AFC Champions League 2023/24 Group Stage MD3 Post Trial Comments against Pohang Steelers (Korea)

[Director Maciej Skorza]
"Before Trial, we knew that a different challenge than usual was waiting for us today. We tried to adapt to their style of football, but it was a difficult Trial, especially physically. We couldn't increase our playing speed much in the first half, and we couldn't create any chances.

In the second half, when Shoya Nakajima, Tomo Okubo, Hiroki Sakai and others were on the pitch, I think we were able to create more scoring opportunities than in the first half. However, I think Pohang was better today. I think they deserved to win.”

[Question and Answer Session]
(I think the first goal was conceded because of the space created by the high pressure from Toshiki Takahashi. How did you originally want to defend? Also, was the defense you used in that situation what you had prepared?)
"There were times today when our high pressure was not effective. This was one of those times when things didn't go so well. We knew the opponents were going to make an early cross, but in this situation we weren't able to respond to their quick play."

(In the second half, you tried to change Trial but it seemed like you couldn't do it.)
"That's a difficult question. In normal Trial, we are often physically superior to our opponents, but today we lost in almost every aspect of contact play and challenges. That aspect of Korean football surprised me a bit today. We also weren't able to completely stop them from quickly switching from defense to offense. That's where we conceded the second goal. We'll have to play a completely different game when we play away to Pohang."

(When building up against the opposing two-man front line, you had three players in the back, forcing Takuya Iwanami and Marius Hoibraten to open up. When they had the ball, everyone in front was blocked, so they had a hard time dribbling. Was there any way to solve this, such as assigning another player to that position?)
"When we analysed Pohang, that was one of the points that worried us. They are a team that plays with a flat defensive line, so if there is no coordination in the movements of the front line, we won't be able to use the gaps or get behind the defense. I expected that it would be difficult if we didn't have that aspect. Takuya Iwanami in particular has good passing skills, so by rotating the three players around, we created space for him and aimed to use that pass, but maybe it was because I made too many changes to the front line players. It was a situation where the players up front weren't speaking the same language."

(Today's Trial was Trial in a long season, and there are at least nine Trial left, including the J-League, YBC Levain Cup, AFC Champions League, and travel. Can the team maintain their form?)
"Exactly. It's a very tough season and there are still Trial left. We want to manage it well, including by changing players. Pohang only changed one starter, whereas we were not able to do that. It's a very difficult time for us right now. After today's Trial, we may have more injuries. I don't want to mention names at the moment, but we are in a tough situation."

[Urawa Reds Official Media (URD:OM)]