Everyone will have played each other once by the end of the weekend and Football Radar's Miro Tramita is back to assess how the Classic teams have fared thus far. Jeju and Incheon continue to bookend the rankings, but every other team made a move. Where did your team end up? Find out below.
(image via facebook.com/dragonsfc)
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Jeju are easily atop the ranking. They are the most in-form team, top of the league, the only Korean team to qualify for ACL knock out stages, and are playing the best football in the league. They went through an early crisis in April, but bounced back really well. A particular highlight was their 4-0 thrashing of Jeonbuk in the top of the table clash. Having a big squad offers Cho Sung-hwan players with different attributes and he's able to keep his players fresh through rotation too. 21 goals scored, 8 goals conceded is good enough for the best record overall and a fantastic season for the Islanders so far!
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— LAST MONTH: 1
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Injuries continue to cause Choi Kang-hee problems and they were surprisingly eliminated from KFA Cup, again by Bucheon. Their first ever defeat to Gwangju ended their unbeaten start to the league season and was followed by the aforementioned loss to Jeju. However, Jeonbuk ended their rather poor run of results by defeating an injury plagued Daegu and remain level on 20 points with Jeju. Considering they are still missing their two best players, this is not a bad record.
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LAST MONTH: 3
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The Dragons had disastrous start to 2017, but a win against fellow strugglers Incheon kick started their season. Since then, Jeonnam have progressed in the KFA Cup, humiliated Ulsan and Gwangju and only lost away to Seoul in the league. Noh Sang-rae seems to be settled on his XI so that certainly helps. Veteran Hyun Young-min has been relocated to DM which offers some cover for younger and more attacking midfielders, while Jair has hopefully rediscovered his form from last season. He was absolutely unplayable during the 5-0 win against Gwangju!
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LAST MONTH: 5
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The current K League champions started the season rather slowly once again. Performances aren't convincing, but they continue to grind out wins. Dejan is the main man again, literally carrying the team with his hold up play and goals. Quite a few referee decisions went their way, so this surely helped them to keep up with teams above them. They did really poorly in ACL, but remain one of the best teams in K League.
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LAST MONTH: 8
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The Steelers have gone through a crisis since their elimination in the KFA Cup, losing three consecutive league games. A fourth seemed to be coming as they were trailing Seoul 0-2, but they managed to turn the game around with Lulinha netting in the stoppage time. This win keeps them just four points off the league leaders. Choi Soon-ho's tactics seem to be more attacking this season and the team certainly benefits from that. The Centerback area remains a weakness, but the rest of the squad is making up for that quite well so far.
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LAST MONTH: 10
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HIGH: 5 | LOW: 10
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Ulsan are still a work in progress under Kim Do-hoon, and many were calling for his head following back to back embarrassing defeats to Jeonnam and Kashima at the end of April. However, since then the Tigers have won all four games and are up to 3rd in the league. They failed to make much impact in ACL, but considering this was more of a bonus for the club, they should be judged more by domestic performance.
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LAST MONTH: 2
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Similarly to Jeonnam, the Bluewings have improved a lot in recent weeks, winning four league games in a row! They are not dominating the games and Seo Jung-won's formation, constant rotation and positioning of Yeom Ki-hun is questionable. But results in K League are good following the poor start. They wasted their chance to qualify for the last 16 in ACL when they lost to Kawasaki at home, but went close in midweek when they drew with Guangzhou.
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LAST MONTH: 4
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It was a decent start to 2017 for the army team. They've lost two consecutive games now, but are doing fine overall as Kim Tae-wan seems to have found his XI now. Not an easy task with such a massive squad, but this is set to be a fairly comfortable season for a club that only cares about survival and keeping players fit during their military duty.
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LAST MONTH: 7
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HIGH: 7 | LOW: 8
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Gangwon certainly don't look like meeting their pre-season goal of ACL qualification. Not through the league at least. Jung Jo-gook, the player that was meant to be the main source of goals is struggling with injury and Lee Keun-ho isn't able to do everything on his own. The club brought in a number of interesting players ahead of the new season, but the majority of them haven't really perform as well as they would have hoped for. Beating a poor Incheon side at home thanks to a very soft penalty and very late goal suggests survival rather than ACL should be their realistic target.
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LAST MONTH: 6
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HIGH: 6 | LOW: 9
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Daegu have been a very tough team to beat so far, losing by more than one goal to only Jeju and Jeonbuk. But they have only won two games so far. Injuries are a real problem and the team is badly missing Cesinha up front. Once some of the regular players return to full fitness, they should be able to change those close defeats into points and move away from relegation places.
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LAST MONTH: 11
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Gwangju are really struggling following the departure of 2016 MVP Jung Jo-gook. They have only scored 6 in 10 games and they desperately need to find a regular source of goals with their defence not too solid either. Nam Ki-il has a serious job to do in order to keep them up for another season.
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LAST MONTH: 9
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HIGH: 9 | LOW: 11
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It took Incheon nine games to record their first win this season. They really look to be destined for relegation with a lack of quality across all areas and it certainly would take another miracle for them to stay up. There's no one with enough composure to regularly finish the chances they create while 18 goals conceded is the worst record in the league so far.
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— LAST MONTH: 12
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We'd love to hear your thoughts and opinions. Is your team unjustly low? Pleasantly surprised with how high they are? Someone in the top three that doesn't deserve it? Let your thoughts in the comments below!
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