[스포츠한국 김성수 기자] While coach Jurgen Klinsmann (58) has become the new head coach of the Korean national football team, the most notable player by far is captain Son Heung-min (30, Tottenham Hotspur). It is also of interest that Son Heung-min, who could not focus entirely on attacking during the Bentoho days, will be able to greet spring again by meeting Klinsman, a ‘legendary striker’.
The football team led by coach Klinsman will play an evaluation match against Colombia at the Ulsan Munsu Football Stadium at 8:00pm on the 24th. This is Klinsmann’s first game as coach of the Korean national team.
On the afternoon of the 20th, Klins Manho was officially summoned to Paju NFC, Gyeonggi-do, and after training until the 22nd, he moved to Ulsan to prepare for the evaluation game on the 24th. Coach Klinsmann, the German football legend, was appointed as the coach of the Korean national football team in February and started his first job with this convocation.
National team ‘coach’ Klinsman and ‘captain’ Son Heung-min showed their expectations of each other early on. At the press conference inaugurated as manager on the 9th, Klinsman said, “As a player who played an active role in Tottenham, I have watched all of Son Heung-min’s games and I am a huge fan.” There are people who have lived there You can see how much he cares about the players even through a short conversation with the coach. He said he was lucky to meet a good person at the club.”
Here, the fact that coach Klinsman declared that he attacks football is also expected to work positively for Son Heung-min. Son Heung-min had to perform too many roles on his own during the days of former coach Paulo Bento.
At the start of coaching the national team, Bento had Ki Sung-yueng, who was great at controlling the game by passing from the back. Thanks to this, attacking midfielders such as Hwang In-beom and Lee Jae-seong were able to pass to the striker from a slightly higher position, and Son Heung-min will also be able to fully demonstrate his long-term penetration into position the opponent. back space in accordance with the timing of the long pass flying from behind
However, after Ki Sung-yueng retired from the national team in 2019, the national team had difficulty changing offense and defense quickly because they could not find someone else who could make such an accurate and powerful long pass. After that, Kim Min-jae and Jung Woo-young (Al Sadd) shared roles to build the back, but the worries could not be completely eliminated.
The national team had a hard time attacking the opponent’s space as the quick conversion pass used immediately in the midfield and the back decreased, and Son Heung-min had to take the role of the ‘midfield commander’ ‘. In particular, in the matches against Paraguay and Egypt, where Korea was relatively dominant in A games in June last year, there were many instances where Son Heung-min came down below the halfway line and u release with passes rather than focus on scoring. .
However, Klinsmann is a legendary striker who won the World Cup and Euro championship while serving as the main striker of the German national team for about 10 years. Here, his willingness to declare that he will play ‘multi-scoring attacking football’ increases the possibility that Son Heung-min will focus on the goal-scoring role.
Of course, just how Klins will enable Son Heung-min to focus his attack is unknown. In the 2021-2022 season, when Ki Sung-yueng and Son Heung-min won the EPL scorer in Tottenham in the early days of Bento, Harry Kane stabbed a quality penetrating pass from the back. Reproducing this requires Klins’ own tricks, such as changing the role of midfielders, which is different from the Bento days.
First of all, it is positive that Son Heung-min is strong against Colombia on the 24th. Heung-Min Son scored 3 goals in 2 games against Colombia, making him the top scorer for a Korean player along with Seon-Hong Hwang. It’s a good game to boost your scoring instincts as a ‘beekeeper (a nickname given to Son Heung-min’s performance against teams in yellow uniforms reminiscent of a bee)’.
Of course, it is difficult to fully understand how Klinsman will use Son Heung-min in the future with only a March A game leading up to Colombia and Uruguay. However, we may be able to glimpse a minimal direction.
What kind of image does Klinsman want from Son Heung-min? Attention is focused on whether Son Heung-min, who is showing a disappointing move with 6 goals in 26 league games this season, will be able to raise his scoring ability again by meeting Klinsman, a ‘legendary striker’.
