It promises to be an exciting road towards Play-off 1 for Antwerp. On Sunday, the number 3 collected important points against red lantern Beerschot, but that was not an easy job. And coach Priske knew that. Sporza listened to general manager Sven Jaecques, who preaches realism.
Antwerp crawled through the eye of the needle in the derby against Beerschot (from 0-1 to 2-1, red) and so trainer Brian Priske was able to breathe a sigh of relief. The Dane, who was visited by an angry president Paul Gheysens during the break, achieved mixed results with The Great Old.
Antwerp is in 3rd place in the standings, it is barely 4 points more than number 5 AA Gent, the next candidate to conquer a place in the Champions’ play-offs.
Brian Priske bears a lot of pressure. That pressure will remain on his shoulders for a while. There are still 4 match days ahead and Anderlecht awaits this weekend. Both Vincent Kompany’s team and Antwerp itself can strengthen their place in the top 4 this weekend.
The top 4 is a must for Antwerp. “We have very open communication with the coach, staff and players. They know what we think and expect and that also applies vice versa”, says Jaecques. “That discussion takes place internally on a daily basis. We only come out with the response to those matters.”
The first objective is to reach Play-off 1.
Progress made
The results are one thing, Antwerp’s playing style is also taken into consideration. Criticism comes from various quarters, but Sven Jaecques emphasizes that the team has not been present in the 1st division for long.
The Gheysens project started in the Scheldt city 7 years ago: “We are in the 5th year in 1st class after 2 years in 2nd class. We have made very rapid progress in the sporting, organizational and infrastructural areas. In those 5 years it is impossible to catch up with clubs that have been around for 20 years.”
“We have to give ourselves time to grow and to create individuality. We also need to develop our game style further,” added Jaecques.
Antwerp has a good core in which they have invested enormously. They have 15 new players, a new coach, the staff has been partly changed and some changes have been made in the management.
In breadth, this is the strongest core we have ever had.
Jaecques therefore argues for realism: “If you expect that you can play champion in the same season, that’s not fair. We are playing for it, but we want to reach Play-off 1 and finish as high as possible.”
“The first objective is and will continue to be play-off 1. Another objective was to force the group in the Europa League and we succeeded.”
Jaecques has been working at Antwerp for 6 years and for him the current selection is the best of the last 6 years.
“After last year, we have been catching up by replacing older players and loaners with younger talents who are our own. Broadly speaking, this is the strongest core we have ever had.”
There is of course work to be done for Antwerp to next season to be able to perform more consistently.
“We are satisfied with the selection that we have put together. That does not alter the fact that there were other things on our list that we would have liked. We know very well what needs to be added, which profiles correspond to which position. We can start with that if we know where we end up this season.”
