S. Korea coach not worried about Son Heung-min's scoring woes
South Korea national football team head coach Hong Myung-bo watches players during a training session at MK Dons training ground in Milton Keynes, northwest of London, Tuesday (local time). Yonhap
Even with his captain Son Heung-min enduring an early-season scoring slump, South Korea head coach Hong Myung-bo isn't worried.
Hong believes the 33-year-old attacker, who remains without an open-play goal in nine matches this season for Los Angeles Football Club (LAFC), will eventually break through and do his thing.
"He has a clear understanding of his role. It's really important for us to determine the right moment when Son can optimize his strengths," Hong told reporters before a training session at MK Dons training ground in Milton Keynes, northwest of London, on Tuesday (local time). "Given his body of work to this point, I am not concerned."
Hong's South Korea will face Ivory Coast on Saturday for the first of their two friendly matches this month, with Austria up next in Vienna next Tuesday.
These are the first matches of the World Cup year for South Korea, who will face Mexico, South Africa and a European playoff winner in the group stage in June.
Son has long been the face of South Korean football and is gearing up for his fourth and likely final World Cup.
While Son has flashed his playmaking skills for LAFC in the early part of the Major League Soccer season, he has only scored one penalty goal so far -- leading to concerns that he may be hitting the downslope of his career at the worst possible time for South Korea.
His scoring woes aside, Son had also been under the weather this week, Hong said. The coach added a position change may be in the offing for Son.
"He has been a striker or a left winger for the national team so far," Hong said. "At the moment, we have some in-form strikers with Oh Hyeon-gyu (of Turkish club Besiktas) and Cho Gue-sung (of Danish club FC Midtjylland). So Son may be asked to play on the wing this time."
The coach said two other Europe-based players who recently sustained foot injuries, Lee Kang-in of Paris Saint-Germain and Jens Castrop of Borussia Monchengladbach, are doing better.
"Jens has no ligament damage to his foot, though it's still swollen. We will give him a couple more days to recover and if he can't go in the first match, we'll try to get him ready for the next one," Hong said. "Lee Kang-in's injury isn't as serious as we once feared. We won't rush him back to action and we will see tomorrow when he will be able to play."
With the World Cup less than three months away, Hong said this is no time to mess around.
"In terms of our collective confidence, winning these matches will be really important," Hong said. "There are some players not on this squad who can still make the World Cup team. We will be keeping close tabs on all the players and put together a collection of our best players in May."