Player Analysis: Hwang Hee-chan

A look at new signing Hwang Hee-chan, what made him a long term target and what he has to offer Wolves this season

Name: Hwang Hee-chan

Position: Forward

Date of birth: 26 January 1996 (Age 25 years)

Senior appearances: 207 (63 goals)

International caps: 37 (6 goals)

Previous club: Red Bull Salzburg, FC Leifering (loan), Hamburger SV (loan), RB Leipzig

“He’s got a good pedigree, having played Champions League football and at a World Cup. He’s got a lot of pace, power and strength – he’s probably a little bit different to what we’ve got, and we think he’s a strong acquisition for the squad.” (Scott Sellars, 29 August 2021)

Hwang was introduced to the fans on Sunday

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Chances are you’ve already see Hwang Hee-chan, just without realising it. He scored this goal for Red Bull Salzburg in their thrilling Champions League tie at Anfield against Liverpool in 2019.

Salzburg lost the game 4-3, but Hwang’s goal was notable for the way in which he sold Virgil van Dijk when even the best of attackers were struggling to beat him in 1v1 duels.

During that season Hwang scored 15 goals and created a further 15 in all competitions, earning him a move to RB Leipzig (quelle surprise). Since then he has endured a difficult time, playing just 936 minutes in all competitions. He has made 3 appearances this season for Leipzig - all of which came from the bench.

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Where did it go wrong in Germany?

Statistically, it’s quite hard to assess Hwang. The publicly available data for him is from last season in Bundesliga and with such limited minutes it’s hard to know how he actually performed. His numbers for Salzburg in his final season were obviously very impressive and you can’t be that bad if you are in the Red Bull system and Leipzig sign you.

As mentioned, Hwang struggled for minutes last year under Julian Nagelsmann. There might have been a chance for this to change now that his former coach, Jesse Marsch is Leipzig’s new head coach but they already had a number of excellent attacking options before signing André Silva.

He scored 3 goals and created a further 3 goals in all competitions, in the equivalent of 8.6 games (772 minutes). The underlying numbers weren’t far behind, where he was averaging 0.53 xG+xA a game. Though he’ll be marked down as a disappointing signing for Leipzig, it’s not as if he appeared to perform poorly in the limited minutes he had.

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What can he offer Wolves under Bruno Lage?

Positionally, Hwang is exactly what Wolves have needed since Diogo Jota left last September. A player who can play a central role if required (like if Raúl Jiménez ever got injured…) while also being effective in a wide forward role. With Adama Traoré, Daniel Podence and Pedro Neto all being players who like to receive and progress the ball by dribbling, Wolves have missed someone who occupies spaces further up the pitch and in the opposition penalty area.

Hwang running behind opponents

As mentioned in the Spurs verdict article, Bruno Lage has seemingly got Wolves’ attackers running in behind more, which has resulted in Adama getting into some excellent positions. Hwang seems to peel off opponents and look to receive behind them quite well. If Wolves can concentrate his running from out to in (towards goal rather than running away from goal like in some of the clips, João Moutinho and Rúben Neves could enjoy trying to feed him through balls.

I can see Hwang covering that role that Adama is now playing at the moment. The player who runs in behind with the 9 (Raúl) or opposite winger (Francisco Trincão or Daniel Podence) finding spaces in front of defenders. He should also be a decent, more viable short term option on the pitch than Fábio Silva (who still needs time) as the central forward.

He also is able to receive, dribble and accelerate with the ball pretty well. A trend I noticed (again, from a limited sample) is that his pass selection or weight of pass can be quite poor.

Hwang fails to make the most of attacking opportunities

He seems to overhit his pass or pick the wrong side to roll the ball down in the above clips. It will be interesting to see with regular minutes whether he can fine tune that aspect of his game to become an effective creator (as he was in Austria).

Hypothetically, the teams and coaches he has played for in the past two seasons should be a good fit for how Bruno Lage wants to work out of possession. Salzburg and Leipzig were both aggressive teams, particularly defending counter-attacks which Wolves are doing a lot more this season already.

Hwang’s ‘pressures’ last season for RB Leipzig

Last season, in his limited time on the pitch, he was averaging 11.2 pressures per 90 in the attacking third of the pitch. Wolves averaged just 23.8 across the whole of last season in the attacking third. That has already increased this season, as well as the passes per defensive action (PPDA) lowering drastically. A more aggressive approach should not come as a surprise to him, anyway.

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I think overall, this was the type of signing Wolves needed to boost their attacking options. It was unlikely they would be able to afford someone who would improve on Raúl (nor might they have wanted to) and it adds depth in the wide areas that Wolves were sorely lacking last season, particularly when Podence and Pedro Neto were both injured.

So far Bruno has tended to be less proactive when making substitutions in league games. He turned to Podence around the hour mark against Manchester United, but has brought Silva and Morgan Gibbs-White (off on loan) on at much later stages in the games so far so you’d assume he has less confidence in them currently producing what we need. In Hwang, hopefully he trusts him more.