Kwon Hyeok-Kyu / 권혁규

Can’t judge him too much on that, think he struggled a bit with how quick they pressed first half, then maybe a bit of nerves kicking in. Will take him a bit of time to get fully up to speed with our intensity of play etc. thought he looked good against wolves in fairness, still early days for him. Hopefully gets some appearances off the bench soon in games when we’re dominating

 

The fact he looked good against wolves and he started today makes me think he must have done well in training.

Wouldn’t write him off just yet even though he was pretty bad.

 

Think it’s only proper that we write him off already

 

The way how some teams play will impact how our own players fare. One good half and one * half of football so far, but IMO, 5 games are necessary before a player can be judged. He, just like everyone else we brought in needs tested against Scottish opposition. That's the first benchmark.

 

I think he’ll do just fine, will take time for him to adjust to the level at times but his physicality will be handy in games.

 

I'd say that game was an absolute shock to the system for the lad. Athletic were slick as * in the first half. I doubt he's played anything like them opposition wise.

I doubt we will see him playing in Europe this season and will need a good few months to adjust to Celtic in the league alone.

Saturday we saw potential. Give him time

 

I would say when he came on Saturday we had a spell out of possession where he showed his strengths in shutting down space and getting tackles in and interceptions.

Last night his biggest issue was he couldn’t take the ball in under a press. His first touch was very poor and allowed the opposition to steal the ball from him. Compare that with Holm second half who always managed to secure the ball and move it on or move himself out of the press.

There’s no doubt about it for me that Kwon is more of a taking a chance type signing to see if he can come good where Yang and Holm are players bought with big talent that we expect to flourish.

 

Harsh to judge anyone on 45 mins but he was playing European level opposition and it was clear as day that he’s a long-term project.

We NEED to sign an experienced CDM who’s played in EL/CL.

 

There’s zero chance we’re splashing cash on another centre mid unless Hatate or O’Reilly goes.

 

Didn't see the game last night so bit surprised to see he was apparently this bad, looked solid against wolves at the weekend.

 

TBF, that's because of our approach. Offensively-minded managers trying to have the team play against big teams the same way we do in Scotland. A pairing of two Celtic icons- Brown and McGregor couldn't hold the midfield against the top teams under Rodgers, because we weren't even trained to defend in an organized manner. Kwon or Iwata and McGregor (maybe add one more guy if we go 4-3-3) won't hold either unless we simplify things. We need to play not to impress neutrals, but to get a result.

 

The guy is gonna need time. Nobody should be expecting him to be ready for a stretch of games. This is why people are moaning about lack of real instant impact signings.

These guys will hopefully turn out good but it would be silly and unfair to expect anything straight away

 

No arguments from me there mate. We are overloaded in midfield and yet as you say we are still short.. domestically we will be ok but in Europe we are far too lightweight and need as you say a proper * off defensive Midfielder. Will we get one? I'm not holding my breath.

As for Kwon, we were all wondering is he first team ready or a project/punt type, I think last night answered that.Hes gonna need time I reckon.

 

I don't buy the too lightweight argument for Europe, to be honest.

It's a really difficult position for the club to fill because you're effectively looking for an experienced defensive midfielder who's probably only going to start 8/9 times a year(or should only be starting that many games). You can't really justify going out and spending big money on the position. So you need someone who can do both, be decent on the ball and really good defensively. That's incredibly difficult to find. 99 times out of 100, you're going to have to take a punt somewhere.

People keep on referencing needing another Wanyama, while forgetting that he was a punt from the lower end of the Belgian league. It was good scouting. He suited the system we played under Lennon then too. More of a 4-4-2. We don't really do that now. We are far more aggressive and far more dominant.

I never looked at the games in Europe last year and felt we got outclassed in the midfield. In fact, I thought we done very well for the most part when it came to the midfield. What let us down was our finishing, our goalkeeping and not having our first choice CB pairing. Also, you're never really going to beat a Real Madrid either way, I'd rather we gave it a go. Looking at the goals we conceded in Europe last year, would anyone genuinely say a defensive midfielder would have stopped any of them?? What goals and how would it have made any difference? I can go through all the goals last year in the CL and put the blame on an individual or a series of individuals.

We need to be smarter. We have played together another year. We do need to add quality. Adding Kovar in goals and Tierney at LB would go a long * way to helping us in Europe. I still think a midfield 3 of McGregor, Hatate and O'Riley can do very well.

 

Agree with all of this.

 

Can’t blame Brendan as he’s just in the door but it’s poor squad management that we have so many midfielders yet none of them are in that proper defensive mould, which we have been missing for years.

 

Anyone judging any new players within 6 months of signing needs their heads looked let alone a * week

 

Iwata and Kwon are, at least according to how they describe themselves. It remains to be seen how will they fare with us.

 

6 months? That's more than enough time needed to determine whether a player is a dud or not.

Our last three managers have all signed * players. And it's been pretty obvious from the start that they were never going to be good enough.

On the other hand our best signings usually hit the ground running or at least look promising.

Of course it's too early to form a proper opinion on our recent signings, but I wouldn't be waiting 6 months to make that judgement.

Kwon looked nowhere near good enough yesterday though. His first touch and passing was amateurish at times.