Marked for Lilian Deville
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings8 Nov 2027
Successful dribbles: 29. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout8 Nov 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Mouscron may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Words exchanged at Mouscron
Mathias Delorge and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad8 Nov 2027
A row about effort at Mouscron
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Thomas Fellaini was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout8 Nov 2027
The manager makes an example of Eden Mertens
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The terraces8 Nov 2027
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Match6 Nov 2027
It finished 1‑0, and it was Ndoh Wamfor’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Mouscron.
Match8 Nov 2027
The half-term report on Mouscron
Position 8, 20 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
Player ratings8 Nov 2027
Nobody on the pitch touched Ndoh Wamfor
7.84, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Mouscron had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
In brief
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Squad
Lilian Deville makes the team of the month
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
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The dugout
Somebody else is better right now than Mathieu Cornet
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match2 Oct 2027
2 behind and going nowhere, until Christian Alderweireld decided otherwise. Westerlo had done the hard part and then watched it come apart, and the noise at the final whistle was the sort a ground keeps.
Player ratings4 Oct 2027
Christian Alderweireld, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 8.06
A mark of 8.06 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Words exchanged at Mouscron
Eden Mertens and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Words at Mouscron training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mousa De Bruyne is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The terraces4 Oct 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Ndoh Wamfor has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
The dugout4 Oct 2027
The manager makes an example of Mousa De Bruyne
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings4 Oct 2027
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings4 Oct 2027
Ninety minutes of Thomas Fellaini at his very best
Marked 8.11. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Mouscron.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match18 Sep 2027
Chastening afternoon for Mouscron
A 0‑3 beating by Club Brugge was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Match18 Sep 2027
No end in sight to Mouscron's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Mouscron has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Eden Mertens in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mouscron this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Mousa De Bruyne falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Boardroom20 Sep 2027
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Squad20 Sep 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Pele Arganese-McDermott and Mouscron agree another 4 years.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Player ratings20 Sep 2027
There was one mistake and it ended in the net. Defenders are judged on the worst thing they did rather than on the eighty-nine minutes either side of it, which is unfair and is also the job.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Radja Openda's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.