The Union formalized this Sunday a new recruit, who will take his place on the bench: Tim Smolders, former player of Charleroi and especially of Club Brugge, will be Karel Geraerts’ assistant for the coming season.
The 41-year-old was until recently the director of the Bruges Youth School.
“Tim will be my T4”explains Geraerts, who already has Bart Meert and Artur Kopyt by his side. “He will share his experience with us and guide the youngsters. He will be the link between the U18s and the Youth Academy hopefuls and the first team. young people. Tim Smolders has a pretty complete profile and I felt in our conversations that we were on the same page.”
This formalization fell the day after the draw of the Union on the training ground of Brighton, the other club in the hands of Tony Bloom. Faced with a team which finished ninth in the Premier League, but which was only playing its first friendly meeting of the preparation, the Brussels residents stood up to the English before losing on penalties (0-0, 5-4 to tab).
“I draw a very positive conclusion from this weekend, analysis devices. Sportingly, we had a good match, being well organized against a good Premier League team. There was intensity and the team managed to manage that. We played in 3-5-2 but we may change the system in the last two friendlies (Editor’s note: against Sporting Portugal and against Feyenoord Rotterdam). I still want to test players in different positions to see how they react. Preparation is for trying this stuff.”
While Vanzeir and Adingra started together on the attacking front, Union supporters may have been surprised to read Casper Nielsen’s name in the substitute list. The Dane, who is eagerly awaiting his transfer, had not played in any of the Union’s first three friendly matches. At Brighton, the 28-year-old defensive midfielder received 45 minutes of playing time. “From the beginning, I always had a very good relationship with Casper.comments his trainer. We communicated a lot about his situation and we both agreed that, if things didn’t progress, he would play with us because he is still under contract at the Union. He was given 45 minutes and he will definitely play in the next friendly if his situation doesn’t change by then.”
Placed as number 8, alongside Cameron Puertas, Nielsen spared no effort, often replacing his teammates and recovering several balls. “He is in good physical shape and has a great desire to play, conclut Karel Geraerts. His performance did not surprise me because I saw what I see every day in training. The most important thing for him is to chain the matches.”
The next one arrives this Wednesday with a trip to the Algarve to face Sporting Portugal (8:30 p.m.).