The two targets of Hong Myung-bo-sik's three-back with the striker as a wingback, two lines + maximizing attack power

Jul 13, 2025

The key keyword for Hong Myung-bo, who will play the East Asian Football Federation (EAFF) E-1 Championship (East Asian Cup) in 2025, is 'Three Back'. Coach Hong Myung-bo, who is making various plans ahead of the 2026 North Korea-China World Cup finals, is experimenting with a three-back in earnest at this tournament.

This is not the first time head coach Hong has operated a three-back. In September last year, he led the team to a 3-1 victory with a three-back card in the middle of the second half when it was 1-1 in the second round of the 2026 North-China World Cup Asia qualifying round against Oman. He also switched from four-back to three-back in the second half of the game (4-0 win) against Kuwait.

Defensive three-back is one of the cards we always prepare for in the World Cup finals, where we have to face the opponent of Han Su-wi. In a typical three-back, left and right wingbacks come down to form a five-back when defending. Including central midfielders, up to seven to eight players can be lowered, so they are defensive. However, the Hong Myung-bo style three-back used in this competition is a little different.

First of all, the goal of strengthening defense is the same. The primary point is not to lose points by having at least three players in the box. There is an important point here, which does not emphasize the three-back's involvement in the attack. Recently, in three-backs, one of the three center backs goes up to attack and increases the number of build-ups or attacks, but Hong Myung-bo-sik's three-back was different. Let's look at the first game against China. At that time, Kim Joo-sung (Seoul), Park Jin-seop (Jeonbuk), and Park Seung-wook (Pohang) formed a three-back. Contrary to the expectation that Park Jin-seop, who usually plays defensive midfielder, will go up to midfield, he has kept the defensive line from time to time. Park Jin-seop said "Coach Hong told me to defend rather than advance aggressively."

The E-1 Championship (East Asian Cup) match between South Korea and Hong Kong at Yongin Mir Stadium in Gyeonggi Province on the afternoon of the 11th. Coach Hong Myung-bo is waiting for the start of the game. Yongin = Reporter Jeong Jae-geun cjg@sportschosun.com /2025.7.11/

Instead of fixing the three-back, Hong increased the number of attacks through wing-backs. Beyond simply increasing the position of the wingback, he used a striker in the position at all. After experimenting with Mo Jae-hyun (Gangwon) as a wingback against China, Moon Seon-min (Jeonbuk) also used it as a wingback against Hong Kong. Although he failed to score a large amount of points expected, Hong Myung-bo, who had an increased number of strikers, showed that much aggression. Coach Hong also used Hwang Hee-chan (Wolverhampton) as a wingback in the match against Kuwait and gave hints about this tactic, which seems to be more full-fledged in this tournament.

Coach Hong has two goals. First of all, maximization of '2 line resources' The core of Hong Myung-bo is the second line. European groups are also here. If wingers play in wingback positions, the number of second-line resources that can be used increases. The second is the maximization of 'attack power'. As the finals will be held in a 48-nation system, you can meet a team that is inferior to Korea, unlike in the past. If this team is caught, it will be possible to advance to the round of 32. In order to aim for a goal as much as possible, aggressive soccer is needed, and we need to prepare for any counterattacks. Hong Myung-bo-sik's three-back, which increases the number of strikers and defense, is a winning move for this.

Reporter Park Chan-joon vanbasten@sportschosun.com

This article was translated by Naver AI translator.