The first selection of Matte Smets for the Red Devils was the most important element of Thorsten Fink’s weekly press conference. “We are very proud of Matte,” said his coach at KRC Genk. “He deserved it too.”
For Thorsten Fink, the selection of his central defender was not a surprise. “When the national coach invited Matte to train last month, I knew enough,” smiles the Genk coach. “He must have seen enough there. Matte offers a coach additional advantages, particularly in preparation. He is also a modest and hardworking boy, who manages to maintain a very constant level. Matte is ready to take the next steps. As a club, we can be happy to have managed to recruit him last summer.
Matte Smets. — © Dick Demey
Lessons from KV Mechelen
Fink is also looking forward to Saturday’s match (6:15 p.m.) in Kortrijk.
“It will be important to learn the necessary lessons from our performance last week against KV Mechelen. We won, but played one of our weakest games. We didn’t have enough control over the game because we made too many mistakes offensively and defensively. At the start, we lost too many matches and we failed to recover the second ball too rarely. This certainly shouldn’t happen to us in Kortrijk, because on a smaller field you automatically have more duels. If you’re not there, you don’t have a chance.
But things also need to improve on the ball, according to the German coach. “We lost the ball way too easily last week. We still won the match, but we can’t concentrate on the result. Our performance itself was a wake-up call, and we made that clear to the players this week.
I’m ready to play
With the exception of Oyen (cruciate ligament) and Cuesta (torn calf), Genk’s A team is complete. Fink had a slight reservation for Bangoura (illness) and was not convinced Sor (slight discomfort) could handle an entire match. But the Nigerian, who missed some training earlier this week, is ready to play. Palacios replaces Cuesta on the competition team.(mg)
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