Team Focus: Belgium Not Yet Transcendent but Among Euro Favourites
Plenty still claim that international friendlies are meaningless, but you’d have had a job on your hands telling that to Belgium fans last week. The King Baudouin Stadium has been the venue for significant outpourings of joy in the past few years - most recently after the 3-1 victory over Israel that ensured Marc Wilmots’ side would progress to Euro 2016 as Group B winners - and the visits of Italy and Spain in the space of five days didn’t suggest any let-up in excitement levels.
On paper it’s so far, so good for Wilmots and his players with one down and one still to go. Yet like so many of Belgium’s performances under the coach’s tenure, there was something quite unsatisfying about their performance in the win over Italy, again by a 3-1 scoreline.
It’s become a recurring theme with Belgium. A richly lauded group of players provide nowhere near the spectacle expected, yet produce pretty decent results. Friday’s performance was a case in point; the two teams were fairly evenly matched in terms of possession (53.2% v 46.8% in Belgium’s favour) and shots (14 each, with Italy mustering five on target to Belgium’s four), but with the home side landing the decisive blows in the game’s final quarter.
The results are hard to argue with. Belgium attained a spot in the last eight at the World Cup in 2014 in their first major tournament finals competition in over a decade, exiting to Argentina by just a single goal. This time, they qualified as group winners after recovering from a slow start and a shock defeat to Wales, as group top scorers by some distance, with 24 in 10 games.
It’s when we start to delve subcutaneously that we begin to uncover some of the issues. Despite the handy overall goal haul, the qualifying campaign was far from a roaring success for Belgium’s strikers. Divock Origi, Christian Benteke, Michy Batshuayi and Gent’s unheralded Laurent Depoitre - on his sole appearance against Andorra - contributed a goal each in the qualifiers. Romelu Lukaku didn’t score at all in five matches. Further back in the team, Kevin De Bruyne and Eden Hazard - the latter, of course, being Belgium’s penalty taker - scored five apiece.
Perhaps it’s natural that De Bruyne and Hazard should be the players that the team is set up to serve. They’re the two most talented individuals in a squad absolutely jam-packed with them. Everything Belgium flows through them, with De Bruyne laying on the equaliser against Italy for Jan Vertonghen in the first half, and Hazard’s excellent through ball for substitute Batshuayi eventually resulting in the De Bruyne goal that put them in front.
De Bruyne, Hazard and Lukaku were used as a genuine trio on Friday, as we can see from WhoScored’s player average position map of the game. In the former’s case, it continued the theme of his performances for both Wolfsburg and new club Manchester City in recent times. De Bruyne was used to dictating matters from a central spot in the Bundesliga, and fears that he wouldn’t be able to likewise in City’s star-studded squad have yet been unfounded.
He’s found playing time in central areas and drifted in from the wing even when he hasn’t started there. What’s been the major difference from De Bruyne, however, since pitching up at City is that his pace has become an even larger factor in creating goalscoring opportunities for himself. In the Premier League, too, he and Raheem Sterling have typically been their team’s most advanced players in recent weeks. De Bruyne has been rewarded with three goals in his first seven City starts. It took him until 16 matches into his Wolfsburg career to do likewise.
Perhaps it’s not too fanciful to suggest that Hazard has taken a leaf out his countryman’s playbook. While Yannick Ferreira-Carrasco, on Belgium’s right, held a much more typical, touchline-hugging winger’s position against Italy - though he came infield to create Batshuayi’s goal - Hazard was in a far more fluid role, either freed from his worries at Chelsea or determined to get involved in the game to turn around the miserable form that has him goalless in this Premier League season to date.
It worked, to an extent. While there is no doubting De Bruyne’s current status as Wilmots’ go-to - he led the way against Italy with a match-high 79 touches - Hazard’s desire to take the initiative got him 68 touches of his own, as compared to Ferreira-Carrasco’s 58.
The freedom afforded to Belgium’s attacking players is a direct consequence of the Axel Witsel-Radja Nainggolan partnership behind them. They may be known for their combativeness, making 5 tackles between them, but their tidiness in possession helps relieve periods of pressure. Witsel landed all of his 75 passes, while 91.2% of Nainggolan’s 76 found their targets.
If this offers a window into the functionality of Wilmots’ team, it also means that when they do get chances, they have to take them. The lack of a prolific centre-forward - at least on recent form - is a concern. Batshuayi’s 28-minute cameo staked a strong claim for him.
The 22-year-old probably wouldn’t be too pleased to hear that. After an opening season at Marseille in which Marcelo Bielsa deemed him ready to start on just six occasions in Ligue 1, he must dread being typecast as a ‘supersub’. Still, his impact in Brussels was undeniable. His saved shot led to De Bruyne’s goal before he snaffled the third himself, two of four shots on target he had in the game hit the target. He had twice as many shots as Lukaku managed in double the playing time.
Batshuayi has already proved he’s a capable starter since his unusual experience with Bielsa, hitting eight and assisting three in 12 starts for a struggling OM this season. His movement and intuition probably makes him a better fit for playing with Hazard and De Bruyne in their current roles as well.
Few observers are holding their breath waiting for Belgium to start playing great football under Wilmots. Their ability to prise a result from unpromising situations, however, means the world’s number one ranked team must be one of the favourites for Euro 2016.
Do you think Belgium can secure glory at Euro2016? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below
