What awaits Hearts and their fans in Belgium: British style, suffocating approach, Cercle's atmosphere
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Watching Cercle Brugge is an education for anyone expecting a typically-technical Belgian team. They are anything but. Hearts will face a side bearing traditionally British-style hallmarks in the Jan Breydel Stadium on Thursday. More than 3,000 Jambos making the trip for the UEFA Conference League tie can expect a partisan atmosphere in the stands and many aerial battles on the pitch.
Cercle are managed by the Austrian coach Miron Muslic, whose tactics involve trying to suffocate opponents with direct balls forward and an aggressive high press. If Cercle pin you back with their constant bombardments, it can be difficult to get out. Hearts, though, will have opportunities to break through lines and spring forward if they are smart. It is a winnable tie against a fellow Pot 4 club in the Conference League.
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Hide AdThe Kilmarnock manager Derek McInnes watched his team face Cercle in the Europa League qualifying rounds earlier this year. A 1-1 draw at Rugby Park preceded Cercle’s 1-0 victory in Bruges, the aggregate defeat still irking McInnes four months on. He knows it was an opportunity missed by his club.
Cercle are owned by the Russian oligarch Dmitry Rybolovlev, who is also president of the French club Moncao. The Belgians benefit from player deals, with forwards Malamine Efekele and Paris Brunner currently on loan from the principality. Yet Muslic is careful who he recruits given his very specific, aggressive and perhaps unconventional style for a Belgian top-flight side.
McInnes spoke to the Edinburgh News about what Hearts and their fans can expect this week. “Our natural assumption when the draw was made that we’d be facing a Belgian team, highly-technical, a possession-based side,” recalled McInnes. “They are the absolute opposite of that. They are very British in their style. We watched their last six games of last season as a staff to get an idea of their style. We quickly ascertained that they are a Russian-owned club with close connections to Monaco through the owner. They have a couple of players on loan from Monaco.
“We sent a couple of scouts over to watch their pre-season games, one against Feyenoord at the training ground. We also watched them against Monaco. The style remained the same. They just want to play in the opposition half as quickly as possible. They want to play 25 yards from your goal with a really high and fully-committed press. They do get after teams and they are direct.
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Hide Ad“The goalkeeper never plays out. Defenders are up, the ball is kicked and the play very narrow to challenge for second balls. They apply so much pressure on the opposition through their intensity. Last season was really special for the size of club they are. Kévin Denkey getting 28 goals for them last season was massive for them. It’s a huge bonus for Hearts that he is suspended. That might impact them.”
Denkey is Cercle’s talisman but will leave the club next month after a £14m transfer to the United States was agreed. “We managed to keep him relatively quiet in both games but in the games we watched last season, he is a top operator,” says McInnes. “He can score with both feet and he is really strong. There were rumours they wanted €20m for him and I think he has now got a move to Cincinnati in the MLS. I don’t think Cercle have anybody of similar quality to him up front. They sold [Jesper] Daland to Cardiff after the games against us. I thought he was their best centre-half - quickest and most aggressive.
“All clubs of Cercle’s size wrestle with domestic games and playing in Europe and I think it has really impacted on them. You can see that through their league form. I’ve kept a wee eye on them and it looks like they have prioritised Europe and used their strongest team there, then been a bit more spradic with team selections domestically. That’s maybe why they have struggled.
“They didn’t struggle last season. Like Hearts, they earned the right to get to this stage. We thought it would be a tough tie but also one that we could win. We drew at home in the first leg and had a couple of missed opportunities. We applied a lot of pressure towards the end. We lost narrowly over there because of a mistake from us. Liam Donnelly and Lewis Mayo both went for the same header, clashed into each other and the ball fell to [Thibo] Somers, their captain.
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Hide Ad“Somers comes up with important goals for them. He did that last season, either playing in a No.10 role or playing narrowly off the right side. They do have a lot of pace and intensity about them at the top end of the pitch. They have a bit of know-how in the middle of the park. [Hannes] Van der Bruggen, the central midfielder, is very influential for them. He is like an old-school midfield player.
“However, they don’t really play through their midfield. They play 4-3-3 but they play it really narrow up front. Sometimes it’s four up front when their No.10 joins the striker. It’s a little bit like Hearts’ with two narrow wide players and somebody playing close to Lawrence Shankland, although not similar to Hearts in style of play. They are very direct, like a traditional British team.”
McInnes is confident Hearts can earn three Conference League points on Thursday which would effectively secure their place in the tournament’s knockout play-off round. He feels Neil Critchley’s side have the quality to achieve what would be their second away European win of the season. Central to doing so will be coping with the expected aerial bombardment.
“Hearts will need to defend a lot of balls into the box; a lot of throw-ins and set-plays,” he says. “If you stand up to that pressure and deal with it, then you can play through their press. Pace in attack is important for Hearts in this game because you can catch Cercle out. When they go all-in with their press, they leave so much grass behind them so you can do them on counter-attacks. Somebody like Kenneth Vargas might come into the thinking in that sense.
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Hide Ad“Cercle aren’t the team they were last season and Denkey not playing takes a huge bit away from them. The atmosphere is good over there but it’s not super-intimidating. We took about 3,000 fans and it was a really good atmosphere from both sets of supporters. It’s not really intense. I think it’s something the players will enjoy. It’s a nice part of the world, a nice stadium and a nice trip for the fans.
“If Hearts can deal with the direct approach, win first headers and be secure by picking up second balls, it takes a lot away from what Cercle are. Domestically, against more technical teams, they can maybe impose their own style. If Hearts are brave enough to play out, they need to be really smart in their own defensive third because Cercle will come after you. You can break their press but you have to be switched on because they are geared for getting after teams.
“Hearts can definitely beat them. We felt it was a missed opportunity for Kilmarnock. Cercle were the seeded team when we played them, the fourth-best team in Belgium. A lot was expected of us. I felt at that early stage of the season, when you need to keep the intensity up, we weren’t quite at full pelt. It takes about eight to 10 games for players to fully get their legs and I don’t think we matched their intensity.
“I don’t think Cercle are as strong as they were and I think Hearts will fancy themselves. It will require a big performance to win over there but it’s not beyond Hearts.”