Belgian supporters and commentators have reacted with widespread surprise to the news that Frank Vercauteren was to leave champions Genk for Al Jazira, a shock accentuated by the disappointment of the country losing one of its most positive head coaches.
A dazzling winger known as ‘The Little Prince of Astrid Park’ during his playing career – Anderlecht’s Constant Vanden Stock Stadium is located within the park, in Brussels – Vercauteren was part of a golden age for the Belgian game.
He played for Anderlecht over a dozen years that took in four championship wins and five European club titles, and appeared in the 1982 and 1986 World Cups.
Vercauteren had plenty of time to develop his own managerial philosophy while serving a lengthy apprenticeship at the club (as assistant for seven years, first to Aime Anthuenis then to former team-mate Hugo Broos), but unlike many who go onto be the polar opposite of their playing selves in the coaching world, he stuck to his guns.
He tends to go with young players, real athletes suitable for the high-energy pressing game he has favoured since his successful spell in charge of Anderlecht between 2005 and 2007, during which he won successive Belgian league titles.
The coach’s habitual 4-4-2 is an entertaining, attacking beast. Genk finished as top scorers in the regular league season in 2010/11, just as his champion Anderlecht sides had done in 2006 and 2007.
Vercauteren likes to play with genuine wide players, like Elyaniv Barda and the promising young Belgian Kevin de Bruyne, with the emphasis on quick, incisive movement of the ball and the midfield encouraged to rush on and support the forwards – at Genk, usually the prolific pair of Jelle Vossen and Marvin Ogunjimi.
En route to the championship title, Vercauteren instilled a formidable spirit into a (by modern standards) very small squad, making light of the superior resources of rivals Anderlecht and Standard Liege. Genk’s mental strength was again apparent in mid-July’s Super Cup win over Standard, pulled off despite playing the final hour with ten men following the harsh sending-off of star forward Vossen.
If there is a weakness to Vercauteren’s modus operandi, perhaps the boundless enthusiasm he inspires is it. The intensity he habitually demands contributed to Anderlecht’s downfall in the first Champions League campaign he oversaw, in 2006/07. Despite competing well in a pool featuring Lille, AEK Athens and eventual winners Milan, Vercauteren’s men finished bottom of the pile.
Anderlecht let games slip in the closing stages as they tired badly, having run so hard in the opening two-thirds of the match – leading to them losing leads in the closing stages of home games against Lille and AEK (with the Belgians beating the latter 2-0 at one stage) which, if held, would have assured safe passage to the last 16.
How such an exacting approach might work in the heat of Abu Dhabi is perhaps open to question. There is evidence to suggest Vercauteren has learned from previous flaws, having guided Genk through a tricky Champions League qualifying tie with the significantly more experienced Partizan Belgrade this month.
Genk initially trailed in both legs, but finished strongly in both, with Ogunjimi’s late, late winner in the home leg turning out to be the tie’s decisive blow. A 3-2 aggregate win set up a winner-takes-all clash with Maccabi Haifa, with the first leg next week.
Having just won the national title for only the third time in the club’s history, the relatively modest team from the east are keen to make capital and secure the riches of group stage qualification. Genk have achieved this only once before, back in 2002.
Given the players’ undoubted loyalty to Vercauteren, it is unsurprising that chairman Herert Houben is keen to hang on to the coach for the duration of the Champions League play-off, especially given the sporting and financial stakes involved.
Whether acquiesce is possible remains to be seen. Having exhorted the Genk board to hang on to the side’s best players with the Champions League approaching, Vercauteren was known to be disappointed by the decision to allow young goalkeeper Thibaud Courtois to join Chelsea last month, particularly in light of the lack of investment in reinforcements.
Whenever it is that Vercauteren finally does arrive, Al Jazira’s players should not expect an easy ride. Vercauteren is a good coach to have on your side, but he demands nothing less than 100 per cent in return.
Andy Brassell is a European football expert and regular contributer to ESPN.com
