A year on from finishing in ninth place and ultimately dropping into the relegation play-offs, this season has seen Daegu FC bounce back from last seasons relegation scare. With the youngest manager at the helm of the youngest team in the division — along with the least valuable team in the division to boot — after 23 games, the side is incredibly placed fifth in K-League 1.
Choi Won-kwon, the manager, was appointed as a caretaker boss last season. Since then, he has been able to develop a game model that suits his players and maximises their strengths. The side have developed into a team exceptionally comfortable without the ball, only conceding 27 goals in 23 games.
This scout report and analysis will take a deep dive into the inner workings of the Daegu defence and provide a tactical analysis of why their defensive tactics and principles make the side particularly difficult to play against.
Daegus defensive Strengths
Depending on the opposition, Daegu defensively have switched between either a 5-4-1 or 5-3-2 as well as other variations, but the 5-3-2 is the most common defensively. The side do not look to press the ball aggressively, and many of their games will see them fall into a mid-block reasonably early on.
Nevertheless, the formational structure of the side does not lead to Daegus defensive prowess, with this instead being down to the behaviours and roles of the players, particularly in the midfield and the back line.
Generally, it can be said that opposition teams struggle to find any inroads through the centre of the pitch when playing Daegu. This is the case due to one of the centre-backs in the back five advancing into the midfield to cover opposition players positioned between the midfield and the defensive line.
This can be seen in the image below, with Hong Jeong-woon, the right centre-back advancing further forward in order to cover the opposition player. This results in Daegu being able to prevent overloads in the centre, as through Hong advancing, the midfielder Park Se-Jin(number 14) does not have to cover two players potentially.
Through the actions of the centre-back in the centre of the pitch, the defensive strategy of Daegu becomes relatively clear, with the side looking to force the opposition wide. This is also made evident through the midfield players pressing opposition players whenever they receive passes in the centre. When doing this, an aspect that aids the side in forcing the opposition wide is the speed and timing of the midfielders when pressing opposition players in the centre. The example below shows how Park, the central-midfieder, begins to press the opposition midfielder before the pass is even played.
