Games not on because SBS sports has decided to show some dumbass baseball highlight show. This is really smart...
This match so far has shown what the weaknesses of the individual players are more than showing anything good. The way Ahn Ik-soo has set out this team is disappointing and the fact that some (most actually) are playing again after playing full 180 mins previously, especially considering the schedule of the games, is disappointing. Baek Seung-ho from watching his first start is that he has pretty poor work-rate. The only player that has done nothing bad from the 3 games is the goalkeeper, Song Bum-keun. He has been the only thing to watch this first half.
After 15 minutes of being completely outnumbered in midfield, you'd think Ahn Ik Soo would change to a 4-1-4-1. Instead insanity ensues and the French fullbacks pwned our wingers and LSW. There's a point where it stops being an opportunity to test out a given formation. Without a target man, we can't play a 4-4-1-1 like that with the lines that France set out.
LSW and BSH come off at the half. Calling up two kids at Barca to play them in a 4-4-2? Lol... It's like Ahn Ik Soo set them up to fail. Sad.
Ahn Ik-soo will need to change his style abit when coaching with the youth team. Unfortunately, this isn't the pro team so results isnt everything (even though we didnt get the 'results' today). He needs to allow the players attack more and just go for it like in the second half without worrying about the defence ALL the time. To be fair he probably did not expect France to come out so strong and aggressive from the start today. Nor the players. But that first half was just disastrous and I really dont ever want to see anything like that again. Anyways, the better team won - France. Theo Chendri is really good.
경기가 끝난 뒤, 서로를 격려하는 두 선수(@Seungwoolee & @TChendri) #이승우 #테오쉔드리 #훈훈 pic.twitter.com/VZQQOcZThi— theKFA (@theKFA) May 3, 2015
Partially I feel for Ahn IS as he was in a very tough spot. He was under all that public/media pressure to utilize LSW and PSH as much as he can, although he probably knew that few weeks worth of practice leading up to the tourney was nowhere enough for these two to get adjusted to their new teammates as well as his style of football. At least Choi JC, with the under 17 squad had Montaigu tournament as well as the AFC qualifiers to slowly integrate him into his squad. LSW showed flashes of individual brilliance throughout but he unfortunately could not create anything along with his new teammates, and this is not surprising considering how little time he and the other players had with each other... LSW as he currently is right now may be a type of a player that thrives mostly when the team tactics is entirely built around him, and obviously Ahn IS wasn't going to do that right away with such a limited time. If Ahn had no external pressure and could do what he wanted, I'm thinking he probably wouldn't even have started LSW. But he probably saw enough individual talent to realize that he's definitely someone who can be the ace of the team down the line, so I'm sure over the next two years he'll make the necessary adjustment to integrate him into the squad more smoothly... and of course LSW himself will also have to mature and make the effort to adjust to a degree to different styles of play in the NT in this process. PSH... again, we saw so little of him, and what we saw today wasn't good, even though he was playing in a position that he wasn't too familiar with. He had some problems as LSW as team chemistry is concerned obviously, but the difference was that he seemed to be in even less of a game shape than LSW was.... probably the reason why he was utilized in a very limited way in the first two games. I think he's still in the midst of a growth spurt and that may be messing with his conditioning in a big way... but we still saw enough talent in him as well so I'm sure Ahn IS will think of a way to maximize his strengths down the road.
Lee Seung-Woo's highlights from the Suwon JS Cup: . Enjoy! Phenomenal talent. We love him in Barcelona.
He talks about how LSW must learn to control his tantrums.... not to stifle his creativity, but he must learn to become a team player (and not just speaking strictly in terms of football either). He talks about Robben when he was 17 at PSV under Hiddink, and how Hiddink was very strict with him, not allowing Robben's ego to get ahead of him. Obviously it was more succinct than that, but that's the gist of it. Sounds more like constructive criticism than a defense to me... and probably aimed at the public who seems to be calling for Ahn Ik-Soo's head for what they perceive to be mismanagement of a great talent.
LYP starts off by recalling his arrival in December 2002 at PSV where there was a young Arjen Robben aged 17 who transferred from Gronigen and was the best Dutch prospect. Long story short, he goes into the interactions between Hiddink and Robben. Despite the magical displays of Robben, Hiddink was always communicating the importance of doing things the right way and sparse with praise for Robben. When a sponsor allowed players to choose any cars to drive, Hiddink made Robben get the smallest car. If IIRC, Robben actually biked 30km or so to the training ground and home everyday, which is common in Holland... Anyway, I digress... And during matches, Hiddink would focus relentlessly on Robben tucking his shirt in, which even LYP at the time thought was excessive. LYP believes those two formative years with Hiddink instilled a professionalism in Robben to go on and succeed at Chelsea, Real Madrid and now be world class in Munich and for Holland. I'm doing this from memory, so if I get a few details wrong, don't shoot the messenger... Fast forward to now, we have LSW. Prodigious talent. Massively confident. Says things like he hopes to be playing for the KNT. But how do we (collectively) help in his development? LYP goes into a few of LSW's transgressions. Things like throwing a tantrum when called in for a substitution, throwing his shirt when being substituted, kicking the advert board when missing a shot, screaming in the dressing room at half time after being substituted "because of you!" to one of his teammates or calling out the coach by saying we don't play like this at my club... These are transgressions that must be fixed for LSW to progress to the next level. Loveable and small as he is, LYP wants him to learn from the positive aspects of European football than the negatives of European football. LYP has seen too many young talents who were left to their own whims as people were scared of stifling their creativity that led the talent to not make it. He believes there is a qualitative difference in a player who is loved once a week and a player who is loved every day from the employees/staff at the club. And he really wants LSW to reach the next level and become world class (implied) so we should not turn a blind eye to his antics/tantrums. ------------------- Basically, LYP is saying LSW cannot be turned into a brat and needs to learn that a professional, even one as gifted as Robben, learned to accept substitutions and function within a team (as it's a team sport) and earn the respect of everyone around him including staff by becoming a good human as that is what being a professional is all about. Becoming a mature professional does not mean stifling his creativity. It means becoming an "in-gan" first. I agree with LYP. I love the individual freedom that LSW has spending his formative years overseas. But there's a line between being indvidualistic and just being a brat. As this is a business and a profession, he needs to become a professional and grow up to be a mature person as well... Thankfully, he is a Barca, where they knock the tantrums and brattiness right out of youth prospects. That is one aspect of Barca that I like, with how they treat kids strictly as adults as they progress up the levels in their academy and reach Barca B. Hopefully, at Barca B, they guide him in the right direction and ensure he doesn't go astray. If he doesn't shape up and eschew his tantrums and immaturity, he won't progress at Barca with the amount of talent competing for a spot at that club regardless of how talented he is.
Wow I didn't know about his locker room antics. He explained that his reaction to being subbed was disappointment at himself, and kicking the board isn't the worst thing in the world. But was he really blaming individual teammates for things and calling out the coach? Obviously he doesn't act like this at Barca or else we would have heard of it a long time ago. This seems like a KNT-specific attitude issue which implies that LSW sees it as 'below' him. If he is actively projecting a 'better-than-this' attitude it will create huge team chemistry problems imo.
Very well written and all very good points. I especially liked the ending. How Lee Yong-pyo warmly acknowledges Lee Seung-woo's precocious talent and elaborates on the importance of curbing his tantrum, prioritizing team morale, etc., only to end his description of Lee Seung-woo as "little and cute".
That part of the article was actually just LYP giving an example of a bad player behaviour, and not something about what LSW actually did... LSW himself never blamed his teammates and called out the coach or anything (although I do think he did kick an adboard here and there, but that was after missing a goal opportunity while playing)... I doubt LSW would have played after the first game if he did that, Ahn IS would have had none of it, lol.