'Failed to win for 2 consecutive times' seeks to rebuild its reputation by recruiting a storm
Jeonbuk Hyundai is the best K-League club in name and reality. From 2017 to 2021, it won the most K-League titles (nine times) including five consecutive K-League titles.
However, the 2023 season was the worst year for Jeonbuk Hyundai. To Jeonbuk, which was accustomed to winning the title, its winless record in 10 years was a shock. Jeonbuk, which is striving hard, is committed to elevating its self-esteem that plummeted to the bottom and reclaim the position of prince.
Will Petrescu Look a Change in Second Season
It is the 2022 season when the Jeonbuk Dynasty began to falter. In the second season under manager Kim Sang-sik, he finished second to Ulsan, the Hyundai rival. It was a little comforting to win the FA Cup that year.
More than anything else, Jeonbuk's color was fading. It failed to display performance that matched the team's color of "Hot Attack." Entering its third year, Kim Sang-sik showed his limits remarkably. Jeonbuk fans pressured him to resign due to his hiring of players and manipulation of frustrating tactics.
At the beginning of the season, when the team fell to the relegation zone due to a severe slump, manager Kim Sang-sik eventually expressed his intention to resign.
The team transformed itself by appointing coach Dan Petrescu from Romania. Early in his term in office, his good performance did not last long. Overall, his performance was boring, and the result was unsatisfactory. Jeonbuk's final ranking was fourth last season. It was its worst performance since the introduction of the promotion system in 2013. It lost to Pohang in the FA Cup final and ended the season with no win in 10 years.
It is time for Petrescu to replant his DNA for the championship, which is fading away. If last year was the period to adapt to the K-League, this year is an opportunity to present his direction and vision through the first winter training session.
aggressive recruitment across all positions
Jeonbuk's most vulnerable point is its offense. It only scored 45 points in the league last season, ranking seventh among the 12 teams. It was painful to see the team fail in farming foreign players significantly last season.
As a result, the club has been enthusiastic about recruiting players in all positions with active support. This winter, the club first observed strikers who have been proven in the K-League rather than seeking new players.
As a result, the team added Thiago, who scored 17 goals for Daejeon last year, and Hernandez, who scored six goals for Incheon, to its squad. Since the team worked together at K-League 2 Gyeongnam FC in the 2022 season, it is a combination that can be expected to generate synergy in offense. It also recruited Vinicius, who played for Brazil until the last season, and replaced existing foreign strikers.
It is also notable that Korean players have scouted Kwon Chang-hoon, a second-line player, as well as central midfielder Lee Young-jae, center back Lee Jae-ik and right fullback Kim Tae-hwan. Notably, with the addition of Kim Tae-hwan, who played for Ulsan for nine years, Jeonbuk has now a national fullback named Kim Jin-soo and Kim Tae-hwan on its left and right sides.
Jeonbuk was the team that allowed the fewest goals with 35 goals in 38 games in the league last year. The center back depth consisting of Hong Jeong-ho, Park Jin-seop, Lee Jae-ik and Jung Tae-wook is by far the strongest in the K-League.
Jeonbuk played its first official tournament of the year with the first and second matches of the 2023-24 Asian Football Confederation Champions League round of 16 against Pohang on the 14th and 20th. It advanced to the quarterfinals of the ACL with a 2-0 victory in the first leg and a 1-1 draw in the second leg.
Coach Petrescu's judgment on using winger Song Min-gyu as a second-line offensive midfielder stood out. Hernandez did his part by scoring one point in the first game and Thiago one assist in the second game. It was a very meaningful victory for Jeonbuk, which struggled with one draw and four losses against Pohang last season.