Two coaches fall on a single Monday: De Meyer out at STVV, Caixinha replaces Friis at Cercle
STVV act after five straight league defeats, while Cercle Brugge dismiss their coach barely a day after the first win of the season.
Sint-Truiden parted ways with head coach Frédéric De Meyer on Monday. The deciding factor was Sunday's 1-2 home defeat to OH Leuven, the fifth straight league loss, Sporza reports. With 8 points from 30, STVV sit fifteenth. The 44-year-old De Meyer spent two seasons as assistant to Felice Mazzu and Wouter Vrancken and was put in charge this summer, after Vrancken had guided the club to a historic third place. Assistant Sepp De Roover takes over training until a successor is found, Sporza and DH write.
Strikingly, the Canaries are doing well in Europe: they have 6 points out of 6 in the Conference League and host Norway's Brann on Thursday. According to CEO Takayuki Tateishi, the league position does not reflect the quality of the squad the club invested in this summer, and top-level sport ultimately comes down to results, Sporza reports.
A few hours later Cercle Brugge followed suit. The Dane Lars Friis, who took over in March and kept the team in the top flight at the time, has to leave even though Cercle beat Antwerp 2-1 on Sunday. It was the first win after nine matches without one, and with 6 points from 30 the team remain second from bottom, according to DH and Sporza. Technical director Luciano Murchio speaks of a start to the season below expectations.
The successor is 55-year-old Portuguese coach Pedro Caixinha, who signed until June 2027 with an option for an extra season, Voetbalkrant reports. In Mexico, Caixinha won the title, the cup and the super cup with Santos Laguna, and the cup and the super cup with Cruz Azul. He has also worked at Rangers, Argentina's Talleres, Santos in Brazil and in Saudi Arabia, DH writes. He leads his first training session on Tuesday; on Saturday Cercle play in La Louvière.