Korean Air, a men’s professional volleyball team that is aiming at its fifth consecutive win, is in a “Libero” dilemma. As the back door is shaky, the Korean Air is struggling to the extent that it has hired Jeong Ji-seok and Kwak Seung-seok, former outside heaters of the national team, as players who specialize in defense, as Libero.
Korean Air lost a set score of 2-3 (25-22 20-25 19-25 25-21 16-18) against Woori Card at Jangchung Gymnasium in Seoul on the 12th.
Maxim Zigarov (registered name Maksim) led the attack with 31 points, but Jung Ji-seok, an outside heater, scored only 15 points, and it was painful that Jeong Han-yong scored 12 points and poured out 12 mistakes.
Coach Tommy Tilikainen sent Kwak to the Libero team for two consecutive games following the Korea Electric Power Corp. match. When asked about Kwak before the match, he said, “He is a specialist at the back.”
In fact, Kwak Seung-seok played not bad, recording 56.25% of receiving efficiency.
However, as Kwak Seung-seok wore a Libero uniform, Korean Air faced a situation where it could only use valuable outside heater resources as defense professionals.
Even though Jeong Han-yong was shaken with an attack success rate of 42.86% and 12 mistakes, there was no suitable card to replace. The only change in wing resources was to change Maksim to Aref Moradi (registered name Aref) in the first to third sets. Although it is said to be Korean Air with a strong base of players, there was no clear trick despite the unstable OH.
Among the entries, Lee Joon and rookie Seo Hyun-il were outside heaters, but Seo Hyun-il came out as the point server with only one point, but he did not use them aggressively. There is no “if” in volleyball, but if Kwak Seung-seok, a “saviour” with a lot of fine bones in the V-League, was placed on Jung Ji-seok’s diagonal line, other results might have come out.
Such problems have continued since the beginning of the season. Korean Air, which Oh Eun-ryul (Hyundai Capital) left before the 2024-25 season, is agonizing over its position as a libero this season.
At the beginning of the first round, Jung Ji-seok, who was recovering from a fatigue fracture, wore a Libero uniform for four games, and recently Kwak Seung-seok played as the first Libero for two consecutive games.
However, this does not mean that Korean Air does not have Libero. There are four Korean Air players, including Jung Sung-min, Kang Seung-il, and Song Min-geun, and Park Ji-hoon, who was recently discharged from the military, but they seem to have failed to win complete trust from Coach Tommy.
This season, Song did not appear in a single game, and Jeong only played in one game. Park Ji-hoon has yet to step on the court since being discharged from the military last month. Kang Seung-il is the only player who has shown receiving efficiency of 40.61 percent as he played in 41 sets in 10 games, but he lacks experience as he has shown only 13 matches in his professional career.
Asked what areas the existing Libero players should supplement to be the main players, head coach Tommy declined to say, “It’s hard to say right now.” 카지노사이트
“In order to become a good libero, we need to be good at receiving, defense, and covering. We need energy from the back and leadership,” the coach said in principle.
It also left room for the question of whether we can continue to see Libero Kwak Seung-seok in the future.
“Kwak is training well in both positions on the training ground,” Tommy said before the match. “I can’t evaluate individual players (Rivero Kwak). Everyone did well, but we lost one ball. We will keep going.”
It is interesting to see if Tommy, who overcame adversity after taking office and led Korean Air to an integrated championship for three consecutive seasons, will be able to solve the twisted thread well and climb back to high ground.
