Choi Young-geun, 52, has seen his players refuse to give up.
Incheon United will host Gangwon FC in the 33rd round of the 2024 Hana Bank K League on June 6 at 3 p.m. at the Incheon Football Stadium.
Incheon sits at the bottom of the league with just 32 points (W7 D11 L14), behind 10th-ranked Daegu and 11th-ranked Daejeon (35+).
Gangwon, on the other hand, is in third place with 52 points (15 wins, 7 draws, 10 losses), behind first-place Ulsan HD (58 points) and second-place Gimcheon Sangmu (56 points). With only six points separating them from first-place Ulsan, they have a chance to win the 메이저사이트 league title.
Speaking to the media ahead of the match, Incheon head coach Choi Young-geun said, “We prepared more on defense and reviewed the areas where we conceded goals. We need to find what we do best and play it. We prepared well for that. Now we move on to the split round. We have a strong will and I believe we will do well in this match.”
Incheon is having trouble scoring goals. They have not scored in three consecutive matches and even Gerso, who returned from injury, looked threatening with his quick movement but was unable to finish.
Choi felt that a simpler approach to the opposition’s doorstep and finishing could have been more effective, rather than a more detailed and detailed approach. We emphasized more on crosses and compactness. It’s important to get into a position to score from those areas. It was a simpler logic,” he explained.
For this match, Gerso will start from the bench. “We actually had some injuries,” Choi said. He suffered a slight injury in training after the Pohang game. He’s not in a condition to play full time. We thought he could be strategically effective in the second half rather than the first half,” Choi said, explaining the reason for his decision to leave him out of the starting lineup.
Choi added: “I analyzed Gangwon from both sides. They can play as a four-back or a three-back. We prepared for both aspects. In the attacking part, we thought more about how to utilize our midfielders and wingers. It’s about how much of what we can do we can do on the pitch.”
“We had a lot of turnovers in the last few games and it was difficult for the players physically, so we emphasized that,” he added.
For this match, Incheon used the attacking second line of Kim Do-hyuk, Mpoku Kim, and Bo-seob Kim. Choi said, “We had some players out with injuries, including Shin Shin-ho. We prepared what we could with the resources we had. I thought the players would do a good job in their positions. It would have been helpful to have veteran players in the team, but I believe the new players will do a good job,” Choi emphasized.
Choi added: “The players are getting tired. It’s important to keep the team’s atmosphere, the mental part of the team, and not let it drop. The team atmosphere is not bad. It’s not like we’re sitting back or anything like that. The players are working hard. You could see that they were ready to go,” he added.
