Monday, January 6, 2020

Midweek Preview Jan 7 and Weekend Recap Jan 3

Finally some football to watch even if the football itself was bleh.


Tuesday

Suk Hyun Jun -- Reims vs. Strasbourg (Cup) at 3 PM ET on BeIn - Left out of squad this weekend leaves his future at Reims very unclear and seems unlikely to be in squad midweek unless it was a minor knock that left him out.


Wednesday

Lee Kang In -- Valencia vs  Real Madrid (Cup) at 2 PM ET on ESPN Deportes - Out and will miss next match before full reintegration in winter camp. I imagine this will be on other channels too but not gonna look with LKI out.


Recap

Ki Sung Yueng -- I guess reflective of his status that he remained on the bench, but did come on around 53 minutes. He seemed to be moving ok and also driven to make an impact, with some good balls forward and several half-decent shots. He even tried on defense but his lack of top speed at this stage of his career stood out when he had to try to cover for turnovers by teammates such as what led to the equalizing goal. I suspect Bruce will focus on Ki's lack of pace as a proxy for workrate, his primary criteria, when the turnovers by his teammates were far more problematic in my opinion. The good news out of such a draw is that there will be a replay and maybe more chances for minutes for Ki, but I think PL minutes look slim.


Son Heung Min -- Was hard to judge Tottenham's attack so much as they struggled in transition badly but looked decent when they got in the box. Son did best when helping get from midway to the attacking box, but tried too hard once he got there or waited too long for things to line up. It was refreshing to see him play with Sessegnon who appears to be an upgrade over other LBs this season. A frustrating day overall for team and Son and not ideal ahead of Liverpool.


Hwang Ui Jo -- Should be returning to side soon.