[스포츠한국 김성수 기자] While coach Jurgen Klinsmann (58) has become the new head coach of the Korean national soccer team, the most noteworthy player is by far captain Son Heung-min (30, Tottenham Hotspur). It is also of interest that Son Heung-min, who might not fully concentrate on attacking during the Bentoho days, will be able to greet the spring once more by meeting Klinsman, a ‘legendary striker’.
The soccer team led by coach Klinsman will play an evaluation match once morest Colombia at Ulsan Munsu Soccer Stadium at 8:00 pm on the 24th. This is Klinsmann’s debut match as the Korean national team’s coach.
On the followingnoon of the 20th, Klins Manho was officially summoned to Paju NFC, Gyeonggi-do, and following training until the 22nd, moved to Ulsan to prepare for the evaluation match on the 24th. Coach Klinsmann, a legend of German soccer, was appointed as the coach of the Korean national soccer team in February and started his first job with this convocation.
National team ‘coach’ Klinsman and ‘captain’ Son Heung-min showed their expectations for each other early on. At the inauguration press conference as manager on the 9th, Klinsman said, “As a player who played an active part in Tottenham, I have watched all of Son Heung-min’s games and am a huge fan.” There are people who have lived there. You can see how much he cares regarding the players even through a short talk with the coach. He said he was fortunate to meet a good person at the club.”
Here, the fact that coach Klinsman declared attacking football is also expected to work positively for Son Heung-min. It is Son Heung-min who had to perform too many roles alone during the days of former coach Paulo Bento.
At the beginning of the national team coaching, Bento had Ki Sung-yueng, who was excellent at controlling the game through passing from the back. Thanks to this, aggressive midfielders such as Hwang In-beom and Lee Jae-seong were able to pass to the striker from a slightly higher position, and Son Heung-min will also be able to fully demonstrate his long-term penetration into the opponent’s back space in line with the timing of the long pass flying from the rear. might
However, following Ki Sung-yueng retired from the national team in 2019, the national team had difficulty in quickly switching offense and defense because they might not find a replacement who might make such an accurate and powerful long pass. Afterwards, Kim Min-jae and Jung Woo-young (Al Sadd) shared roles to build up the rear, but the regrets might not be completely erased.
The national team had a hard time attacking the opponent’s space as the quick conversion pass that was deployed at once in midfield and rear decreased, and Son Heung-min had to take on the role of ‘midfield commander’. In particular, in the matches once morest Paraguay and Egypt, where Korea was relatively dominant in A matches in June of last year, there were many cases where Son Heung-min came down below the half line and released them with passes rather than focusing on scoring.
However, Klinsmann is a legendary striker who won the World Cup and Euro championship while serving as the main striker for the German national team for regarding 10 years. Here, his will to declare that he will play ‘multi-scoring attack football’ increases the possibility of Son Heung-min concentrating on the goal-scoring role.
Of course, it is unknown how only Klins will enable Son Heung-min to focus his attack. In the 2021-2022 season, when Ki Sung-yueng and Son Heung-min won the EPL scorer at Tottenham in the early days of Bento, Harry Kane stabbed a quality penetration pass from the rear. In order to reproduce this, Klins’ own tricks, such as changing the role of midfielders, are needed, which are different from the days of Bento.
First of all, it is positive that Son Heung-min is strong once morest Colombia on the 24th. Heung-Min Son scored 3 goals in 2 matches once morest Colombia, making him the highest scorer for a Korean player along with Seon-Hong Hwang. It’s a good game to boost your scoring instinct as ‘a beekeeper (a nickname given to Son Heung-min because of his good performance once morest teams in yellow uniforms reminiscent of bees)’.
Of course, it is difficult to fully understand how Klinsman will use Son Heung-min in the future with only the March A match leading to Colombia and Uruguay. However, we may be able to glimpse a minimal direction.
What kind of image does Klinsman want from Son Heung-min? Attention is focusing on whether Son Heung-min, who is showing a disappointing move with 6 goals in 26 league matches this season, will be able to raise his scoring ability once more by meeting Klinsman, a ‘legendary striker’.
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