Korean Air, the defending champion looking for the next Libero, seems to be going through a transition period.
Korean Air is ranked fourth (36.50 percent) in receiving efficiency this season. Compared with Hyundai Capital in the last season (43.39 percent), the gap is wide.
Reception is another reason Korean Air failed to close the gap with Hyundai Capital, the leader of this season. Korean Air’s receiving efficiency was only 25.33 percent in the home game against Hyundai Capital on Thursday. Hyundai Capital had no chance to beat Kang. Korean Air, on the other hand, took out a card to target Hyundai Capital’s receiving line, but the effect was not significant. “We tried to shake the opponent even more by struggling with sub receiving, but we failed to do so,” Korean Air coach Tommy Tilikainen said.
Attention is drawn to Libero. Korean Air has already let go of Oh Eun-ryul (27) who was qualified as a free agent ahead of this season. Oh showed off his highly efficient receiving skills (49.87 percent) last season. Korean Air hoped that one of Jung Sung-min (36), Park Ji-hoon (26), Song Min-geun (24), and Kang Seung-il (19) would replace Oh. “(Oh) is a good libero,” coach Tilikainen said. “(Oh) is a good libero, but I will encourage competition so that a player who can fill the spot can appear.” However, no player has appeared yet. 바카라사이트
Korean Air is offsetting this by utilizing outside-heater (left) players. There are many strikers who are good at defense, including Kwak Seung-seok and Jung Ji-seok, who are all-around good at defense. Jung Ji-seok was appointed as a liberator at this year’s KOVO Cup, and Kwak Seung-seok at the KEPCO match on Saturday. However, as the strategy is based on the nature of desperate measures, we need to find a proper libero as soon as possible.
It is encouraging that Kang Seung-il and Song Min-geun are gaining experience. Kang Seung-il, who was selected as the first player in the second round of the rookie draft in the 2022-2023 season, played in 41 sets of 10 games, recording 40.61% of receiving efficiency and 0.878 digs per set. Song Min-geun, who was selected in the first round of the rookie draft in the 2022-2023 season, also played in eight games (28.57%·1.212) to gain experience.
