Waasland-Beveren grabbed their third win of the season in a tough away match against RSCS Charleroi on matchday 14 in the Jupiler Pro League. The visitors played in a 5-4-1 formation and were mainly defending in the first half, not giving away too many chances. In the 35th minute Waasland-Beveren took the lead through Aboubakary Koita who surprised the goalkeeper with a longshot at the near post. Just before half time, Charleroi midfielder Marco Ilaimaharitra was sent off after a reckless tackle. In the second half, Waasland-Beveren had some more possession but struggled to get the ball to the advanced areas. Charleroi tried to look for the equalizer, but in the 91st minute, Koita scored his second of the game making it 0-2.
Ratings:
- A1 – Very good, could play higher
- A2 – Strong potential to play higher
- B1 – Good, strong player at level
- B2 – Potential to be strong player at level
- C – Average for the level, rewatch
- D – Below average in this match
Brendan Schoonbaert
Player profile:
- Nationality: Belgian
- Age: 20
- Date of birth: 09/05/2000
- Current club: Waasland-Beveren
- Career: Club Brugge (Y), Lommel SK (L), KMSK Deinze (L), Waasland-Beveren
- Position: Centre Back
- Secondary Position: Right Back
- Preferred foot: Right
Brendan Schoonbaert played as the right centre back in Waasland-Beveren’s five-man defence and had a good match. Schoonbaert is quite a tall centre back standing at 6’3” with an average build. He showed that he is very good in the air winning almost all of his aerial duels, even against Shamar Nicholson who is 6’4”. On the ground, he also did very well reading the game, with some good interceptions and important clearances from the line. Schoonbaert tried to defend proactively at times, by trying to intercept the ball before his opponent took his first touch, and did pretty well.
The 20-year old really grew into the match and looked a lot better in the second half compared to the first half. He positioned himself well and knew when he could step out of the defensive line and when he had to defend more patient. Schoonbaert seemed have enough pace for a defender and was reasonably agile.
With the ball at his feet, Schoonbaert often chose for the safest option playing the ball towards centre back Wuytens or right wing back Wiegel. In the 40th minute, Schoonbaert made a big error, after a bad pass Nicholson was really close to scoring, but goalkeeper Jackers saved the day. At times he took a little more risk he showed that he has quite good passing. His long passes towards striker Frey also looked good most of the times. The young defender dribbled into the midfield a couple of times, but mostly just to played it back to a defender. Technically he looked okay with a decent throughout the match with a good first touch and decent dribbling.
Rating – A2
Considering this is Schoonbaert’s first season where he is playing regular first team football, this was really impressive. He could become a solid defender in the league and maybe even abroad in a better league.
Aboubakary Koita
Player profile:
- Nationality: Belgian/Senegalese
- Age: 22
- Date of birth: 20/09/1998
- Current club: Waasland-Beveren
- Career: KAA Gent, KV Kortrijk (L), Waasland-Beveren
- Position: Left Wing
- Secondary position: Attacking Midfield, Striker
- Preferred foot: Right
With two goals Aboubakary Koita was the absolute match-winner for Waasland-Beveren scoring both goals. The 22-year old played a good first half but didn’t look very good in the first thirty minutes of the second half. In the final 15 minutes, he looked sharp again and was dangerous on a couple of occasions. Waasland-Beveren played with a four-man midfield with Mandjeck and Bertone as the defensive midfielders and with Heymans and Koita as the more attacking midfielders. Where Heymans was often in the centre of the pitch, Koita played a lot wider almost as a winger at times.
Koita is quite small standing at 5’9”, but was really hard to get off the ball with his low centre of gravity. He showed that he has good technique and often tried to take on his opponents, with mixed success. He created a lot of danger, but in the first half his final pass was often just not good enough. In the second half Koita was a little less involved and when he got the ball he was a lot sloppier than in the first half. In the 75th minute Koita had the ball in a 2v1 situation with Heymans with him, but then Koita waited too long and played an atrocious pass killing the counter attack.
Off the ball Koita made a couple of good runs in the first half, but in the second half he looked really static and didn’t support his teammates enough. On his own he did some defensive work, but it wasn’t anything to write home about. I felt like he lacked some intensity in his defensive duels and it didn’t look like he really wanted to win the duels.
Koita got a couple of shots off this game, which he did quite well. The first goal he made was a nice longshot with his right foot, but later on in the game he showed that his left foot can also cause a lot of problems. In the 91st minute Koita scored his second game with a calm finish after Heymans played a good through ball.
Rating – B1
Koita made a lot of mistakes, but he also showed some really good things. Based off those things I think that he can make a step to a team higher up in the Belgian League. If he keeps making the same mistakes however it will be very difficult for him.
Daan Heymans
Player profile:
- Nationality: Belgian
- Age: 21
- Date of birth: 15/06/1999
- Current club: Waasland-Beveren
- Career: KVC Westerlo, Waasland-Beveren, Lommel SK (L)
- Position: Attacking Midfield
- Secondary position: Centre Midfield
- Preferred foot: Right
Daan Heymans played as the right attacking midfielder for Waasland-Beveren against Charleroi and mainly impressed me with his work ethic this match. The midfielder covered a lot of ground for his team this game going forward, but never forgot his defensive duties either. Heymans stands at 6’1” with an average build and doesn’t really stand out physically. He possesses an okay amount of pace, but I wouldn’t consider him a very fast player.
I felt like Heymans could’ve done better at times in when he got the ball in tight situations. He looked over his shoulder well before taking a touch but could’ve taken some more time in some situations instead of just playing the ball forward. Technically Heymans looked alright, but he did best when he just kept things simple. He played some good first touch passes and often looked for short combinations with his teammates. This showed best in the 91st minute when Heymans had the ball on the right and played it on to right back Wiegel, who made an underlapping run. Wiegel played the ball in the box to striker Frey, who then found Heymans again who made a good run to the centre. Heymans then took a good touch away from the goal and played a nice ball to Koita who scored the 0-2.
Heymans looked like a very intelligent player, always making good runs to receive the ball or support his teammates. In the final minutes, he used his body smartly on two occasions drawing fouls and wasting some time. Defensively Heymans looked a bit cautious, but this was probably caused by the yellow card he got in the 14th minute after a bad tackle. The 21-year old worked very hard in each duel and recovered a couple of balls on the half of Charleroi.
Rating – B1
Heymans played a good match and could probably be a useful midfielder for many clubs in the league. He works very hard and is a smart player, but I have some doubts about his technical abilities.
Alexis Gamboa
Player profile:
- Nationality: Costa-Rican
- Age: 20/03/1999
- Date of birth: 21
- Current club: Waasland-Beveren
- Career: Santos de Guápiles FC, Waasland-Beveren
- Position: Centre Back
- Preferred foot: Left
Alexis Gamboa played as the left centre back in Waasland-Beveren’s 5-4-1. The Costa-Rican can be happy with the clean sheet his team kept, but looked vulnerable in some situations. Gamboa is 6’2” and looked like he had a pretty athletic build. In his defensive duels Gamboa was really passive and mostly just tried to force his opponent to pass the ball back, instead of trying to recover the ball. Since he isn’t very agile and quite slow, this resulted in his opponents turning away from him too easily a couple of times. Gamboa had a lot of aerial duels against the 6’4” Shamar Nicholson and managed to win around half of them, which isn’t too bad.
Just like Brendan Schoonbaert Alexis Gamboa also often opted for the easiest chose in possession. His short passes were alright, he also showed that he can play a great diagonal long pass. Gamboa rarely stepped out of the defensive line with the ball at his feet and when he did he didn’t look comfortable at all. He looked a little clumsy dribbling with the ball and almost created a dangerous situation after going forward with the ball.
Rating – C
Gamboa was a little to passive defensively, seemed to lack technically and looked really slow in some situations. He didn’t make any huge mistakes this match, but I can see him be a weak link of this Waasland-Beveren side.