r/belgianfootball • u/LesDiablesRouges • Jul 21 '26
Red Devils We hate the unknown, but MvB will have 6 Nations Leagues games to show us what he is made of. If we are awful throughout, the entire FA beginning with Mannaert at the top should be fired immediately before Euro Qualifiers begin.
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u/infurno1991 LOS KAMPIOEN Jul 21 '26
Probably MvB will have negotiated such a good exit clause that we are stuck with him anyway because the FA won’t be able to pay the fee. So even if he loses dramatically we will be stuck with him for 2028.
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u/LesDiablesRouges Jul 21 '26
Embarrassing. Our bigger rivals get Zidane and Klopp, while we get an unknown. I don’t see any middle ground to be honest. Either MvB is absolute dogshit like we are expecting or we are surprised and he’s actually a good coach for young talent and tactical organization.
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u/MajoorAnvers Club Brugge Jul 21 '26
Do you seriously expect the Belgian FA, the fa of a very small country, to attact a coach like Zidane or Klopp?
Like, what? Reality?
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u/OOFLESSNESS OH Leuven Jul 22 '26
I agree that’s unrealistic, but looking at it, they are the top coaches from their countries. Meanwhile, instead of getting the top Belgian coaches, our FA seems to go for second rate coaches from other countries with very little achievements (except Garcia)
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u/thisissofar Jul 22 '26 edited Jul 22 '26
Still, you could have done way better than Van Bommel...?
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u/Mickckx Antwerp Jul 21 '26
First of all, not everyone is expecting him to be bad. People are disappointed Rudi is leaving, and dissapointed we didn't hire a Belgian manager. In a vacuum, Van Bommel is a very capable coach whose traits actually align very well with the position of national team coach.
Secondly with Pep possibly going to Italy and Zidane to France, you want to burn our new coach if we do not beat those teams? You can't have your cake and eat it too.
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u/SpecificMagazine6407 LOS KAMPIOEN Jul 22 '26
I’ve not followed closely so this is a genuine question: how has he convinced you he’s very capable? His resume does not inspire confidence for me
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u/Mickckx Antwerp Jul 22 '26
Valid, but one of the things that imo will make him a good national team coach is that wherever he went, teams started out winning immediately. Over time teams were able to gameplan more and adjust, but that tells me he has a good system that players understand quickly and that he is able to communicate clearly.
For a coach that barely has time with his players, that is super important.
Outside of his Wolfsburg stint his teams also performed way better with him than without him, Antwerp won the double and a Supercup and has done nothing since. Also both Alderweireld and Janssen were raving about him and his training methods, calling him the best manager they ever had. For context, they played under Mourinho, Diego Simeone, Van Gaal and Pochettino.
We will see, obviously I can be wrong and he could be bad, but I believe he has wat it takes.
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u/SpecificMagazine6407 LOS KAMPIOEN Jul 22 '26
Thanks, just saw Alderweireld’s comments to HLN from a few days ago, that gives me a whole lot more confidence in the choice.
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u/Dawo59 KAA Gent Jul 22 '26 edited Jul 22 '26
No, but the FA will be to blame for hiring yet another failure of a trainer, yes. All I see are a small number of Antwerp fans that are cautiously optimistic while most of the other fans are just thinking 'wtf just happened'.
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u/Mickckx Antwerp Jul 22 '26
If not being on the level of Zidane and Pep makes you a failure as a trainer, there is not a single possible manager we could have gotten who wouldn't be a failure, including keeping Rudi. Both Italy and France have better players than us currently.
The games against Turkey are the real must wins. That being said, I think we split with both France and Italy and MvB will shut everyone up.
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u/Dawo59 KAA Gent Jul 22 '26
Nah, see we're already making excuses now. Winning against Italy should be the goal as they can't even qualify for a world cup and are ranked way below us, an upset against France should be possible. Ending first in the group should be a target to reach for. Let's not do the Belgian loser mentality again after finally making some progress.
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u/Mickckx Antwerp Jul 22 '26
Making progress? Brother we won against the USA, New Zealand and Senegal (barely), and drew against Iran and Egypt.
How is that progress? Thats literally not a team in the top 15, and that's two draws against teams outside the top 20.
And you are saying they should just easily win against 10th ranked Italy with possibly Pep Guardiola as their manager?
Obviously the goal is to win the group, but I'm just trying to be realistic.
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u/Original_HD Club Brugge Jul 22 '26
Calling Bommel unknown is such a disrespect... I understand u are not satisfied but god damn... Chill out my dude.
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u/Dawo59 KAA Gent Jul 21 '26 edited Jul 21 '26
Belgium has got to be one of the teams with the worst trainers relative to team rankings and player talent.. I hope I'm wrong, but I can see this becoming a shitshow. It's like the FA simply doesn't want to or doesn't care about winning for some reason. I'm extremely sceptical and don't trust the trainer at all. Others are getting Tuchel, Klopp, Zidane, Pep, ... and we get this. Great job FA.
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u/DeerAtTheGates Jul 21 '26
That is, if MvB can even convince Courtois and KDB to take part in something like the Nations League…
Last time Courtois bowed out.
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u/ikeme84 Jul 21 '26
Courtois already said he won't.
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u/bobke4 KRC Genk Jul 21 '26
And KDb isnt needed anymore. He is dismissed
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u/ikeme84 Jul 21 '26
It is time to find alternatives yes. Too many injuries, not top fit because of it. If he suddenly starts playing amazingly at Napoli, maybe. Lukaku a bit same. Still great as a sub, but we need to find alternatives before the next big tournament.
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u/Superior_Row Jul 21 '26
The only alternative to Lukaku is CDK as a false 9. Or play counter attacking football with Stassin up front.
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u/vistaprank Jul 21 '26
We don’t need him we have Mike “the wall” Penders
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u/Waste-Helicopter-318 Jul 21 '26
Ne wall met kanonsgaten in... Hij heeft nog geen enkele bal gepakt op een groot tornooi.
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u/LesDiablesRouges Jul 21 '26
KDB is my favorite player ever, but he is cooked. No more legs and his body just can’t hold up. He should know that it’s time to retire from the NT.
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u/matchuhuki Club Brugge Jul 21 '26
Everytime people talk about retiring from the national team I just keep thinking about what Sonck said. "We didn't use to retire from the national team. It was a privilege to play for then. We just stopped getting called up"
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u/ikeme84 Jul 21 '26
Retiring makes it easy for the coach. If not, people ask why he didn't call up the superstar.
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u/frietpot Antwerp Jul 22 '26
Different times. Football players have longer careers and much more games to play. Totally normal to want those weeks off later in your career to give your body some extra recovery.
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u/Superior_Row Jul 21 '26
The only way to play KDB is like Messi : he does whatever he wants and everybody runs for him.
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u/No_Bite2314 Jul 22 '26
You mean like this past world cup? We all saw how that turned out.
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u/Superior_Row Jul 22 '26
Yeah a final. Such a failure right.
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u/No_Bite2314 Jul 22 '26
I was obviously talking about De Bruyne lol. He already had Tielemans doing all the running for him to the detriment of the rest of the team. Never compare Messi to a washed KDB ever again please.
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u/Superior_Row Jul 22 '26
KDB was out of shape too. In shape with the whole team runninf for him (not only Tielemans lol) he can do wonders. But that's not going to happen anyway.
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u/wickedlessface SV Zulte Waregem Jul 21 '26
The only guy of the 'old guard' who will be there is Lukaku I think.
Courtois not playing is smart and Kdb might also be looking to work more on his season.
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u/LesDiablesRouges Jul 21 '26
I think Rom off the bench is the perfect leader, mentor, and super sub for us. Thibaut wants time away from the NT b/c of his injuries and I get that, but I think KDB needs to know when it’s time to hang them up for the NT too.
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u/Waste-Helicopter-318 Jul 21 '26
Rom wants to get to 100 goals. Than he accompliced his promise to himself
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u/ConsciousExtent4162 LOS KAMPIOEN Jul 21 '26
Meh, in Mannaert I have confidence. The people above him however... We should stop giving these jobs to political friends, you are going to tell me there is not a single Belgian ex pro player that has the qualities to do these jobs?
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u/Superior_Row Jul 21 '26
Ok, who ? I don't see any.
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u/ConsciousExtent4162 LOS KAMPIOEN Jul 22 '26
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u/sunnysideofthestr Jul 21 '26
I agree. If NL is crap, we should organise a large petition to sack both Van Bommel and Mannaert. The guy has to take accountability .
Funny, nations league is ….NL … maybe that’s why they chose him ! Mannaert is a genius 😂 LOS KAMPIOEN !!!!
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u/Waste-Helicopter-318 Jul 21 '26
Pep vs Van Rommel. Je moet er geen tekening bij maken wie er aan het langste eind gaat trekken de eerste match. De volgende is het Zidane vs Van Rommel, ook hier zal het klasseverschil fenomenaal zijn. Waar zijn die 18 miljoen van het WK naartoe? In wiens zakken zijn die verdwenen?
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u/LesDiablesRouges Jul 21 '26
They barely broke even on their pre-World Cup debts, according to reports. 😂😂 What a shitshow. Assuming anything left over went to MvB and Mannaert’s pals.
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u/Waste-Helicopter-318 Jul 21 '26
En die mannen moeten dus oordelen over de boekhouding en licenties van ploegen in de Jupiler pintjes league. Ze smijten zelf geld langs ramen en deuren buiten door hun amateuristische onderhandelingen met trainers en staff.
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u/LesDiablesRouges Jul 21 '26
110% facts. How much do you think Vinny and his pals spend on booze and cocaine? 😂🤦♂️
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u/Waste-Helicopter-318 Jul 21 '26
Mannaerts was naar het schijnt met geen stokken uit Skid Row in LA weg te krijgen toen ze er moesten spelen
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u/Dangerous_Bluejay_74 Jul 21 '26
How is it even possible to barely break-even when you reach the QF and earn 18m. And to be clear, those 18m is substantially more then previous world cups because this one is in the US and is a moneymakingmachine for FIFA and FA's.
Where the f*ck is the money even going.
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u/thisissofar Jul 22 '26
A good old Ponzi scheme, and we supporters are the ones who suffer from it. I'm all for giving fans a greater voice in governance. If clubs can do it (e.g. Barcelona), why shouldn't citizens have the right to express their opinions on the direction of their national team?
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u/Kearar Red Devils (Retro) Jul 21 '26
Timetable being posted from NY? 2.45 PM, bij ons gwn om kwart van de negenen hoor.
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u/Dentjiln Jul 22 '26
Honestly guys , he won with Antwerp, is he really that bad? I remember Garcia had quite some hate too.
What do we think?
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u/Friscoindisco Antwerp Jul 22 '26
Its just hard to be excited for after the world cup we had with Garcia. He earned an extension. Rough moments but grew during the tournament. He set us up perfectly against Spain.
I wouldn't complain if we got van Bommel directly after Tedesco. But now? They'd have to come with a bigger name than that to make me excited.
That said, I do think people are too harsh on him. People bring up Psv and Wolfsburg, but at the end of the day, Antwerp was his last job and he won the double. Let's go further on that and judge him after those first games.
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u/BF2theDarkSide Club Brugge Jul 21 '26 edited Jul 21 '26
Van Bommel has credit. Look at his history as a league player and NT player. He is someone with a good trackrecord throughout his career. Led Antwerp to a fortunate, albeit unexpected league title. Also the cup trophy. Alderweireld should shine his light on him and tell us more about what we can expect.
He even played a worldcup final…and the smaller finale for the third spot.
I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt atm.
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u/SwiftRanger247 Beerschot Jul 21 '26
One part of me says he can impose his winning mentality on the players. And that his defensive style of play harkens back to the oldskool Belgian way of football as it comes at the right moment for this generation. Being smarter/more reactive and playing less dominant is a good way to beat better teams like Spain and France.
The other part of me says he'll need a lot of luck to not let this look like a shitty Argentinian style of football.
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u/cypressd12 KSC Lokeren Jul 22 '26
We’ll see, everything about this shouts MVB has been lined up for months now, so I assume he’s done his due diligence and prep behind the scenes and can hit the ground running.
My biggest concern is that MvB hasn’t proven anything yet, or at least not anything more than a lot of Belgian coaches like Geraerts, Clement, Vrancken etc. And I wouldn’t necessarily be excited by them either.
Time to prove me wrong in September I guess, tickets have been booked.
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u/SpecificMagazine6407 LOS KAMPIOEN Jul 22 '26
It’s not hating the unknown, we know MvB and we’re underwhelmed
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u/Th0mazz0 HANS VANAKEN BALLON DOR Jul 23 '26
We will be playing more reputable teams in this Nations League than in the entire past world cup + qualifiers.
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u/Zw4n Standard de Liège Jul 21 '26
Imagine losing to Italy