No goals this week but I feel like there were a lot of lessons learned this weekend.
[table “” not found /]1. Son Heung Min’s inconsistency is really frustrating. His first touch was awful vs. Schalke. Fortunately, Leverkusen won, and are 6 points clear of 5th placed Schalke, but Monchengladbach somehow beat Bayern 2-0 to retain their 3rd place spot, the one that guarantees a Champions League spot. Also, I don’t think its worth grieving over how SHM was subbed out at 45′, because considering that Calhanoglu (the other guy on the team who needs rest) and SHM both played a half each, it’s looking like Schmidt is upping the rotation.
2. Is Ki back? His past two games for Swansea have been pretty awful, but he was pretty good vs. Aston Villa. He was a lot more central and defensive this time, perhaps explaining why he played better. But one thing’s clear: Ki doesn’t play at his best as the wide CM in a 4-4-2 diamond. Perhaps Swansea should just stick to 4-2-3-1.
3. PJH is GREAT. It’s too bad PJH was a very late bloomer, because his past couple games for Mainz have been fantastic. In fact, many still claim PJH is our best left back, not KJS, but considering we have no midfielders to partner KSY, the best choice right now seems to be KJS as LB with KSY-PJH in front. YSY isn’t doing so hot, but maybe he’ll figure things out eventually.
4. Is Koo back? A little too early to say, but it’s looking promising. After coming off the bench last week due to Hoffman’s injury, he filled in pretty well and even scored a really nice goal. And this week, he was really good vs. Wolfsburg. I really hope KJC doesn’t end up like KBK where he has a run of REALLY good form and a run of REALLY REALLY bad form. Let’s hope that KJC can keep it up for the rest of the season.
5. JDW is improving. Thank goodness Weinzierl has kept faith in him because he didn’t start out very well, but his latest game vs. Freiburg was a little better. I’m looking forward to seeing him with the national team again.
6. I’m starting to get a little irritated at Hwang Hee Chan – he starts pretty much every game but he just can’t score and ends up getting subbed out 60-70 minutes in. So far has only managed an assist. I hope the fact that he keeps starting means he’s at least contributing.
Did you hear something about Ryu suffering an injury early in his game, might be out for a few weeks? If I get any time later today and find that to be the case, I’ll update the post
yep, he tore his MCL and will be out for at least a month I’d think
Unfortunate as he was called up to the U22 Olympics side who are beginning qualification this weekend for the AFC tournament.