That's the thing that gets me about Park Ju-young.

I really can't see how both Ricardo and Guy Lacombe have failed to pick up on Park Ju-young's excellence in a secondary striker role; I'd like to think that it's because of tactical and talent-related constraints that they have been unable to move Park into a central attacking role withdrawn from a target man or holding/primary striker. If you peruse AS Monaco fan forums, you'll see that many have pointed out from Day 1 that Park is not a true striker in the mold of a Suk Hyun-jun or Yoo Byung-soo and that his hapless position in the target role he's played in is a consequence of his intelligence to adapt and his aerial prowess. Unfortunately, Huh Jung-moo had similar delusions and although Park did well during the World Cup, one wonders how much of his attacking efficacy was blunted because of a lack of a strike partner; his best work is arguably with a fast or clever striker not a big target man.

Cho Kwang-rae's eagerness to incorporate another striker in the form of Suk Hyun-jun is a good step forward in addressing the tactical enigma that Park is and I would hope that Lacombe follows suit now that Monaco have acquired Malonga. Perhaps we will see M'Bokani in a central role up front and Park withdrawn.

I hope that Lacombe hasn't resorted to the short term solution of putting PJY on the wings or benching him for his poor scoring form. Niculae has scored but he is in poor form and I would rather see what PJY can do with a competent partner, either as a striker or in the hole.
We'll just have to see after the international break what Lacombe intends to do with Park. He seems to be too narrow minded tactically to do anything than play defensively with a 4-5-1 or 4-4-2. I just hope its for the best because it seems that Monaco prevented PJY from going anywhere this past transfer window.

Park JY really needs to work on his scoring ability. He was removed from the front because he was sterile, it had to happen one day, he didn't score enough.

You make an excellent point olijolly. Lacombe's putting Park on the wings is what happened with Ricardo to try and vary things in attack -- it failed and apparently history has repeated itself now. Many Monaco fans on different forums have taken note that Park on the wing is a failed enterprise. They like how he was able to track back and support his midfielders but noted that it essentially takes him out of making dangerous runs into the box and getting into good positions. It doesn't help that Lacombe has a reputation as an aggressively obdurate coach either. Hopefully Malonga will work out.

I see glimpses of potential in Aubameyang -- he has some really good pace and moves but is somewhat immature in possession. For a team that really lacks wide penetration from its wingers and good deliveries in to the boxes without having to cut back, Aubameyang has a huge role to play but can be a bit selfish at times.

My buddy in BigSoccer Korea has told me that Malonga is not competent enough to play a big role in Monaco. I do think that if Monaco's passing was a bit sharper PJY would be much more effective even if he's not yet in scoring form. Some key players are missing for Monaco, like Alonso and Perez, for Monaco's midfield to be more competent in passing. I didn't think that Mbokani would be good enough to start but by the looks of it he may even be better than PJY. I just hope Lacombe is smart enough to see that PJY-Mbokani is worth trying over Niculae-Mbokani.

I didn't get to watch much of Le Mans last season so it's hard to say whether Malonga is decent or not. Alonso and Perez are missing and hopefully their coming back into the squad gives Park more confidence in the final third -- you can see his chemistry is off with some of the new signees. M'Bokani is decent but raw; Niculae is terrible, IMO.

I didn't know but apparently Perez has transfered and Alonso has damaged a ligament on his knee (according to Saku^2 of BigSoccer) so won't be coming back for a while. Monaco is seriously missing some penetration down the wings and Lacombe has made a mistake of not strengthening the midfield. Niculae and Park really didn't seem to work well (maybe because of chemistry or Niculae's terrible passing?).