions, they should be in the play-off mix once again. The new strikers must hit the ground running however, with 13-goal striker Zinho Gano looking likely to be out for the first few weeks of the season.

Union Saint-Gilloise are certainly weaker than they were last Pro League season, but they have seen the league’s best player Deniz Undav return to parent club Brighton. His 25 goals will be extremely difficult to replace, and though they have kept hold of strike partner Teddy Vanzeir who notched 13 goals last season, their only centre-forward signing is Dennis Avensa who was prolific in the German third tier, but has struggled in the 2.Bundesliga since making the step up last season.

Union have also lost Casper Nielsen in midfield and centre-back Jonas Bager. They can make do without Bager, but losing Nielsen to Club Brugge is enough for me to say they will not be winning the title this season. I would love to be proven wrong, but I cannot see lightning striking twice. If they have a strong European campaign alongside the league, they could really struggle this year.

With the striking options for both sides looking questionable for the time being, I would not be surprised to see a low-scoring game here. Union have a solid defence, as do Sint-Truiden, and neither side has an outstanding goalscoring option that suggests they will be as strong going forward as they were last year. For that reason I am expecting a tight game with few goals, and I will be backing under 2.5 goals in this one.

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