For the first time this week we actually have a pretty solid-looking weekend roundup for you guys (enjoy it while you can because it might not last):
[tb]
Player, Club, Opponent, Result, Notes
Son Heungmin, Tottenham, @Stoke, 4-0 W, 90′ + 2 goals + 1 assist
Ji Dongwon, Augsburg, @Bremen, 2-1 W, 45′
Koo Jacheol, Augsburg, @Bremen, 2-1 W, 79′
Park Jooho, Dortmund, @RB Leipzig, 1-0 L, Not in 18
Lee Chungyong, Palace, @Middlesbrough, 2-1 W, 13′
Ki Sungyueng, Swansea, Chelsea, 2-2 D, 90′
Kim Jinsu, Hoffenheim, @Mainz, 4-4 D, Not in 18
Suk Hyunjun, Trabzonspor, Osmanlispor, 0-2 L, 90′ [/tb]
Also, read more for some rumors that Stielike is looking to be replaced (hastily) (and the replacement is not a very appealing candidate either)
The highlight this week, of course, was Son Heung Min. This man is an utter mystery. He is, without a doubt, our most skilled attacking player and at times he looks like an absolute monster, but sometimes he is jut a very frustrating player who loses the more than does something useful. Fortunately, on SHM’s first EPL game of the season he seized his chance – a fantastic performance on top of two fantastic goals and an assist. A huge improvement from his Honduras performance and his China performance (harder opposition, but the real reason for his improved performance is probably the much better teammates around him – those Eriksen assists were world class, especially on that second goal).
I actually decided to watch this one live because SHM was starting. I had gone into a habit of ignoring KPA games live and only watching ball touch vids (since that’s what I’m really interested in anyway!). Yesterday I don’t know what compelled me to watch all 90′ live but I am very glad I did because I witnessed two beautiful goals live:
And I encourage everyone to play around with the FourFourTwo stats page – Tim and Jae introduced me to it recently, and it’s actually quite interesting! This one’s for SHM but there’s also one of these for literally every player in every game – whoever came up with this is a genius! Of note for SHM: decent pass accuracy (31/38 overall, 11/16 in the final third), but only 1 successful dribble out of 5. Which makes sense considering he did lose the ball on a number of occasions. And speaking of passing, though SHM had a MotM worthy game (it’s either him or Eriksen), we still need to point out that SHM’s passing is still subpar. He had a very easy throughpass to Alli that should’ve led to a goal, but his pass was not nearly strong enough.
Unsurprisingly, many teammates talked about Son in interviews published on the Tottenham official website. The parts I personally find interesting are highlighted:
Lee Chung Yong, unfortunately, was put back onto the bench, but it does make sense considering his two international games. When he was subbed on, Crystal Palace was in full defense mode trying to protect the 2-1 lead, so LCY did not get to show much. The conversation right now is whether Pardew will go with a two top in Benteke – Wickham or go with a more midfield heavy lineup with LCY in the center. Aside from the obvious reason of LCY, I also advocate for the 4-2-3-1 because Wickham has yet to play very convincingly in a Palace shirt (or a Sunderland shirt for that matter, but then again JDW wasn’t any better than him at the time). Speaking of JDW…
…
Ji Dong Won was the second pleasant surprise of the weekend. I didn’t get to watch due to orchestra rehearsal but apparently, Ji actually played very well. Koo played 79′ and JDW played 45′ but JDW actually ended up getting the higher Whoscored rating. Looking at his FourFourTwo map it’s pretty clear he made a decent impact
Two chances created, 2/2 on aerial duels – not bad! Of course this doesn’t tell the whole story, but the Bigsoccer testimony agrees. Apparently, he’s much more productive and confident than before, which makes sense because he’s not injured for once – perhaps a goal or two is in store for the next couple of weeks.
…
Kim JS and Park JH are still in football purgatory. Yoon SY meanwhile is trialing for Brondsby in Denmark. I wonder if literally any other national team has had an issue of their three best left backs getting completely ignored by their managers…
…
Suk Hyunjun finally played his first 90′ after playing only ~20 minutes off the bench his first two games. Unfortunately this is the Turkish League we’re talking about, which doesn’t have any English fan forums to get an idea of how SHJ played. But being on a losing team with a Whoscored rating of 6.7 means that he actaully played decently well. Now we just hope SHJ can find his Vitoria de Setubal form once again…
…
…
THE STIELIKE NEWS (update: Denied by the KFA)
…
Is Technical Director Lee Yongsoo pulling a Hwangbo Kwan part II?
…
..
If this happens, I will lose even more hope in the KNT that’s for sure. Surely LYS would have learned the lesson from Hwangbo Kwan not to make hasty firings/signings? Sure Stielike isn’t a stellar manager, but the Syria and China disappointments were partially the players’ faults as well. That being said, while you argue that the players were highly out of form, you can also convincingly argue that Stielike did a poor job in selecting those highly out of form players when there are some players highly in form the K League right now. Ultimately, I know that Stielike is a very limited manager, but firing him right now is probably not the right move. Unless LYS REALLY wants to gun for a RO16/RO8 berth in 2018, this has to be a bad idea, and even if he did want to aim higher, why Christian Gross? There are better managers available right now so looking to managers from the Middle East is probably not the best move…
Yeah, that’s poor form. Especially for Koreans who hold high regard to public relations (saving face), they a lot of ‘splaining to do Stielike. He’s not the best coach, but he definitely has a vision for the identity for the team. That was seriously lacking after the retirement of Ji Sung Park.
aw man i just hope stielike gets his act together along with the team against Qatar. we barely beat them last time (2-1) and it was at home as well. :/
lol can you imagine going through 2013 all over again? and then crashing out of the 2018 world cup? no thank you. but honestly though, our next matches will be tougher than the matches we had against Syria and China. Uzbekistan was close to qualifying last time, we lost to Iran 3 times in a row recently and Qatar could be difficult for us as well.
if stielike gets fired…
here we go again smh
this is probably not true though?
KFA just denied it actually… but still how did that report even come about..
Yeah, that’s poor form. Especially for Koreans who hold high regard to public relations (saving face), they a lot of ‘splaining to do Stielike. He’s not the best coach, but he definitely has a vision for the identity for the team. That was seriously lacking after the retirement of Ji Sung Park.
aw man i just hope stielike gets his act together along with the team against Qatar. we barely beat them last time (2-1) and it was at home as well. :/
lol can you imagine going through 2013 all over again? and then crashing out of the 2018 world cup? no thank you. but honestly though, our next matches will be tougher than the matches we had against Syria and China. Uzbekistan was close to qualifying last time, we lost to Iran 3 times in a row recently and Qatar could be difficult for us as well.