Managing career of JD Bishop

Good luck, east of Antwerp - though the real rival is considered KV Mechelen. 

This is considered a scouting team: the potential of the primary players exceed well over 80, but most players become difficult to keep once OVR goes beyond 71.

So, it's really about finding high potentials whom are currently touching 70, immediately peak in terms of performance (top half is considered good) and sell to bigger clubs than your own.

Thank you, good to know some details on them. Finishing sixth is the highest league finish and they won the domestic cup only once so I knew the history is not trophy filled

Good luck mate! I look forward to reading about another league with the "endgame" league format. As far as I recall, Belgium uses the same system as Denmark, however points are halved after the initial league phase? Not sure that's still the case though. But I look forward to learn more and see how you adapt to this challenge.

I did look up the format, because I was not familiar with it. This is what I have found, Danimal5981 if you see anything different or know more than what I and JustinCase0110 know, please let me know. Going into the league kind of blind.

Regular season

Each of the 16 competitors in the Pro League plays every other team twice in the regular season, for a total of 30 matches between August and April. A win earns three points and a draw earns one point. Teams are ranked by total points, then by total wins and finally by goal difference, number of scored goals, number of away goals, and number of away wins. If teams are still level, a test-match is played in two legs to determine the final order in the standings. A playoff phase is then played from May.

Championship Play-off

The point system in the championship playoff is the same as during the regular season, except that each team starts with half of the points they won in the regular season, rounded up to the nearest integer. The points gained by rounding are deducted in the case of a tie.

The top six teams from the regular season enter the championship playoff, with the first-placed team winning the championship of Belgium. Each team plays their opponents twice and the teams are ranked by points, points from rounding, wins, etc. as in the regular season.

JD Bishop will be taking over a squad that finished 11th last season. The strength of the squad is in midfield with the weakness being up top in the striker position that is thin in depth. The team has an average age of 24.1 with a mix of very young talent and older talent that Bishop will be looking to move while the value is still there.

Goalkeepers

• Sinan Bolat, 36 years old, 78 club appearances
• Koen Van Langendonck, 35 years old, 187 club appearances
• Nick Gillenkens, 29 years old, 8 club appearances
• Zenzo De Boeck, 19 years old, 0 club appearances
• Nicolas Vercammen, 17 years old, promoted from academy

Fullbacks

• Bryan Reynolds, 23 years old, 54 club appearances, 1 goal
• Roman Neustadter, 36 years old. 75 club appearances, 1 goal
• Edisson Jordanov, 31 years old, 67 club appearances, 3 goals
• Rubin Seigers, 27 years old, 55 club appearances
• Jordan Bos, 22 years old, 41 club appearances, 6 goals
• Tuur Rommens, 21 years old, 16 club appearances, 1 goal

Centerbacks

• Luka Vuskovic, 17 years old, recently added
• Emin Bayram, 21 years old, recently added
• Bakary Haidara, 19 years old, 1 club appearance

Central Midfield

• Alfie Devine, 20 years old, recently added
• Serhiy Sydorchuk, 33 years old, 23 club appearances, 1 goal
• Dogucan Haspolat, 24 years old, 40 club appearances, 1 goal
• Arthur Piedford, 20 years old, 35 club appearances
• Mathias Fixelles, 28 years old, 52 club appearances, 3 goals
• Rhys Youlley, 19 years old, 1 club appearance
• Raf Smekens, 21 years old, 2 club appearances

Wings

• Allahyar Sayyadmanesh, 23 years old, 21 club appearances, 5 goals
• Griffin Yow, 22 years old, 50 club appearances, 10 goals
• Thomas Van den Keybus, 23 years old, 33 club appearances, 1 goal
• Josimar Alcocer, 20 years old, 23 club appearances, 2 goals
• Adedire Mebude, 20 years old, 20 club appearances, 2 goals

Strikers

• Islam Slimani, 36 years old, recently added
• Matija Frigan, 21 years old, 50 club appearances, 11 goals
• Isa Sakamoto, 21 years old, 2 club appearances, 1 goal
• Julian Placias, 18 years old, recently added

Sounds about right LABoog4 - after the regular season they halve the points and the top 6 hammer it out for the European tickets. 

Again, the weird thing is that the one ending last in the championship round (1st-6th overall) gets nothing, while the winner of the so-called Europe round (7th-12th overall) gets the lowest ranking European ticket.

Netherlands and France (ligue 2) have the best and most honest play-off system in my opinion: only that the Dutch one never made it into the game, because according to the game  Netherlands only has 5 seedings (6 in real life).

France has a nice system: 4th plays 5th at the end of league 2. The winner of that game plays 3rd and the winner of that game plays 18th Ligue 1 for promotion/relegation. That makes more sense to me. The best overall deserve what they've played for and maybe for the last European ticket (or promotion/relegation) a play-off based on overall ranking, not a second chance to correct whatever went wrong during regular season.

With the season only two days away, Westerlo were finally active in the summer window.

First were two outgoings. Both from the goalkeeper position, Koen van Langendonck secured a deal to the MLS to join the Houston Dynamo for 370,000. Next was Nick Gillekens joining Lausanna-Sport for 460,000. Both moves were done quickly without major negotiations. Westerlo have depth at the position and saw the two men as excess in the squad. Sinan Bolat is the starter going into the season with Zenzo De Boeck as second team and recently promoted from the youth academy, Nicolas Vercammen as a third option.

After the two departures, Westerlo brought in two players to add an attacking threat to a side that is lacking creativity.  Ajax winger Christian Rasmussen was the first purchase for 1.2 million. The left footed 21 year old from Lyngby, Denmark has the ability to play on the outside and in a central striker position. Rasmussen made 8 appearances for Ajax and 82 appearances for Jong Ajax with 16 goals. Last season he was on loan at Nordsjaelland, failing to score in 22 appearances.

The second incoming was from the Bundesliga 2, Dortmund II striker Rodney Elongo-Yombo. The 23 year old German spent the last two seasons with Dortmund II scoring 11 goals in 66 matches.

KVC Westerlo played to a 1-1 draw against Beerschot. Florian Kruger netted a rebound goal 17 minutes into the match, while Rodney Elongo-Yombo marked his debut for Westerlo with a goal at the 48-minute mark. Despite Westerlo having 53% possession and more shots, they were not able to find a winning goal in the end. Beerschot hit the post in the final minutes before Christian Rasmussen had his shot saved with the last kick of the match.