Winners and Losers

Last Sunday was called one of the Super Sunday of the season! With Club Brugge - Gent and Standard - Anderlecht.

With just 6 more rounds to go in the Belgian Jupiler Pro League, money time really is starting.

Winners

Genk won against Waasland- Beveren but for the third game in a row they came behind. In their last 3 games they came behind 5 times but still managed to collect 6 out of 9. The gap with Club Brugge and Antwerp has been back increased to a healthy 9 points. But they will face a tough month with 2 Europa League games and games against Standard and Club Brugge.

The other winners in the top 6 of the table are Antwerp and St Truiden. Both won their games. Antwerp did win away at Oostende, while St Truiden crushed Eupen at home with 4-1. As a result Antwerp now shares the second place with Club Brugge. St Truiden got back into the top 6 and pushed Anderlecht out!

Standard won against Anderlecht and strengthened their position in the top 6. Standing at fourth place with a 6 point lead on number 7. This should be enough to ensure their spot in Play off 1.

At the bottom Zulte Waregem did profit from their excellent winter transfers! Not only did they bought the right players but they also did buy them immediately after the opening of the transfer window!

Losers

I was dounting between 2 or 3 losers. But I did go for 3.

Lokeren lost away at Kortrijk. Kortrijk scored the winning goal in extra time. Each week it is getting closer and closer to the point where survival isn't even mathematically possible anymore. The gap is now 8 points with 6 more round to go. Even a miracle can't save them anymore!

Anderlecht. The once mighty Anderlecht. The record champion of Belgium. The team which did quality 54 year straight in a row for European football, did drop out of the top 6! What about that. And there is no guarantee that they will be able to turn the tide and start a winning streak! The winter transfer did look promising but nothing more than that. The price tag when being condemned to PO II will be around 3 million Euro! I do believe that 3 teams are battling it out for the last 2 spots in PO I. St Truiden, Gent and Anderlecht. Everything is possible!

The team I was doubting putting up as loser is Charleroi. I decided to go for it, because I my eyes they came weakened out of the winter transfer window! Due to this they will have to catch up 4 points on Gent and St Truiden to play in PO I. And in the mean time, Anderlecht has to keep in spilling points! I do appreciate how they each year build a squad with a limited budget, but they shoot themselves in the foot this time!

Ranking

The prediction Model

The goliath experiment did fail on it's first attempt. Only 3 out of the 8 bets came through. So, at the moment we do have a loss of 8.4 units.

Cheers,

Peter