FC Brugge are a whopping 20 points behind the leaders in the Belgian league. There is consolation in the otherwise dreary season in the premier class – there is Benfica Lisbon on Wednesday (15.02.2023, 9 p.m. – live ticker at sportschau.de) for the round of 16 first leg in the Jan Breydel Stadium.
How dissatisfied the management of the 18-time Belgian champions is with the development of the team was shown by their decision on December 28th last year. Coach Carl Hoefkens got the papers because he was twelve points behind in the championship and because he lost the cup in the round of 16 after an embarrassing 4-1 loss at VV St. Truiden. It didn’t help Hoefkens that he not only made club history on November 1 and led a club from Belgium to the knockout phase of the Champions League for the first time.
Five times to zero in the premier class
Under Hoefkens, Brugge actually achieved incredible things in the Champions League. In the group stage, the team were underdogs against opponents FC Porto, Atlético Madrid and Bayer Leverkusen, but in the six games the team not only picked up an excellent eleven points, but also kept five clean sheets.
Leverkusen didn’t manage to beat Simon Mignolet in goal twice, and there were football celebrations like the 4-0 win in Porto and the 2-0 win against Atlético. All of this was achieved despite the fact that Club Brugge Koninklijke Voetbalvereniging, as so often in its history, lost great players before the season. Above all, the offensive jewel Charles De Ketelaere could not be held, from many interested top European clubs, AC Milan finally got the contract for a transfer fee of 32 million euros.
Nsoki and Openda are gone too
In addition to De Ketelaere, Brugge also lost central defender Stanley Nsoki to TSG 1899 Hoffenheim for €12m, while center forward Lois Openda joined RC Lens for €9m. Most recently, Éder Balanta, the former “Colombian pit bull”, went on loan to FC Schalke.
Sports director Tom Caluwé put a large part of the high income from the transfers of De Ketelaere and Co. back into the team, for example Roman Yaremchuk brought the Ukrainian center forward from premier class opponents Benfica Lisbon for a whopping 17 million euros. Brugge also made double-digit investments in Nigerian midfielder Raphael Onyedika from FC Midtjylland, but the money best spent was the €5m for Spanish striker Ferran Jutglà from FC Barcelona’s second team.
Ferran Jutglà is missing in attack
Yaremchuk and Onyedika were the two most expensive players who ever found their way to the 120,000-inhabitant capital of West Flanders, but so far there has been no sporting return. Yaremchuk has not been a substitute in three of the six Champions League games, has been a substitute eight times in the Belgian league, started eight times and has only scored two goals. Onyedika has a regular place, but does not bring stability to the defense (30 goals conceded) and nothing at all up front: zero goals, zero assists.
Ferran Jutglà, on the other hand, has four scorer points in the premier class and is also in the league with eight goals and four assists – “Marca” described it as a bad mistake that Barca had given up this player and then so cheaply. However, Jutglà is currently out with a pelvic injury, just like Danish top star Andreas Skov Olsen – the date of her return is unknown.
Worse under Parker
It is also currently unknown to the supporters of FC Brugge when Scott Parker will get the curve. And if he gets it at all. While it wasn’t enough for the sporting director at Hoefkens that he had scored 34 points from 18 games in the league parallel to the coup in the Champions League, things got dramatic under his successor.
The 42-year-old Englishman, who previously coached Bournemouth FC (where he ended up losing 9-0 to Liverpool FC) and Fulham FC, has won just one of his seven games in the Belgian league. His point average is 1.14 points per game, which is historically weak for the club. Under Hoefkens it was 1.88.
Roger Schmidt with the usual compliments
The Champions League should now serve as a way out of the crisis and to brighten the mood in the club, which is now 20 points behind leaders KRC Genk. From the opponent there is the customary polite phrases: Bruges have “a strong and talented team”claims the German Benfica coach Roger Schmid.
After all, Schmid has similar problems as the Belgian club before the season: Lisbon just lost its midfield star in Enzo Fernandez. However, the consolation was a little more lavish than in Brugge for De Ketelaere: Argentine world champion Enzo Fernandez was worth 121 million euros to Chelsea.