“I can’t go in and put it in…”
Jeju United coach Nam Ki-il’s worries are deepening. The team hasn’t won a game in 10 matches. The winless streak started on June 3 against Gangwon FC (2-2 draw) at Jeju World Cup Stadium and has continued until the sixth game. Coincidentally, it was also a home game against Gangwon, the same team that started the winless streak. On this occasion, Jeju narrowly avoided defeat after conceding a goal to Gangwon’s Park Sang-hyuk in the 37th minute of the second half and then converting a dramatic penalty kick opportunity by Hayes himself in stoppage time.스포츠토토
A 10-match winless streak (four draws and six losses) followed, and the team’s high-flying ranking plummeted. Jeju, which was ranked second in the K League 1 until June 4, has fallen to ninth place in just two months and now has to worry about making the Final A cut. The team still has a chance to rebound, as they are only three points behind sixth-place Daegu FC, which is the Final A minimum. However, if they go on a winless streak, they may find themselves in an irreversible situation.
The problem is that the team doesn’t seem to have a solution to break their winless streak. This is because Jeju’s struggles are not just one or two parts, but a combination. On the surface, it’s the lack of a striker and the departure of key veterans.
Courtesy of the Korean Football Association
First of all, the team lost its main goal scorer when Lee In-gyu, who had been the team’s leading scorer until last year, moved to Ulsan Hyundai ahead of the season. While the loss was initially not too damaging as it happened in the season opener, the team’s recent scoring drought has made the void much more noticeable.
Add to that the injuries to veterans Koo Ja-cheol and Choi Young-joon around the time of the recent 10-game winless streak, Lee Chang-min’s military enlistment, and finally Ahn Hyun-beom’s transfer to Jeonbuk Hyundai, and the foundation of the team’s squad has been shaken. As a result, Jeju’s strength is significantly weaker than it was two months ago.
As a result, Jeju has scored a total of 10 goals during its 10-game winless streak, but has conceded 21 goals, showing that the balance of the offense has collapsed. As a result, even head coach Nam Ki-il, who is known as a “researching coach” in the K League, is unable to come up with a clear solution.
After the game against Gangwon on the 6th, Nam said, “We had a good overall balance during the break, and the spacing of the offense was as good as we wanted, but the gap opened up in the second half.” “Especially in the attack, we went well to the doorstep, but the goal didn’t solve it. We trained a lot, and it’s a pity that it didn’t work out,” he said.
Courtesy of the Korea Football Association
For now, Nam is emphasizing the need to score goals to get out of the slump. “We’re creating a lot of chances in training, but the biggest problem is that we’re not scoring. We need to fix that, but it’s hard because it’s not working out,” he said. Eventually, Nam’s game plan will need to be sparked. The only person he can count on is Hayes (6 goals), who scored the dramatic equalizer against Gangwon. “We need a lot of shots on target,” Nam said. There should be crosses that lead to teammates,” Nam said, urging Hayes to step up his game. It will be interesting to see when Jeju will break their long winless streak.
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