Cercle Brugge’s 1-0 win over Standard Liege has heaped even more pressure on Standard Liege and majority shareholders 777. Standard have picked up just one point from their opening four games, which came from a 1-1 draw with rivals Charleroi. 20-year-old Alan Minda got his first goal for Cercle in the 77th minute to win the game, although Kevin Denkey looked to have added a second late on. VAR intervened to rule the goal out, but Miron Muslic’s men were able to hold on to three points. For Cercle, that is their second win of the season to go with two losses.
Pressure has been mounting on Standard and owners 777. After losing head coach Ronny Deila to Club Brugge over what he claimed was a lack of ambition, fans have been looking to the club to see how they would respond. Former Club Brugge head coach Carl Hoefkens was put in charge, but the results have not been forthcoming.
Over the summer, the policy was clearly to bring in young players. They brought in Isaac Price from Everton and Romaine Mundle from Tottenham, alongside former player Zinho Vanheusden from Inter. While there had been hopes that the latter would help solidify the defence, against Cercle the back three was all over the place on multiple occasions, with Cercle unable to take advantage.
They are also struggling upfront. Dennis Dragus scored their only goal of the season so far against Charleroi, with an assist from Wilfried Kanga. However, neither looked particularly potent against Cercle. The side as a whole only managed seven shots, three of which were on target. According to FotMob they had an xG of 0.54.
Despite it being early in the season, Standard travel to Kortrijk next Saturday evening in a game they simply must win. The Kerels are one of the favourites to go down, so a poor result for Standard against them will certainly concern fans.
GBeNeFNÂ |Â Ben Jackson
