Kwon Hyuk-gyu, who has been mentioned as the next national team defensive midfielder, is following in the footsteps of senior player Ki Sung-yong.
Kwon Hyuk-gyu leaves Busan I-Park, where he has been running since childhood, and moves to Celtic, a strong player in Scotland. Born in Busan, he has been following his youth system since elementary school, and is the ‘Seonggol Youth’ who has already made his debut in the K-League 2 through a semi-professional system in his third year of high school. He is currently completing his military service as he enlisted as managing director Kim Cheon in his third year as a pro. Except for this, he has been in Busan all along.
Combining his physical condition and technique is Kwon Hyuk-kyu’s greatest strength. He is 190 cm tall and has excellent ball handling skills. Based on this, he digested all kinds of positions. He has experience not only as a defensive midfielder, which is his original position, but also as an attacking midfielder, flanking midfielder, and central defender in a three-back position just below the forward striker.
In many ways, it is the physical condition and growth process reminiscent of the great senior Ki Sung-yong. Ki Sung-yong also played a variety of positions from central defense to attacking midfielder when he was a promising player. Ki Sung-yueng was positioned right in front of the defense, and more active and defensive fellow midfielder Hankook-young was rather advanced.
The tall defensive midfielder is also a position that Korea is particularly lacking. After Ki Sung-yong’s retirement, Jung Woo-young played an active role until the ‘2022 Qatar World Cup’, but since he is 34 years old and is the same age as Ki Sung-yong, it is difficult to regard him as a starting player until the next World Cup. His replacement Son Jun-ho is 31 years old and Park Yong-woo is 30 years old. The recent return of 26-year-old Won Doo-jae, who had been away from the national team for a long time, is the only relatively young substitute. In addition, most midfielders emerging recently, such as Hong Hyeon-seok, are far from being defensive.
The national team needs a minimum of tall players. You need to have at least four tall players in your starting lineup so that you can create normal tactics in set-piece defense and offense. It is also a great help for flexible tactics, such as a defensive midfielder instantly covering the center back seat. Tall defensive midfielders are of great tactical value.메이저토토사이트
However, even considering the young age, the growth rate was not fast. He was evaluated as good for his age and was consistently given a long playing time for a U22 player, but he did not show his skills to overwhelm his opponent in K League 2. He was also eliminated from the recently announced Hangzhou Asian Games men’s soccer team. There are debates over whether K-League key players Kim Bong-su and Kwon Hyuk-kyu were eliminated and wild card Baek Seung-ho had to come in, but at least it means that coach Hwang Seon-hong was not completely satisfied with the existing midfielders’ skills.
Changing the environment through overseas expansion can be a good catalyst for accelerating growth for Kwon. Oh Hyeon-gyu, who moved to Celtic first, and Yang Hyeon-jun, who will advance together, are already representative A, so Kwon Hyuk-gyu is relatively less noticed. However, from the perspective of the national team, the player who needs the most growth may be Kwon Hyuk-gyu.