New Jeonbuk striker Park Jae-yong ‘shines against PSG’, stats show he’s a worthy replacement for Cho Kyu-sung

Jeonbuk Hyundai has filled a gap in its front line with the signing of new striker Park Jae-yong, who in many ways resembles Cho Kyu-sung. We take a look at the player, who played alongside his teammates in an informal game against Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) before making his K League 1 debut, and analyze the OPTA data provided by GroundBigfoot. GroundBigFoot is a company that utilizes soccer data to create various contents.

Park needs to improve his decision-making when seizing opportunities

Park Jae-yong is a 6-foot-3 midfielder with a wide range of activities and link-up skills. He earned a spot on the U24 national team and was selected as a member of the men’s soccer team for the Hangzhou Asian Games. In many ways, he is similar to his predecessor, Cho Kyu-sung, as he joined Jeonbuk from FC Anyang. Much like Cho Kyu-sung, who moved to Danish side Midtjylland after winning the K League 1 top scorer award and scoring multiple goals at the World Cup, Park Jae-yong will be closely watched to see if he can achieve the same success.

After failing to make much of a splash in his professional debut last year, Park has scored six goals in the K League 2 this season, making him one of the top 10 scorers (as of July 21). His Expected Goals (xG) was second in the league behind Cho Young-wook. A high xG indicates a high number of quality shots, which can be interpreted as good movement and opportunity recognition. However, Cho Young-wook’s xG was 8.67, while Park Jae-yong’s was 5.93. Park’s numbers were more similar to the third-place finisher, Bildivia (Jeonnam, 5.86).

While Park’s xG was high, his shots were not as powerful, as evidenced by his xGOT (expected goals on target). Park’s xGOT of 4.63 ranks eighth among the top 10 scorers, as it increases the harder the shot goes to the corner. He was also only about half as good as Cho Young-wook in this category.

Park favors headers from inside the penalty area

Park Jae-yong showed several excellent deliveries against PSG. Although it was particularly difficult because the opposing center back was Levain Curzawa (182cm), who is normally a flanker, Park was able to win header battles and reliably receive long passes to his onrushing second-line teammates.

His shot statistics also show that he can deliver. All but two of their shots came from inside the penalty area, with a 94.9% shooting percentage. That’s the highest percentage of any player with 10 or more shots in K League 2. His header percentage was 48.7% with three headed goals.

He also tended to drop back to the second line and play more team-oriented, but not as efficiently. Their overall passing success rate was 61.9% and their passing success rate in the opponent’s half (when the field is divided into three) was 50.8%. If they were attempting a lot of forward passes, we could interpret their low numbers as a result of their adventurous passing style, but that’s not the case. The success rate itself needs to be improved. My header win rate was also not as high as it should have been. 꽁머니사이트

Play near the opponent’s goal

Overall, Park is at his best when he gets the ball near the opponent’s goal, battles with the defender, and shoots. This is different from Cho Kyu-sung’s natural play when he dropped to the second line because he was a midfielder.