Khon Kaen Utd fan, Isaac Hanson, kicks off our fan reviews of the 2022/23 season.
What are your overall impressions of your club’s season?
Hard to watch at times, but in the end they did just barely enough to survive. As gross as it feels to type this, I suppose it would ultimately have to be considered a success? I’m picturing the gif of a conflicted Larry David weighing things out in his head. Sure, it would have been nice to have finished higher up the table, score a few more goals, not leave our survival until the final day of the season, but at the end of the day, we did survive and get to do this all again next season. Yay?
What did your club get right on and off the field?
Defense was relatively solid in only conceding 42 goals, better than what you might expect from a 13th place team. We had great attendance throughout the season again, finishing 5th in total attendance.
Rumor has it that the team’s owner has recently purchased the land for a new stadium, so hopefully a formal announcement will be made about that in the near future.
And what did they get wrong?
Foreign imports mostly failed to contribute and the attack was largely woeful for most of the season. We scored joint fewest goals in the league with a measly 24, tied with Lampang. Ibson Melo was a shell of his former self, scoring (I think) only 4 goals after scoring 17 last season. The midfield would often fail to provide any service for him, and when he did get a half-decent chance, he wasn’t able to convert far too often.
What advice would you give them ahead of next season?
They have to find a way to create more chances. I think a lot of the squad is going to be overhauled, with a lot of players being old and out of contract. Ibson Melo and Joshua Grommen are the only imports under contract for next season, so they’ll have a couple of quota spots to fill that can’t possibly be less impactful than the ones we had this past year. I think re-signing Lidor Cohen for a full season would be a good place to start. Youssef Ezzejari and Wildson Melo have been basically invisible and often couldn’t even get into the matchday squad, so they’ll need replacing. I wouldn’t mind bringing back defenders Alef Vieira and Jung Han-Cheol. They mostly played well, though I read somewhere that they are unlikely to return.
Who have been your best players this season?
Despite all the negativity in most of my answers, there were a few players that I think had decent contributions this season. In the first leg Jung Han-Cheol was seemingly the only player who could score for us despite being a defender. I’m pretty sure he ended up as our leading scorer on the season with 5 goals. Oddly enough, each of those goals tied the respective matches at 1-1, often coming in the 80th minute or later. Lidor Cohen joined on loan from BG and gave us a spark in the 2nd leg that we desperately needed, scoring a couple of goals and providing several assists. He was the archetype of player that we were missing in the 1st leg, someone that could carry the ball and take defenders on to get into dangerous areas. A few others that at least warrant a mention are winger Phalakon Woklang, midfielder Alongkon Jornathong, and goalkeeper Chirawat Wangthaphan.
And who hasn't performed?
The two most underwhelming players who actually played regularly were Ibson Melo and Jakkrit Palapon. As mentioned before, Ibson’s goals disappeared, making his pouty attitude stink that much worse. He must certainly lead the league in eye rolls and hands put on hips. Coach Boss seemed very fed up with his attitude, dropping him for the last two games of the season. Jakkrit looked very promising in the 2021-22 season, even earning himself a call-up to the Thailand U-23 squad last year, however he had a very rough go of it this year. He had far too many misplaced passes, mishit crosses, and lost dribbles to have a starting spot for next season. His most notable contribution this year was his dispute with Teerathorn during/after our away loss against Buriram.
Which players, or type of players, would you like to sign for next season?
Lidor Cohen as mentioned earlier would be a good place to start. His creativity and ability to get by defenders is unlike anything any of our other players possess. A box-to-box midfielder would be very helpful for us as well. Parndecha Ngernprasert has served admirably as a holding number 6, but his ability going forward and offering anything in attack is certainly lacking. Having someone that can play next to him but link up with the attacking players would go a long way. I’m picturing someone like Leslie Ablorh with Police Tero.
Which was your team’s best performance this season?
I have two that I think need to be mentioned. The first was winning the opening game of the 2nd leg at Ratchaburi. That really set the tone for a good run of form to open the 2nd leg and started to build up some belief that recovering from our abysmal 1st leg was possible. The other one that needs mentioning was our dramatic come from behind 3-2 victory against Korat. After going behind 1-2 in the 2nd half, Ibson chose the perfect time to finally show up, scoring twice after the 88th minute to give us the win that in a way is what guaranteed our survival this season. Without that win, we’d have been going down instead of Korat. Also, that 3rd goal was the loudest I’ve ever heard our stadium, it was absolutely electric and ranks as one of my favorite live sports moments I’ve seen in person. Typing this made me go back and watch my clip from the goal celebrations. Absolute limbs! (Am I using that right? lol)
And your worst?
No doubt about it, the 3-0 home loss against Prachuap late in the season. We had a good run of form leading up to that game (aside from expected losses at Buriram and Chiang Rai), and were in a good position to put some distance between us and Prachuap. I believe that they were 14th at the time and that we were maybe 4 points above them in the table. If we had won that game, we would have all but wrapped up our survival that night. But no, it was an absolute no show and the most paltry performance I’ve ever seen from us considering the circumstances and opponent.
Which was your favourite away trip?
I only went to 2 away games (BGPU and Buriram), and thoroughly enjoyed both. It was great seeing both stadiums. I liked the uniqueness of BG’s stadium and it was also fun to see a ‘proper’ football stadium in Buriram. We don’t have many of those back in the U.S., so it was great seeing two football-specific stadiums that were different enough that they both felt like very unique experiences. Tiebreaker goes to BG though for being able to bring beer to your seat.
And your least favourite?
I guess by default that would have to be Buriram? Not that there was anything wrong with the overall experience, but if I had to nitpick something, their policy about carrying things in is quite odd. They gave out free Euro cakes at the gate, and then confiscated them before you went up the stairs to the away section. What is that about? Why give them out in the first place? At least they could reuse the pile of them that were left out on the tables for the next game.
What was the best thing that happened to you personally whilst supporting your club this season?
I’ve enjoyed seeing my dad take an interest in “soccer” for the first time and follow the team by checking the scores at 6 in the morning back home. To him, football was always played with an egg-shaped pigskin, so it’s been fun seeing him try to follow the team and give soccer a chance. He’ll try to follow along just from the score updates on the internet and occasionally send a message about a goal being scored or a red card or whatever, and I can send him any pictures or videos I have from the stadium.
What are your impressions of the league overall this year?
Mostly a predictable season. I didn’t make a prediction before the season, but it likely would have looked pretty similar to the actual results. It would have been nice if anyone would have been able to make a real push to dethrone Buriram. Korat going down was a mild surprise, though, and made the 3rd relegation spot tight to the last day of the season, which was at least interesting (although extremely stressful for us up in Khon Kaen).
Which T1 team most impressed you?
Lamphun Warrior. They looked dead in the water at one point, but they got hot when they needed to the most. It was very annoying scoreboard watching the last few weeks seeing them consistently pull positive results and late winners out of their hats when we needed them to lose, but fair play to them, they earned every bit of 10th place.
What has really annoyed you about Thai football this season?
I guess I’ll go with the fact that there wasn’t any doubt over which team would win the league. It would have been fun to see Bangkok United (or any team for that matter) challenge Buriram a bit later into the season to add a bit more drama. Also, the inconsistencies with VAR and penalty decisions were very frustrating at times. I saw a penalty called against us for handball and then the exact same thing not get called in an Aston Villa-Man U game the next day.
Finally, what message would you like to give to your fellow Khon Kaen Utd fans?
To fans of the club, I’d say keep up what you’ve been doing. We always do very well in terms of attendance and create a good stadium atmosphere. Hopefully we will get some good signings coming in to help us push for a top-10 finish next season. Maybe we could be next season’s Police Tero?
And fans of Thai football?
For fans of Thai football, good luck in the fight for 2nd place next season! Also, if you haven’t yet, I really think Khon Kaen makes for a decent away trip. Plus, there's a decent chance your team will get a result against us, lol.
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