Who will partner with Ki Sung-yueng under coach Stielike

The Korean national soccer team beat Saudi Arabia in the final test match held last Sunday ahead of the Asian Cup championship, but watchers criticized that the Korean team lacked capability in the midfield. Ki Sung-yueng (26, Swansea City), the core midfielder of the team who will take charge of the midfield, did not participate in the match due to his own pro team’s schedule.

Ki will serve as the commander of the midfield for the Korean team and coordinate the proceeding of matches. As Ki can participate in the first match of the Group A league against Oman at 2 p.m. on Saturday, the Korean team is set to present a more systematic play.

However, coach Ulrich Stielike has concerns in this regard. He must find Ki’s partner to be able to make the most of Ki. Under Stielike`s a 4-2-3-1 formation, Ki is one of the two midfielders for "2" in the formation. Ki will serve as a defender and play to enable Team Korea to launch attacks in the midfield through passes. Depending on the performance of his partner who will showcase teamwork with him, Ki could also display a different level of performance.

Players who are being considered as candidates for Ki’s partner are Han Kook-young (25, Qatar SC), Park Joo-ho (28, Mainz), and Lee Myung-joo (25, Al Ain FC). Han is a typical defender-style midfielder who has teamed up with Ki more frequently than anyone else. If Han focuses more on defense, Ki can make more aggressive moves. Han cuts off the flow of the opponent team’s offense by engaging in stable yet aggressive physical fight. Park Joo-ho, a left wingback who can also serve as a midfielder, is said to have capability to generate synergistic effects through teamwork play with Son Heung-min (23, Bayer Leverkusen), a leftfield striker. Son, who often serves as a left wing, mostly penetrates into the center from the left. In this situation, Park Joo-ho could fill the spatial gap left by Son, and thereby provide backup.

Coach Stielike is agonizing over where to place Park Joo-ho between a left side defender and midfielder positions. If he deploys Park as a midfielder, chances are high that Kim Jin-soo (23, TSG 1899 Hoffenheim) will play the left side defender. Without having enough big-league experience, Kim appears somewhat insecure and unstable among his other drawbacks.

Lee Myung-joo is a midfielder with instinct to attack. He has good passing skills, boasting strong capacity to penetrate into space. If partnering with Ki, he is capable of displaying a play of precision passing. However, if he as a midfielder frequently moves forward, he could widen space with defenders, which could result in a failure of pressing play in the midfield. If the national team allows for vacuum in the midfield, it could be dealt a fatal blow.

KBS soccer commentator Han Joon-hee said, “Coach Stielike will skillfully utilize these three players depending on which team it plays with. If the opponent is Australia, which is full of power and tends to be aggressive rather than being defensive, it would be nice to deploy Han Kook-young to boost defense, and if the opponent is a weak team such as Oman or Kuwait, it would be a good idea to field Park Joo-ho or Lee Myung-joo to strengthen offense capability.” KBSN soccer commentator Kim Dae-gil also suggested a similar view.

“As physical conditions are unstable among Korean players, including those who finished the domestic pro league and those who have joined the national team amidst the official season in their pro leagues, it would be necessary to manage the first match in a stable fashion,” SBS soccer commentator Park Moon-seong said. "It is important to boost defense in the match against Oman."

Oman stands at 93rd in the FIFA rankings, trailing Korea (69th). Oman’s top player is goalie Ali Al Habsi, who plays for the English club Wigan Athletic. As a goalie from Asia, he plays as a starter in the European big league, and is the spiritual leader of Team Oman.