Weekend Roundup (Sept 17-18): SHM goes beast mode, KSY goes rogue…

Not the most eventful of weekends for our KPA, but some interesting stories are unfolding. This time I have taken out PJH and KJS, and until they start playing again (or even making the bench for that matter), they will not feature in future roundups

[tb]
Player, Club, Opponent, Result, Notes
Son Heungmin, Tottenham, Sunderland, 1-0 W, 90′ + unanimous MOTM
Ji Dongwon, Augsburg, Mainz, 3-1 L, 76′
Koo Jacheol, Augsburg, Mainz, 3-1 L, 59′
Lee Chungyong, Palace, Stoke, 4-1 W, 5′
Ki Sungyueng, Swansea, @Southampton, 1-0 L, 66′
Suk Hyunjun, Trabzonspor, Alanyaspor, 0-3 L, 90′ [/tb]

Once again the lion’s share of our roundup will go to Son Heung-Min, who played quite a magnificent 90′ (ok the first 45′ was more magnificent but still, very impressive). I only tuned for the first 15 minutes but SHM showed the complete opposite of his recent “invisibility” – he was everywhere, constantly running at the Sunderland RB and getting crosses in like every 5 minutes. Literally the only thing that prevented SHM from a perfect game is a goal or two (he hit the post instead). SHM got a 8.3 rating on Whoscored without scoring a goal, and let’s just say that even after scoring goals SHM at times gets less than that score. He also even took good corners, which is something I thought I’d never say. That’s how good he was today.

Since I didn’t get to watch the match, I will let people with more credibility talk about SHM in my place:

After the game this happened:

The stats don’t lie either:

shm
13 Dribbles? SHM beast mode, or RB having a stinker?

Within a couple of hours a SHM specific ball touch vid will surely be out, but for now, check out the Sky Sports analysis, which also shows some of SHM’s highlights

EDIT: Within a minute of posting this the ball touch comes up on Twitter, but it has very annoying music, so you might be better off waiting for the Korean Youtubers (HEON, Assabio, 쉬팔로마니) to upload something. If you haven’t subscribed to them, I highly recommend subscribing now.

EDIT 2: And speak of the devil, HEON uploads one within 3 hours of the game’s conclusion:

Ando ne last SHM related point: WhoScored rates players every game they play based on a pretty complicated algorithm. I don’t always agree with their ratings but they do get the general gist of how players perform. Anyway, SHM is currently the world’s highest ranked player right now, because n=2 (and went beast mode in both).

jin

 

And now we move on to Ki Sungyong who set off yet another controversy by refusing to acknowledge Guidolin after getting subbed off relatively early (the crime? handshake snub). After this incident I honestly don’t forsee KSY starting next week because he’s definitely not the type to admit his errors and apologize.

The headline goes as follows: “Swansea City boss Francesco Guidolin faces a second substitution spat in seven days after blasting Ki Sung-Yueng’s ‘bad attitude” 

Francesco Guidolin is set for showdown talks with Ki Sung-Yueng after Swansea City’s second substitution spat in a week.

Ki was hooked off by Guidolin just after the hour mark and replaced with Jefferson Montero as the Swans trailed 1-0 to a Charlie Austin goal at Southampton.

It then appears that the Korean midfielder remonstrated with Guidolin before walking past him, refusing to shake the Italian’s hand.

Speaking after the match, Guidolin said: “This is not a good attitude.

“I will have to speak to him, I respect all my players but the relationship between them and me is very important.

“There is no problem with respect between me and the players, in this squad I have found good guys and good players.”

The first subsitution spat, by the way, was Neil Taylor less than a week ago for being hauled off at 43′. I have literally never seen a player get subbed off right BEFORE halftime – how embarrassing would that be for the player – a senior veteran of Swansea who was tipped to be captain after the departure of Ashley Williams? Guidolin really couldn’t wait for halftime? Was that measly 2 minutes really that important?

Clearly Guidolin’s management skills are under question right now. He’s pissed off a number of players (even before this past week), and made no big signings despite the loss of some really key players. And it shows – Swansea are playing very very poorly right now, even after that 2-2 draw to Chelsea. The team once had a very attractive and fluid playing style that propelled them to the Europa League but those days look long gone…

 

On the London side of things, Lee Chungyong unfortunately did not start again. It looks like Pardew wants to stick to 4-2-3-1, but instead of LCY in the middle he is playing Puncheon with Townsend and Zaha out wide. He got garbage minutes at the very end, but things aren’t looking too good, especially with those aforementioned three players shining in a 4-1 win against Stoke (but then again it is Stoke..)

 

Across the ocean in Bavaria, Ji Dong Won and Koo Ja Cheol both started against Mainz. As predicted, Caiuby’s injury meant that the starting berth went to JDW. JDW played decently well it seems, as did KJC. That being said, Augsburg lost to Mainz 3-1, and like every season, their finishing leaves lot to be desired. Fortunately from the KNT perspective, I’m pretty certain KJC and JDW will continue to start next week if they continue to train well, but they really need to find their scoring boots, because Bobadilla has clearly lost his.

 

Finally, we take a look over at Turkey to Suk Hyunjun. Trabzonspor is not in a good state right now – they won their first game against a league minnow, but lost all three subsequent games (SHJ started all three of those games and played 90′ but let’s hope that the results can be explained by coincidence). I have faith, though, that SHJ will find his scoring boots again (I usually don’t use that term but it’s very appropriate today for some reason) – the Turkish league in theory is easier than the Portugese League, and maybe in a few weeks we’ll see Suk banging in those free kick rockets we were treated to back in his Vitoria de Setubal days.

 

Extra time:

Lee Seung Woo and Jang Gyeol Hee both started in today’s Juve A match. Barca won 4-0, but neither were on the scoresheet. One of the other FWs on Juve A was called up to Barca B and played sub minutes. Paik Seung Ho was left out of the Barca B squad again – things aren’t looking too good for him right now, and he really should get out of there soon. I highly recommend the Bundesliga or the Eredivisie – that’s where I personally think all KPAs should go if they’re entering professional European leagues for the first time, though I guess PSH might feel more at home on some La Liga team. Unfortunately, PSH hasn’t even featured in the Spanish third division, so a La Liga team might be hard – PSV, Ajax, or a Portugese team maybe?

 

About Jinseok 259 Articles
Diehard Korean football fan. https://www.taegukwarriors.com/jinseoks-story/

17 Comments

  1. “Since I didn’t get to watch the match, I will let people with more credibility talk about SHM in my place:”

    Are you fucking serious? why are people who didnt watch the match writing this??
    ???

    • If I could, I’d like to remind you that the Tavern writing team is composed of busy students and adults with jobs… We try, but we’re often busy. The site heats up when we have time, it cools down when we don’t. We’d like to be full time writers for the Tavern but it’s a free hobby.

    • Chill out, firehole. He stated he only watched the first 15 minutes, which is why he pointed us towards other commentary. He didn’t pretend to know more than the info he gathered. Learn to read carefully before opening up your firehole. Lol. Kidding. Sorry about that line. I couldn’t help myself. Anyway, but for real, no need to get hostile. They’re busy people, like Tim said, and they’re doing a great service for no pay. If you don’t like it, you can always go elsewhere and try your luck.

    • Hey @firehole, you should apply to be a Tavern writer! I think the Tavern needs more people contributing. I’d love to read your thoughts on Spurs and SHM. Cheers!

  2. Frankly, I don’t understand Ki Sung-Yueng. Seriously, guy does have a bad attitude for someone who has been playing like crap. He has no speed and walked around like a zombie out there but thinks he deserve to start every game.

    He needs to lose 15 pounds, get in shape and develop some more speed. The whole league is getting speedier while moves around like slug.

    • Pace has never been a strength of KSY’s even back in his FC Seoul days, but you’re right, he’s getting lazier and lazier with Swansea this year. I am fairly certain he just wants to get out at this point

      • I know this is kinda racist, but this is a racist world we live in where people will judge you. I think Ki has a responsibility to other K-Leaguers/Koreans who want to get to the Premier League (or European league) to not act like such an assclown with a bad attitude. It sucks to say, but there aren’t that many Koreans on European clubs these days. The managers have no obligation to sign Koreans… and if they have Ki as an example, they may see him as a bad example for future signings. Get with it Ki, you’re better than that.

      • Ki does not have pace, he never had and he never will. What he does have is cleverness and awareness which allows him to be a top DM in the EPL. He looked fine in this past game and certainly not lazy… his reaction towards his substitution should be indicative of his passion and desire to play, no?

        • Shinhyung I agree with you man. He looks like he doesn’t run around much but his intelligence caters for that and so he positions himself perfectly to receive the ball heaps. I still think he should be center holding midfielder rather than CDM, needs more attacking intent. His passion to play and help the team just shows how frustrated he gets when he gets subbed off and I like that, tbh he has the skills to back up the frustration and I’m over seeing the quiet, obedient type of Korean footballer who gets messed around but sits quietly. LCY spoke up last season and he’s now started a few and getting more opportunities, I think it’s because Pardew, while being offended, listened to him more, realised he wasn’t just a shirt seller.
          Jon, Ki technically doesn’t owe K leaguers anything, it’s not like managers are literally going, “hey this guy is Korean but remember that Korean a while back from Swansea who had a sorta bad attitude, let’s not sign him!”, if they did do that though, I’d highly suggest Korean players to stay away from those sorts of managers! hahah

          • Agreed that I may have been a bit over the top. He obviously doesn’t owe anything to anyone. It’s just that reports of immaturity have followed Ki around forever… that’s all that I’m saying. Not shaking hands with a teammate, a standard in EVERY match, is a pretty big sign of immaturity in my opinion. I don’t believe that’s a sign of passion. Passion is how you play. In fact, I’m under the belief that the majority of the people playing have passion. You don’t dedicate your life to a sport with a small chance of success if you don’t have passion. That doesn’t give you a free card to be a dick to a teammate and say “I’m passionate” about the game (and I know Ki never said that, that’s what we’re saying to defend him). And I get WHY he was upset but there are different ways to handle it. I guess I misstated what I wanted earlier.

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