It only proves that having a good manager matters, and it also just goes to show you the difference in the level of management between Bento and his predecessors, and it's quite a big gap if you ask me. Let's take Jang Hyun-soo for good example, it was perhaps his best performance of the three games under Bento at the helm, and his overall best during his 4.5 years with the senior team, and against Uruguay of all teams as well. Not that I am trying to praise or defend him, and of course we'll have to see whether he'll continue to play like how he did two days ago, but that's one of three games vs 4.5 years of utter shit performance, to which neither of his bastard parents Stielike and Shin Tae-yong were able to set him straight. Also, let's talk about the formation for another good example.The fluidity of the transitioning between the 4-2-3-1 into a 4-4-2, or the transitioning of the four back into a three back system i.e. 4-3-3 into a 3-4-3 or 3-5-2, is something we haven't seen executed properly and quite well since the Hiddink era. Both Stielike and Shin Tae-yong utterly failed at the three back system, and at the same time deployed a very blank 4-2-3-1/4-1-4-1 with no end product. Now, don't get me wrong, the 4-4-2 was the formation we should've built off on for the WC since it worked seemingly well against Colombia and Serbia respectively, but one idiot had the audacity to have us play like Spain, while the other idiot literally kept rotating the entire squad and formation(s) to no end, not to mention that Shin Tae-yong failed miserably at deploying and utilizing the 4-3-3 with a useless 197cm flopping stick as the lone striker, and against Sweden of all teams, a match where we shouldn't have lost. We went through roughly seven years of hell with similar formations, but neither of them worked out as well as what we've seen in the three matches thus far. Lastly, I want to bring up the tactics. Bento is incorporating a modern system that has a balanced offense and defense, a very offensive buildup involving lot's of fast short passing plays and direct long balls, high amounts of pressure, whilst raising ball possession. Now, ball possession should awfully sound familiar considering it's the main thing Stielike had an insane amount of obsession over, in fact he demanded that we played like Spain, but neither do we have time to be playing Tiki-taka, we also lack the options as well as the ability to constantly be holding the ball 90% of the time, something which we failed to do when we'd constantly lose the ball at a high percentage of time due to constant pressure from the oppositions, which inevitably forced our players to make poor decisions in committing desperate long balls and useless u-turns+endless amounts of back passes, and this was against mediocre AFC teams as well. Under Bento, the 뻥축구 is nowhere to be seen, whilst our passing plays, buildup plays, and counter-attacking plays have become much more quicker and much more accurate, useless back passes and u-turns have become limited, Tiki-taka? no this is modern football. Also, I never thought I'd say this, but I am quite intrigued at how well Bento is using Jung Woo-young as the holding midfielder whilst slotting Ki at CB, although I'm still against the utilization of Lee Yong as one of the fullbacks simply because he lacks the capabilities to be playing under Bento's system, especially being pushed up high. Interestingly enough, I didn't necessarily spot much issues with the huge gap being created at the back due to Lee Yong lacking the speed and pace to track back, mainly because of the defensive cohesion provided by Ki being slotted to CB, and from the stability provided by Kim Young-gwon, Kim Min-jae, and Jung Woo-young dropping back, but I'd still opt for a different option like Ko Yo-han and Kim Jin-ya, which both of them have better speed and pace over Lee Yong. My apologies for the long reply.
So if Jeong WY is as good as advertised, Lee SW and Paik SH breaks through, Lee KI continues his progression, and Kim Jungmin and Han Chanhee continue developing, are we sitting on a golden generation? All our youngsters seem like high character guys with ambitious dreams, developed with top class football education. Our current generation's core, which has been relied on from the 2012 Olympics till now (>6 years) is a special generation itself with guys establishing themselves as solid first division players in top leagues. Most were developed domestically, and some unfortunate circumstances prevented them from reaching their full potential (injuries and career choices). For instance, LCY didn't start playing soccer until his teens and then had his leg break, JDW couldn't stay fit during his season with BVB, PCY and Arsenal, Koo/Ki/YSY injury-prone, Nam TH lack of ambition, Kimbo racism, etc But now that this generation (of course the really early guys too) has helped to normalize the existence of Koreans in European leagues, our youngsters can challenge themselves in Europe with others before them already having paved the way. Plus our brightest talents have been developed in Europe themselves and aren't considered outsiders to clubs. So it seems like the stage is set for Korean football to enter a golden age!
We have KJM, PSH, LKI, HCH, HIB. Of those KJM and maybe Paik can develop to become the deepest midfielder, since competition further upfield is more intense. As for FBs KJY and KMH are good prospects but even if they don’t work out a midfielder with high work rate can be converted into serviceable full backs. Man City won the league with Delph playing left back.
We also have HKW and JYH as DM possibilities, if they develop well. And as for FBs, I really hope Bento can develop KJY and KMH into useful options. On CB position, I have some hopes on the young Gangwon CB and the Dinamo Zagreb boy, as well as CYM from AGs who can play both DM and CB.
after seeing the hl's i can see where all this optimism is coming from, and i hate to be the downer here, but remember how great sty's initial games (venezuela, uruguay) were before all the crap we went through happened? Even stielike looked not bad at first.. that being said so far bento looks like a major upgrade since the dark ages 2.0
We looked terrible in the first few matches against UliShit. Even in the asian cup, we looked horrible in the first two matches that we won. Then the idiot started the strongest starting XI in the meaningless third match, which made me call for his head b/c of how stupid he was. I shudder to think back to him. We won despite his sheer ineptitude. That was about the time when HHH went into full passive aggressive mode posting nonsense on Korean defending UliShit to the hilt. Ughhh. Dark times. We always looked good under STY when he kept things simple. It's when he would go into 'I'm a genius' mode that we looked hopeless.
Shin Tae-yong's two matches vs Venezuela and Uruguay as interim, alongside the wins over Colombia, Serbia, and Germany were the best he's only done as the manager for the senior team, but only because he stuck to the basics instead of pulling off unnecessary "tricks", although the latter wouldn't have happened without the help from the Spanish coaches Toni Grande and Javier Minano. As for Stielike, @Hodori nailed it on the head, but I want to add that we looked like a downgraded version of a cross between Hong Myung-bo and Choi Kang-hee's football, only except we failed to even play 뻥축구, which was absolutely pathetic. And, we were on a stupid W/L/W/L pattern early on his tenure, whilst literally scoring a goal or two at max, then struggled to even net one goal vs AFC minnows the later half.
I saw the Asian Cup games since it was in Australia and I agree. I personally give Cha Du Ri's veteran leadership more credit for the team playing well in the later stages. Cha really was like a player coach on that squad. Cha's rallying of the troops covered UliShit's bad leadership. Once Cha retired after than tournament, well, the team lacked leadership and cohesiveness. The turning point in that tournament was when Cha Du Ri got substituted in against Uzbekistan (quarter finals). The momentum really shifted in the whole tournament after he made that famous 70 metre run. Before that, Cha only played in the 2nd group stage game(and he made a run and assisted the goal by the way in that game). Even though we won all the group stages games, we looked real bad. Australia smashed both Kuwait and Oman 4-0 while we barely mustered 1-0 wins. Gameplay wise, we got dominated by Kuwait and Oman for goodness sake. The really attacked our goal. Kim Jin Hyun was in "Jo Hyun Woo" mode that tournament as well and he really bailed us out in that Australia group stage game in particular.
-그동안 중용한 장현수 김영권 기성용 손흥민은 벤투 축구의 뼈대가 되는 선수인가. ▶남태희 정우영 이 용도 상당히 많은 시간 기용했다. 기본적인 토대를 만드는 게 중요하다. 아시안컵까지 시간이 많지 않아서 많은 실험을 할 수 없지만 일단 기본을 만들어놓고 11월 호주 소집에서 더 다져놓고 필요하면 새로운 선수를 활용할 계획이다. Bento just more or less confirmed that these are his key players for the AC: Son Heung-Min, Jang Hyun-Soo, Kim Young-Gwon, Jung Woo-Young, Nam Tae-Hee, Lee Yong. He says there's not much time until AC, so even if things can change and other players still have a chance to get a starting position from them, he's planning these players as core.
Can't be helped with Nam Tae-hee considering Kwon Chang-hoon is out recovering, but after the AC and onto the WCQs, Nam Tae-hee will go off radar again.
You never know. I got the feeling that Bento will stick to JHS, JWY and NTH until Qatar WC. But it's not necessarily negative, even though I would not like it. Every manager has his darlings.
Nam Tae-hee is only temporary, once Kwon Chang-hoon returns and the likes of Lee Kang-in gets selected, he'll be placed behind. I'm not against Nam Tae-hee as a possible option though, but he won't be first choice from here on out.
sorry I meant CBs, we don't have good CBs. Also I watched Paik play recently (about a month ago) and I don't think he should play as DM. He was rarely involved and he played better offensively. For KJM, I don't think he should play DM either from what we saw in AG. FBs I'm not too sure either. I don't really rate KMH.
Kim Min Jae emerged out of nowhere. We can hope for a similar case. Actually, I think there are some prospects worth watching. - In Jeonbuk, there is a talent called Yoon Ji Hyuk (20). He will get 1st team action when KMJ leaves Jeonbuk. - Lee Jae Ik (19) from Gangwon is getting precious 1st team action at his age. - Cho Yu Min (21) is a regular (22 games) at Suwon FC and plays both CDM/CB. - Kim Seung Woo (20) is another CDM/CB. He's still a Yonsei university player, but I remember him for being solid at the U20 WC. - There's also Kim Hyun Woo (19) at Dinamo Zagreb II. Both LJI and KHW are part of the current U20 team. They are not perfect, shown in the last game vs Australia. But normally, CBs need more time to develop (esp. mentally), because it's a position where one mistake can lead to a goal. We will know better in 3-4 years.
I get people nag on NTH. As another poster said, sometimes you get Messi sometimes you get jack shit. It's frustrating. But I think the man deserves respect , he choosed a different path and got a great career after all. Nearly over 70 goals in the desert. 5 league titles. Going for the sixth. And rich as fck. He should be in the squad as a back up when professor Kwon is back.
I do not blame NTH for taking the money and making himself rich. Good for him. Not ideal for his KNT prospects but hell, I would have done the same.
I dont blame him. Just think he's too inconsistent, so I prefer giving younger players a chance over him, but it's just my opinion and I doubt that Bento will drop him anyway. Not good for LSW though.
Omg you know I thought of a formation. I call this fast & furious: Um Wonsang-Son Heungmin-Jeong Wooyeong Lee Kangin-Lee Seungwoo Korean Kante FB-CB-CB-Cha Duri v.2 Fast and relentless offense. Add in 2 fast fullbacks.
Can't say much about his defense, but I salivate over HHC running up the right side just blowing by everyone. Just gotta work on his passing/crossing accuracy.