The “end” of the golden generation… the bottom line is that it matches what was achieved with this generation around De Bruyne, Hazard and co. Practically nothing. With the player material from the last 10 years there was so much more. Belgium won’t have that again any time soon.
As of now, only Openda has the upper international class and it doesn’t seem as if anything really good is “growing” there.
Of course it has nothing to do with Tedesco, he sent the last “offshoots” of this generation onto the pitch again, but nothing came of it. His style of football was also clearly too conservative for this squad. But the best Belgian players were past their peak at the European Championships.
Otherwise, I don’t think much of Tedesco. Too “slick” and a drawing board or tablet trainer that gets bogged down in too much technical talk. Where “simple” football is required, he wants to complicate things; where things really need to be turned up offensively, he plays with restraint. Football is not a pure strategy game, but Tedesco sees it as such. I think as an assistant coach he would be better off behind a good coach who has more than just “tactics” in mind. He just doesn’t have it in him to be a head coach. He is without a doubt a tactics expert, but only until kick-off, his tactics don’t survive the first 15 minutes, he is unable to react to them and starts again with the same fixed strategy in the next game.
On the subject of the future of the Belgian N11:
A Doku is a regular at Man City, a de Ketelaere has been on the rise again since moving to Bergamo and has at least 10 scorers in 17 Serie A games this season, plus 7 out of 6 in CL and 2 out of 1 in the Coppa.
This means you already have 3 offensive players who should not be underestimated, so the problem will be finding a system that emphasizes the strengths of all 3.
In midfield, Onana has only taken the step to Villa and has thus arrived in the top half of the PL, while Lavia doesn’t see quite as much playing time at Chelsea, but is also only 21 and, like de Ketelaere, is taking a step back in his career can get going again.
In goal there is someone in Vandeevordt who should become number 1 in the RBL in the long term and thus a top club in the BL. Until then Courtois might come back with a new coach, otherwise you still have Casteels or Sels is currently having a very strong season with Nottingham.
In my opinion, there are only weaknesses in defense, as the only U25 I have on my radar at the moment is Theate, who is playing a very good season with Eintracht, but cannot carry the Belgian defense alone.
So we have to wait and see how the younger players develop over the next few years. Of course there are no De Bruyne or Hazards there, but they are definitely not bad footballers and some definitely have or show the potential to be in the “upper international class”. For example, there is also a de Ketelaere (last year’s EL winner after all).