Korea Is Most Powerful with 3-4-3 Formation

Korea Football Association’s technical director Lee Yong-Su recently said a profound remark in an interview. “From now on, we’ll go back to the 3-4-3 formation, which gained success at the end of last year. The 3-5-2 formation in the CONCACAF Gold Cup was a strategy to fake the U.S.”

Looking from the perspective that the formation is the basic frame of strategic management, such remark contains Korean soccer’s problem of having no reliable playmaker and goal-getter.

Coach Guus Hiddink carried out 3 major formation changes since taking over the national team last year. Although every match went through small changes, the big outline followed 4-4-2 until the middle of last year, 3-4-3 at the end of last year, and 3-5-2 in the beginning of this year.

Firstly, the 4-4-2 formation, in which one-line defense of 4 players is the core, failed to establish a root. A few blind spots were found in the transition between regional and one-to-one defense, and besides, it was too late to reorganize the defense line before the World Cup. Also, the midfield was not smooth in its own flow in transition from defense to offense.

Hiddink eventually adopted the 3-4-3 formation since the match with Senegal in November last year, and it was successful. It was to take advantage of Korea’s fast feet maximizing side-attacks, and the Argentine national team is currently using it as the basic framework. However, while Argentina is making full advantage of playmaker Veron with a diamond-arrangement of the midfield, Korea is just focusing on right-left wingers’ counter attacks after thickening the defense by placing 2 players next to each other in the central midfield.

Lee explained about this in the beginning of the year, “Honestly, there is no weaker team than Korea in the World Cup finals. That is why we bet on sudden counter attacks while concentrating on defense. Yoon Jung-Hwan is an excellent passer, but he has bad stamina.”

As Lee himself admitted, the 3-5-2 formation that was used in the CONCACAF Gold Cup in the beginning of the year ended up as a failure. No reliable playmaker, the key to the formation, was found, and also, the two-top was only good for occupying the center space with the enemy’s defense behind their backs. Besides, straight midfield line only focused on defense, which was different from the previous 3-5-2 formation, and failed to make any effective attack.

As the Korean soccer is returning to 3-4-3, the main interest is about who will be the 3 strikers. For now, Sul Gi-Hyun and Choi Yong-Su are strong candidates for the forefront one-top, and Ahn Jung-Hwan, Lee Chun-Su, Choi Tae-Wook, Lee Dong-Kuk, and Cha Doo-Ri are competing for the left-right wings.

Keuk-In Bae bae2150@donga.com