First-ever ‘work-from-home’ coach Jürgen Klinsmann’s (GER) approach to player utilization will be put to the test.
The Korea Football Association (KFA) on Monday announced the roster for the national team’s two September away matches in Europe. The team will face Wales on Sept. 8 in Cardiff, England, before taking on Saudi Arabia in Newcastle on Sept. 13.
Some of the new additions to the roster include Kim Jun-hong (Gimcheon Commerce), Kim Ji-soo (Brentford), and Lee Sun-min (Gwangju FC) earned their first caps, while the starting center back pairing of Kim Young-kwon (Ulsan Hyundai) and Kim Min-jae (Bayern Munich) returned, as did Kang Sang-woo (Beijing Guohan), Lee Dong-kyung (Ulsan), and Yang Hyun-joon (Celtic).
But expectations are outweighed by concerns. Klinsmann has recently been criticized for his frequent trips abroad. Since his appointment, he has been spending more time abroad, most recently vacationing at his home in the United States for his birthday. When he wasn’t analyzing domestic players, he was on panels with foreign media, analyzing the likes of Harry Kane (Bayern Munich) and Lionel Messi (Inter Miami).
Attendance is a problem, but so are the results. They have drawn two and lost two against Colombia, Uruguay, Peru, and El Salvador. The ‘Klinsmanns’ played all four games at home in front of their home fans, but the results were disappointing.
This raises the question of player identification. While Klinsmann showed some positives by using Son Heung-min (Tottenham Hotspur) as a freeroller against Colombia and Uruguay, it’s hard to argue that he didn’t utilize the strengths of other players. In particular, against Peru, Ahn Hyun-beom (Jeonbuk Hyundai) was assigned a defensive role despite being an attacking wingback in the K League. In the end, Ahn made frequent mistakes and was substituted after failing to show his full potential.
As a national team coach, knowing your players is more important than anything else. Unlike club managers, who train with their players every day and can implement their own tactics, national team managers have a limited amount of time to maximize their strengths and find the best combinations. However, if we look back at Klinsmann’s last four trials, there were many matches that highlighted the players’ weaknesses more than their strengths. 바카라
Klinsmann will need to show how to properly utilize his players in the September trials. In particular, how to utilize tactical players such as Lee Soon-min, who was newly selected, and Kang Sang-woo, who hasn’t been in the national team for a long time. We can only hope that Klinsmann is not lying when he says that he is “keeping a close eye on the domestic players”.