Mr. Kwon
Part 5 | Yanbian FC | 延边足球俱乐部 | 연변축구 | FM23 Hardcore Mode
Amazing
Gansu showed up to their match against us, though you can’t be blamed for thinking that we played that one all alone.
We gave up 0 shots and 0 chances to them. Gansu had an xG of 0.00. Meanwhile, we scored 7 goals on 42 shots, dominated possession, and looked like a team playing a completely different game.
New signing Luciano Parra completed his debut hat trick in the 67th minute. I brought Huang Bowen on, mostly as an apology for signing Kim Yong-Il (who also scored, of course). Huang scored a goal in the 72nd minute. I hope he realizes that I do want to play him from time to time, and that we make transfers to win games, not to play favorites with our players.
I’m amazed at how well we played. No fewer than 8 players made their debuts for us, and yet we still won by a huge margin. We looked like we’ve always played together. The crazy thing is that our squad cohesion can only improve from here.
There’s not much more you can say about this match than that we dominated. We shouldn’t be the third tier; that much is for sure. It won’t be long before we start moving up.
Monthly Review
We’ve had an interesting month. After 4 games and a total of 16 goals for and 2 goals again, I suppose we can make some conclusions about our performance.
We tend to score our goals deep inside the penalty area. We’ve been able to simply move the ball inside and score, which is absolutely fantastic.
We’re good at getting the ball into the final third, which is a lot better than we were doing in that other reality that I’d just as soon forget. We’re scoring goals about 1/4 of the time when we enter the final third of the pitch. I mean, we’ve just been absolutely dominant on offense; there’s no other way to put it.
As for negatives — well, it turns out that Lee Jin-Yong is leading the squad in losing possession. That’s right: the fan favorite, the baby-faced young South Korean wonderkid, the man whose picture is in all the local tabloids, Mr. Lee is playing worse than our other defensive midfielders.
I’d love to tell Charlotte this news, but I can’t find the time to talk with her. She’s been busy organizing a fan club for Lee Jin-Yong, along with an army of housewives, college students, and teenage girls from Yanji and the surrounding area. “이진용 화이팅!” (Go Lee Jin-Yong!) is their rallying cry, and none of them seem to mind that her Korean is heavily accented and sounds odd.
She still doesn’t know what hospital he’s staying at. We’ll see how long I can hold that bit of information secret.
We’re the best team in the league at attacking movement, and by a really high margin. We attract a lot of fouls, mostly because of the sheer quality that we possess up front.
Our crossing is also excellent — easily best in our division. I would wager that we have the best crossing in the country, actually.
Anyway, our finances look good. We’re still rich. In fact, I think we’ve been making money despite our wild spending. It turns out that we get 1.4 million RMB for each win, which is absolutely silly. And yet I still can’t convince Chairman Guo to improve the training facilities, despite the fact that I promised half the squad that we’d do so.
Come to think of it, I can’t even meet with Chairman Guo if I want to. He seems to spend all of his time out on the town, riding around in his Tesla, or flying to random parts of the country in his private jet. I don’t care. I’m fine with focusing on the football, thank you very much.
The board seems mildly happy with how we are doing. Perhaps they are upset by the two goal we’ve conceded in four matches.
The fans are also mildly pleased. I know that they want a big signing, but we simply can’t do that yet — not at this level. That will come later, I hope.
Our squad heirarchy is pretty well set. Fan Xiang, who I’ll introduce you to tomorrow, is clearly the squad leader, and Ye Jie is right behind him in terms of squad influence. We’ve got a good number of influential players, and the dressing room atmosphere is excellent.
All of that is impressive when you consider how many changes we’ve made. We’re into the beginning of September now. The transfer window has closed. We brought in 46 players, easily most in the country. We weren’t able to match the 790 million RMB that Shanghai Port spent — but that’s because we’re so far down the league pecking order. Once we make it up to the Chinese Super League, we’ll likely outspend them.
Shanghai’s not that hot anyway. Who would want to go to such a bland, plastic, commercial city? Why go shopping on the bund at overpriced stores when you can hang out in the border area and visit the Korean restaurants? Yanji might be a small city, but it’s a city with heart. I’m still convinced that it’s the best city in the country, and I defy anyone to prove me wrong.
Mr. Kwon
For a little while this summer, Kwon Hyeok-Kyu (권혁규) was our record transfer. We broke our own record, of course — Chairman Guo simply wouldn’t have it any other way. Signing Kwon, who has been capped at the under 20 level, was still a great coup on our part. At only 21 years old, he is an excellent player who is sure to improve.
Mr. Kwon is simply a natural for the Segundo Volante role. Sure, he’ll tell you that he wants to play as a deep-lying playmaker, but watching him for only a few minutes will convince you that he should be the Volante. His ability to hold the ball back a bit and make the critical pass in between the defense is simply amazing. He’s kind of like a young Tom Brady out there, holding the ball back a bit and reading the fullbacks and centerbacks before making an extremely precise pass to push the attack forward.
Seriously — Kwon Hyeok-Kyu’s passing statistics are really something for midfielders at this level. He’s got a few problems with inaccuracy, but I think that’s mostly caused by the sheer number of new players we have on the squad. Once we start gelling a bit more, I think he’s going to emerge as one of the greatest players in all of Asia.
Now, I am worried about Kwon’s lack of consistency. He’s been good so far, but he’s also playing at a level far beneath his actual ability. We’ll see whether he can keep his good streak up once we start moving up the table.
He might quite have the boyish looks and charm of Lee Jin-Yong, but his stats are much better than Lee’s. He’s not a tackler or an interceptor, but he is very good at making incisive, key passes that cut the defense in half.
When we do start working together as a squad, his pass completion statistics will only improve — and then we’ll really be a force to reckon with. Our 7-0 victory will seem like nothing then.
Inner Mongolia
We’re off to Inner Mongolia (Nei Meng Gu; 內蒙古) to face their representative. Everybody think that we’re sure to win. We’ll see if anybody shows up at the Hohhot City Stadium for this Friday afternoon kickoff. I think it’s going to be extremely hot.
The little bit of good news that has come our way is that Huang Bowen was selected for the China Under 21 squad. The press is still speculating that he wants out. I think we can keep him on, though, and am planning on starting him this afternoon.
Fingers crossed.