Will Anderlecht join the last four or beckoning another season without participation in Play-off 1? It is still too early for a final balance, but the draw against KV Mechelen put the Purple & White with their nose to some remarkable, even worrying figures.
30 field goals: penalties hide the problem
KV Mechelen coach Wouter Vrancken called him the “best striker in the series” on Sunday. Lukas Nmecha is – for sure – captivating, but his qualities as a cold-blooded finisher are mainly showcased from eleven meters. Anderlecht converted its tenth penalty of the season on Sunday, the eighth already for Nmecha. Omit the penalties and the Purple & White top scorer has barely five goals. Even then he is a top scorer. Subtract the penalties from the goals that Anderlecht scored and it’s only thirty goals. That is sadly little. If we subtract the penalties from all teams in 1A, only Mouscron (25 pieces) will be more difficult to score. Everything else, including Cercle Brugge and Waasland-Beveren, therefore draws more goals from the field game and standard situations than Anderlecht.
2 header goals: Anderlecht has no air force
Power play, balls in the sixteen, aerial duels for the enemy goal: when the need is greatest, teams often pull from the same tune. Not Anderlecht. Because Vincent Kompany simply doesn’t want it? Or because he realizes more than anyone else that his team simply does not have an air force? The fact is that Anderlecht does not have a single player today who scored a header goal this season. The only two at the Purple & White who headed a ball against the ropes this season – Dimata and Tau – have left. Most other first division players are nevertheless about ten goals scored with the head. Only the tail teams do not even have five players … and Anderlecht, where Kompany also has to conclude that with Miazga and Cobbaut he only counts two fielders who are taller than 1.85 meters.
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