K-League 1 2020: Pohang Steelers vs Jeonbuk Motors

Last season champions, Jeonbuk Motors, have again started the K-League 1 campaign on a strong note leading the second-placed and last season’s runner up, Ulsan Hyundai by one point. Pohang Steelers themselves are having a decent season losing only to FC Seoul and Ulsan Hyundai leading to this high-voltage fixture.

The Steelers boast of a tremendous attacking lineup who have scored 13 goals in seven matches, sitting just behind Ulsan Hyundai on the goal-scoring chart whereas the Warriors have conceded the least goals leading to this fixture. The match was supposed to be a tough battle between the two and it surely did not disappoint.

Let’s focus on the xG of both the teams before diving into the analysis. Jeonbuk Motors registered a massive 2.48 xG whereas Pohang had a mere 0.41. A simple question arises, how can someone term this as a hard-fought battle?

This tactical analysis will reveal the answer to the question detailing the tactics used by both the managers and where exactly Pohang lost the battle.

Lineups

Kim Gi-Dong reverted to four-man backline where they secured a huge win and the gaffer had no intention to tinker with it in this massive fixture. However, Pohang had a colossal setback. The Steelers were without their captain, Young-Jun Choi, who was loaned from Jeonbuk and was ineligible to face his parent club. Seung-Mo Lee replaced him as the defensive midfielder. Otherwise, Pohang had similar look to their lineup.

José Morais stuck to his preferred 4-1-4-1, however, he faced a similar conundrum. The Portuguese was without his captain and leading scorer, Dong-Gook Lee, who was away to pursue his AFC A-Level coaching license. He was replaced by the South African Lars Veldwijk.

Regardless, José Morais was happy to call back Chang-Rae Ha, who missed the previous two matches through suspension. The other two changes to the lineup were, Murilo Henrique replaced Sung-Yoon Lee in the left-wing and Kyu-Seong Cho replaced Kyo-Won Han in the opposite flank.