Ruud goes into management

During his playing career Ruud van Nistelrooy worked with many great managers. The list consist of sir Alex Ferguson, Louis van Gaal, Manuel Pellegrini, sir Bobby Robson, Frank Rijkaard, Eric Gerets, Bernd Schuster, Bert van Marwijk, Armin Veh and Foppe de Haan. Did he learn anything from them? Will he became manager as good as he was a footballer? Will he add Champions League or World Cup winners medal to his trophy haul? This thread will answer that questions.

I'm going to start unemployed and wait for offers. Hopefully they will come sooner than later.

Had to wait a bit until first offer popped out. It was from Dutch well-known club Twente. Unfortunately interview didn't go well, and they choose Bert van Marwijk instead. Yep, the same Bert that managed Ruud during 2006 World Cup.

Few days later another offer was presented to Ruud. It was from KRC Genk currently struggling in Belgium Pro League.

This time interview was successful.

KRC Genk | 2014/15

Ruud van Nistelrooy

Koninklijke Racing Club Genk

Nicknames: Genkies, Smurfen (Smurfs)

Ground: Cristal Arena (Fenixstadion)

Capacity: 25000

Stadium was built in 1999 and since then it serves well for the club that produced Thibaut Courtois, Kevin de Bruyne and Christian Benteke. It is known as Cristal Arena due to sponsorship agreement with local brewery. Fenixstadion (Phoenix Stadium) is traditional name.

These facilities are the reason that KRC Genk regularly produces youth like: Yannick Ferreira Carrasco, Jelle Vossen, Steven Defour, Christian Benteke, Thibaut Courtois, Divock Origi and Kevin De Bruyne. Who's next in line? Siebe Schrijvers and Nordin Jackers.



We're not Anderlecht, but we're not the beginners anymore!



Doesn't look good. I guess we will have to sell some players and look for future stars in U-19s.

Chances to get into championship group (top 6) are very slim. No wonder Genk sacked Alex McLeish.



The standout is one of the biggest salaries for sub keeper. And the oldest player being top scorer with 6 goals.

The number of talent growing in Genk is enormous. Now we only have to keep them for some time, to witness their play.

Youth Intake 2015

Ruud has mixed start to his managerial career.



We managed to climb up to 9th position. Only 9th position. But hey, we had only for 4 games to do better! Anyway it's not the end of the season as we still have Europa League Play-Offs to play.

The start was promising, but later... meh.



Obviously, our dream of Europe is over.



Too much red for my liking. Way too much. I guess we'll have to sell.



Ilombe Mboyo seems to be thriving under RvN's management.

I won't be keeping any of the McLeish's loanees.

Spot on is Marco Bizot's 4 clean sheets in 4 games. But he's definitely going to leave. Not only he earns too much, but we have top talent emerging in Nordin Jackers. Southampton is already enquiring for him.

Becoming a feeder club is not shamefully, especially when you need money





Finances are starting to look better, but we'll still need to sell, since many players are coming back from loans, some of them with massive salaries.

Gent with their first ever title!



Bad news for all of the Belgium teams. No direct qualification for the UCL group stage.



Genk got recognized as the biggest underachievers of the season.

Despite Genk's low final position, our players got some recognition.







Thomas Buffel

Julien Gorius

KRC Genk | 2015/16

Ruud van Nistelrooy



Transfers



Dewaest is central defender brought to replace unsettled Kabasele. I was saying we'll need to sell, but Kabasele was the player we wanted to keep. He's now rotting on the Sunderland's bench. Christian Gytkjaer - Danish striker - was bought to provide competition for both Ilombe Mboyo and Jelle Vossen who had returted from loan to Middlesbrough.

Notice Ilkan Cavus' high sell price. It was quite unexpected, since he wasn't rated by our coaches at all. We have much better CD's in our youth setup. We were desperate to sell Marco Bizot, because of his wages and had to swallow big loss in space of one season. He returned to Groningen for staggering loss of nearly 1.5 mln € (plus over 0.5 mln € in wages). Stracqualursi has only played few months for KRC Genk, but quickly got unsettled. He was quite good for 4th striker, so that wasn't complete failure. We sold Hamalainen despite him being our first choice left back, because of signing Stian Ringstad for free.



Ruud van Nistelrooy has asked his former Real Madrid mate - Cicinho, to come to Belgium and provide some backup at right back position. Marco Frediani is AS Roma reject, who excelled during trials. Peeters and Croux were simply hopeless. We had also gave up for free Sekou Cisse (Westerlo), Khaleem Hyland (Pacos Ferreira), Jentl Gaethofs (Waasland-Beveren), but they're somewhat missing from this screenshots.



Genk used their new affiliation with Juventus, to loan two players. Medran was another signing for which Ruud used his Real Madrid connections.

Herve Kage was loaned out, because of his high wages. We've tried to sell him all summer, but no one wanted to but him. Initially we planned to use Siebe Schrijvers this season, as he's clearly talented Striker, but after acquisitions of Gytkjaer and Stracqualursi, we have decided, that loan will be better for him.

A word about tactics

Last season Genk played in 1-4-1-4-1 formation:

TM(S)

IF(A)-DLP(S)-CM(S)-AP(S)

BWM(S)

LFB(D)-LD(D)-LD(D)-LFB(D)

GK(D)

This year we were able to change a little bit, thanks to more (capable) strikers in the squad:

TM(S)-AF(A)

WP(S)-CM(S)-BWM(S)-WM(S)

LFB(D)-LD(D)-LD(D)-LFB(D)

GK(D)

Some personal info.



It's nice to get recognition in the media. Would be even better if Dewaest wasn't constantly injured.



Ruud is no longer unqualified!

At first some words of explanation. There is no table screenshot? Why? Because Belgian Pro League is a mess. While Genk played 10 games, some teams have played 13 and some (like Club Brugge) only 6. There's no point in posting the table right now. Though we're actually a leader after first 10 fixtures. Our first 10.

As you can see we had great start to the season. With Vossen and Mboyo scoring plenty. Westerlo game was Ruud's mistake as he made too much changes given upcoming Club Brugge match. We also played one game in Belgian Cup.



Although Vise is lower league club, we had some troubles against them. Even if that was second string playing, we still should have won that more convincingly. The score wasn't settled till late penalty from our vice-captain (Thomas Buffel is Genk's captain). Anyway we're through next round where we'll face KV Kortrijk.

This time we weren't that good. 6 losses in 10 games in unacceptable. We're still scoring goals quite easily, but our defence started to be very leaky. Due to many postponed matches we had very busy end of December with nothing else than defeats (and one game on 30th December yet to be played).



We progress again in the cup with comfortable win over Kortrijk.

Youth Intake 2016

Not as good as last year, but still there are some nice prospects. Ward Nelissen is already a target for few clubs.

Absolutely gutted. To lose the semi final in such bad way...

For full information - Oostende won the competition and... then got relegated to second division.

A bit better this time. Christian Gytkjaer has finally put some pressure on both Mboyo and Vossen. When you look closely, you can notice, that we played Cercle Brugge three times in a row. Twice in cup and once in the league. 3-1 and 1-4 in the disappointing cup semi-final, and then 4-1 in the league. I would happily trade those 4-1's even if that would mean finishing 7th.



Table after regular season



5th place it's about where we deserved to be. Last season champions - Gent - in very disappointing 8th place finish. But they are sticking with their manager. And how championship group looks after points were halved?



4th place is the goal as it gives Europa League.

Saying awful is like not saying anything. 8 points out of possible 30. KRC Genk is obviously not ready for facing the big boys. Gytkjaer continued his fantastic form and that means we'll try to sell one of our millionaires - Vossen and Mboyo both earn more than 1mln € per year which is way too big for club of our financial state. Guess it will be Mboyo since he's less talented and older. For the last few games I gave chance to our youth and they actually did better than more established first team players with Ruben Put particularly impressing.

At the end of the season Ruud got many job offers. Only most interesting ones are shown below.





Yet again I have lost to fellow Dutchman. Though I wouldn't choose Everton right now.





Strange from Swansea's board, as they are know to play possession football and Ruud's Genk is playing rather direct football. Anyway nothing lost as Ruud attended the interview just out of curiosity.



This time there were no offer, just media gossip.



Ermmm.. sack watch? Give me a break, we weren't that bad. Just over midtable is Genk's deserved place after all. Oh, and when Ruud will be leaving Genk, he will surely leave Belgium too.



That was the offer that Ruud seriously considered as he has soft spot for Hamburger.

And last, but not least...



PSV is reigning champions and club that Ruud would like to manage one day. Shame that was again only newspapers gossips. Notice that Bert van Marwijk was in the competition for PSV managerial role. He actually managed to get relegated with FC Twente... Good for them for rejecting Ruud just 14 months earlier. Robert Maaskant got the job which also was a bit unexpected. Well, he just got relegated with Antwerp...

We're steadily making progress on this ground.



That put us in black.



Genk continues their policy of becoming feeder club for few pennies and odd free loanee.

Jelle Vossen is easily player of the season. I can't wait to see Ruben Put's progress.



Laszlo did very good at the start of the season, just like entire team. Later on he was bang average. But he will remain our first choice as Jackers is still not ready for football every week.



Well deserved.



Bizarre reasoning as he just wanted to leave to play in Champions League as you will see in his screenshot.

Buffel retires

Cicinho retires



Players pics

Jelle Vossen

Laszlo Koteles

Ruben Put

Thomas Buffel

KRC Genk | 2016/17

Ruud van Nistelrooy



Transfers



Hernan Perez is Paraguayan winger capable of playing on either side of the pitch. He should be a steal as much more money where put into 50 goals for club clause which he will never fulfil. Neeskens Kebano is attacking midfielder and one of the stars of Belgian Pro League. Giannis Maniatis is central midfielder capable of playing right back (pretty much like Vassilis Pliatsikas) and his price is daylight robbery. Tresor Mputu was just awful and I would happily let him leave for free. I'm happy that we get rid off high salaries of Mboyo, Kage and Anele. Only Mboyo was any good anyway. Offer for Sekyere was just too good to reject.



Mputu was supposed to be good attacker, either up front or on the wing, but he turned out to be whiny, egoist kid. Onguene is pretty talented centre back who impressed during the trial, others were brought to make up numbers. Oh, and Boudebouz was actually highly rated some time ago. On the right side of the picture you see names of rejects.



Menno Koch is central defender with good, powerful shot from free kick. He was brought mainly for cover, but was once important part of the squad due to injuries. Benfica send Lima to us, who was scoring for fun... when he wasn't injured. Yeah, you guessed it. He was injured pretty much all season. But still good impact for absolutely free player with no wages. Loanees from Juventus were all panic buys. Placido didn't even play for single minute, but Njock - goalkeeper - signed on 31st January - was really panic acquisition though he only played once.

Loans out - Genk is now new Chelsea.

A word about tactics

New season, new tactic. But changes are rather small. TM(S) becomes F9(S), wide midfielders are now both W(S), CM(S) became RPM(S) and we start with instruction: Close Down More.

F9(S)-AF(A)

W(S)-RPM(S)-BWM(S)-W(S)

LFB(D)-LD(D)-LD(D)-LFB(D)

GK(D)

Couldn't imagine worse start of the season. Only Vossen doesn't disappoint. And Lima when he's not injured. Yeah, the game he scored was the only game he wasn't injured.



Disaster. Lose in our 'first' round of the cup to lower league side after leading 2-0 on 10th minute mark is plain awful... Even worse is the fact that third goal for USG was scored by Laurens Vermijl - our own player. After that result we were 11th in the league and out of the cup at the very beginning. Ruud was worried about possible sacking and decided to went full confident. He asked the board for possible extension.



And it was granted! The last paragraph makes no sense as it's just two days after Union SG game and no football was played during this time. Conditions of the contract are the same as in #4 post with additional 100K€ bonus for winning Belgian Pro League. It is safe to say that this news gave the team some lift, as we won the very hard match against Gent 3 days later.

21/30 is really good and just look at last game vs Anderlecht. It was pure pleasure to see Anderlecht demolished just like that. Genk is now 5th with hope to get even higher. Last year we had games all December, but now we have winter break starting after Anderlecht's game. Can Genk boys mantain their top form?

In other news:



Ruud is studying and



even more free money.

6 goals from Vossen, 4 goals from Gytkjaer, 4 goals from Schrijvers, odd goals from Cavric and Lima. Our form after Ruud signed an extension was unbelievable! Only 2 losses in 21 games as we climb up as high as 1st!





That is very tight table at the top.



And now even tighter.

Youth Intake 2017



It's only decent for Genk's high standards.

Now this is what Ruud calls tempting offer.



At Genk we had something like 1M€ transfer budget and 10M€ wage budget.



Offer is really tempting, but there's no way Ruud leaves Genk now, when he can actually win the title.



Valencia's hot seat looks really hot, with no one managing to sit on it more than 12 months.

In other news



He may have only played 15 times, but he has similar amount of goals+assists for them. It would be a shame if our players won the title for other club when we can achieve this with his help. He will fight with Boudebouz and Perez for left wing place and he's actually a favourite to win this fight as they're both quite unconvincing and unsettled a bit.

He's superb entire season and now he's also Genk's best ever goalscorer.



10/15 is quite good...



especially that no one got more!

In other news



Former Genk manager finally lands a job. Struggling side in League One. Oh, well.

I've forgot to mention, that after Buffel retirement, Jelle Vossen became Genk's captain. Julien Gorius is still vice-captain, but he doesn't play much. Actually he doesn't play at all since our Belgian Cup exit against Union SG.



He's just phenomenal this season. What a captain he has become!



Now, with offer from Valencia, Ruud doesn't really care about Heerenveen. There is much bigger chance that he decides to



remain at KRC Genk.

18th May 2017, Thursday - Home Match against Club Brugge. If we don't lose this game, we'll be champions!

Starting formations



That's our best starting 11, maybe with the exception of left back, where Stian Ringstad is equally capable as Derrick Tshimanga. Club Brugge has great striking force with both N'Djeng and Engvall scoring plenty this season.

Hint: Next screenshots are the best when read from down to up.

Gustav Engvall makes it 1-0 for Club Brugge

Horrible start to the second half

Cavric gives some hope to KRC Genk supporters

Penalty for Club Brugge. All hope is lost for sure?