I have managed to get the educated opinion of a real live die-hard Anderlecht fan (my friend Geert, who really does support them, which is probably not good for his health, which is touchy anyway
), so here goes:
My nick doesn't work at MM so I'll post it here (copy paste it if you want):
Anderlecht plays in a 4-3-3, sort of like Milan. We have a completely different squad than last year soo the comparison with the team that did soo poorly the previous two years is wrong. Still, not all compartments of the team have improved.
In defence Hanu Tihinen (to Zurich, don't ask me why) and Vincent Kompany (Hamburg SV) have left and it shows. Nicolas Pareja is ok, but Jelle Vandamme is a liability. The main problem is that neither of them can give a pass over 5 meters without losing it. A litte pressure on the central defenders can kill us. On the right-back position Anthony Vanden Borre seems to have made a lot of progress. The guy is a central midfielder, so last year he had a lot of problems with his positioning. He has come a long way, but he still lacks concentration and in a one on one situation, the attacker will dribble him a bit too easily.
Midfield has improved dramatically. There still are the geriatric patients called Yves Vanderhaeghe and Bart Goor, who are utter sh!te, but Lukas Biiglia is a delight to watch. Those who've seen our friendly game at Real Madrid can agree. Some ask why he has come to Anderlecht. Well there is a simple answer. Because he is smart. How many South American talents haven't come to Europe to immediately join a top team. They never have the time to adapt to a different style of football and ruin their career. On top of that Biglia is a good friend of Argentinean striker Nicolas Frutos. That has probably helped him decide to join Anderlecht.
Biglia is a great player, but he still isn't dominant enough if you ask me. I sometimes have the impression that he only rules the midfield in top games.
Apart from Biiglia, watch out for Mbark Boussoufa. The Dutchman is the creative spark in the team. The Dutchman/Moroccan is a great dribbler and superb passer. He will hurt Milan. Boussoufa will get the help of Nicolas Frutos. Frutos is the tall striker up front. He is the Jan Koller type: tall, very good with his back towards the goal and someone who scores easily.
So we do have a lot more quality than the years before. Still, this is a team that needs time to be formed. Anderlecht is far from playing at its full potential. Therefore, it's hard to predict anything. At home I think we will do fine. At San Siro, I fear the worst. Also because our coach thinks that playing defensively will win us a point, whereas in fact it will just put a lot of pressure on our weakest compartment: the defence.
(originally posted by gOD at Xtratime.org, re-posted here by permission)