Tuesday, February 9, 2016

Weekend Recap Feb 6th

A bit late on the recap but a pretty poor weekend overall with little good coming out of it and a lot of weak performances and injuries.


Hong Jeong Ho -- An ok performance but a very poor loss by Augsburg.  I think he was involved in one of the goals but it was more of a good play by opponent in my recollection.


Ji Dong Won -- Wasn't a surprise when he was taken off as again he was fairly invisible.  The lack of fluency in midfield means that Ji's primary skills of linking well with the rest of attack become dampened and he lacks the aggression to make up for it.


Koo Ja Cheol -- Most disappointing of the Augsburg three vs expectations, as he reverted back to his bad habits of prior seasons, with sloppy passes and decisions killing what little fluidity that Augsburg had in the middle of the pitch.  Augsburg needs him to link defense and attack and when he's that poor, it turns into the type of frustrating day like it was on the weekend as chances were few and instead cheap chances for opposition were too common.


Park Joo Ho -- He was left off the squad and his days as an active member of the squad appear in danger as he was also left off the midweek cup squad.  With Durm healthy and apparently playing well (didn't see today's match), PJH faces an uphill struggle for chances.  Durm can play both fullback spots and allows Tuchel to spend the bench spot on greater needs than PJH's role as 3rd backup DM.  It might be a while before he plays again.


Lee Chung Yong -- Like Ji, he struggled to get himself involved in the match. Not sure if all the minutes lately have caught up or the bad weather slowed him down, but he looked out of it.  He perhaps was pulled too early vs. some other guys, but it was an understandable move by Pardew.


Ki Sung Yueng -- He was ruled out early with a concussion and hopefully he's on his way back to fitness.  It will be interesting to see if Swansea what shape will be used for rest of season given change to 4-2-3-1 on the weekend.


Son Heung Min -- He was benched for Lamela and Chadli combo.  Son came on for Lamela later in the match and was very industrious as they needed him to be.  In a continuing sign of improvement since Leverkusen/Hamburg days, he didn't try too hard to impress when coming on as a sub, and played his role well and calmly.  While I'm sure he'd like to be starting more, he's maturing as a player in many ways and when the spectacular returns, it could be a potent blend.


Kim Jin Su -- He was benched but didn't make much difference for Hoffenheim who still had no offense and let in two soft goals.  Not sure what the immediate fallout will be as I thought Toljan wasn't particularly good against a much weaker opponent than Bayern.


Suk Hyun Jun -- He was surprisingly named to the bench, but unsurprisingly, given limited training, didn't enter the action.