Season Review · Part 7
Season Review, Part 7: Oh In-pyo, the Run From Deep That Nobody Tracks
Back from military service, Oh In-pyo has started every league match he was fit for, scored at Gimhae and at his old loan club Suwon FC, set up four goals and been the highest-rated full-back in K League 2: what he has done well, where the gaps are, and why his legs and his clean disciplinary record matter for the last six.
Part 6 covered Park Chang-hwan, whose runs from midfield Seoul cannot do without. Part 7 is the full-back who set up Park’s clincher against Seongnam, finished two moves himself, and whose three missed matches in April showed how much the side leans on him.
The season in one paragraph
Oh In-pyo came back to Seoul E-Land last October after 18 months of military service at Gimcheon Sangmu, having played three matches for the club before he enlisted in 2024. The headline when he returned was that he wanted to win the last three and go up. Seoul went out in the playoffs at Seongnam instead, and 2026 has been his first full season in Seoul colors. He has started all 23 league matches he was fit for, played 90 minutes in 21 of them, scored twice and set up four. He played every minute of the first eight matches, missed three in April through injury, and has barely left the pitch since. He played wing-back in the spring three-back system, left back at Gimhae on the night Kim Do-gyun declared a back four, and right back in every back-four match since July. FotMob rates him the best full-back in the division. Both goals came within a fortnight from the same kind of run, from deep, that nobody followed.
By the numbers
| 2025 (Gimcheon, K League 1, then Seoul) | 2026 through Round 27 | |
|---|---|---|
| Appearances, starts | 13 (Gimcheon), plus 3 league and 1 playoff for Seoul | 23, 23 |
| Minutes | 2,326 | |
| Goals | 0 | 2 |
| Assists | 1 | 4 |
| Yellow cards | 2 | |
| Chances created, big chances created | 39, 3 | |
| Successful crosses | 20, at 47 percent | |
| Accurate passes, pass accuracy | 785, 85 percent | |
| Tackles, interceptions | 32, 16 | |
| Clearances | 58 | |
| Ball recoveries | 79 | |
| Aerial duels won | 6 of 25 | |
| Clean sheets | 6 | |
| Round Best XI | 2 (Rounds 6 and 16) |
His 7.33 average rating is the highest of any K League 2 full-back on FotMob, and his chances created and cross accuracy are both in the top tenth. Seoul have won 13, drawn 6 and lost 4 with him, and won one and lost two of the three he missed.
What he has done well
He arrives where nobody is looking. Both goals came from the same thing. At Gimhae in July, deep in stoppage time, goalkeeper Choi Pil-su went up for a set piece, Seoul won the ball and broke, and Oh In-pyo was the one running at the empty goal. He rolled it in for 3-1. Thirteen days later at Suwon FC, the club he spent 2023 with on loan, Seoul were level at 1-1 ten minutes into the second half when Lee Ju-hyeok crossed and Oh arrived unmarked from deep to head them in front. He did not celebrate. It was the only headed shot he has attempted all season. A full-back who scores in consecutive matches is doing something the opposition’s winger is not tracking.
He makes goals from wide. Four assists, each a little different. The cross for Lee Ju-hyeok’s opener against Suwon FC in April, after Kim Oh-kyu’s diagonal and Kang Hyeon-je’s dummy had opened the flank. The pass for Byun Kyung-jun’s second at Paju a week later. The ball rolled in from the right for Park Chang-hwan to hit first time and settle the Seongnam match on 84 minutes. And the Ansan opener in August: Carius played a corner short, Oh looked up and found Euller arriving outside the box, and Euller’s left foot did the rest. That short-corner routine is one of the set plays Seoul have rehearsed, and he is the one who picks the pass. Thirty-nine chances created is near the top of the division for a defender.
He made the back-four switch work. At Gimhae, the first match after the World Cup break and the night Kim Do-gyun announced the back four, he played left back and was the best full-back on the pitch. Euller’s switch of play from the right found him unmarked in the first half and he slipped as he shot. He kept making the overlap all night, scored the third, and was named in the Round Best XI. Seoul went back to three at the back for Suwon FC a fortnight later and he started on the left, moved to the right at halftime, and scored. He has played right back in every back-four match since Cheonan in July and right wing-back when the back three returned against Daegu. That is four roles in one season, and he has been rated above 7 in most of them.
He is always there. Sports Chosun noted in April that he and Kim Oh-kyu had played every minute of the first six matches. He played the next two as well, then got hurt. Seoul lost at home to Hwaseong in his first match out, and MyDaily’s verdict was that the side could not cover for him and Osmar. They won one and lost two without him. Since he came back in May he has played all 90 minutes in all but two matches: Cheonan in July, when he came off for Kim Oh-kyu with Seoul 3-1 up, and Hwaseong in August, when he went off late for the same player. Deep into the eleven minutes of stoppage time against Daegu, the broadcast noted that he still had the legs to sprint, and he set up one more chance for Ahn Joo-wan.
He stays out of trouble. Two yellow cards in 23 matches, both in April. For a full-back who spends most of his evenings one-on-one with the opposition’s quickest player, that is discipline worth noting in a squad where Park Chang-hwan has already served two bans.
Where the same mistakes keep showing up
In the air. He has won 6 of 25 aerial duels, 24 percent, one of the lowest rates of any full-back in the division by FotMob’s comparison. At 177 centimeters and 63 kilograms, that is not a surprise, but it is a weakness teams can aim at. The far-post ball aimed over a full-back is the obvious route for any side with a tall forward, and in a run-in against teams that will play long, it is the ball he will see most.
The quiet last five. No goal or assist since the Ansan match on August 16. In the five matches since, the shots came from distance: a first-time effort from the edge of the box and a free kick that went just past the outside of the post against Paju, a long-range hit saved in the 96th minute at Seongnam. In those same weeks, Seoul drew twice and lost to Suwon Samsung. The attacking side of his game has been the difference this season, and it has gone quiet at the moment it is needed most.
The big nights. His two lowest ratings of the season came in the two matches against Suwon Samsung: 6.35 in the opener in February, when this site noted that Seoul got no real width from him, and 6.49 in the 0-1 at Mokdong on September 12, when the closest he came to changing the match was a 90th-minute cross that Gabriel headed at the goalkeeper. He has been at his best against the teams Seoul should beat. The playoffs, if it comes to that, will not be full of those.
Duels. He wins 46 percent of his ground and aerial duels combined, below average for his position. He is a full-back who defends by position and recovery running rather than by winning the ball in contact, which works until a winger gets him isolated in the channel.
His strengths, and what they mean for the last six
The card count. He is on two. His first ban would come at five, and he would need three more in six matches to get there. Park Chang-hwan is on eight. Suspension is not going to keep him out of the run-in, or out of the playoffs if Seoul get there.
The late run against tired legs. Both goals came in the second half, and Gimhae, the scene of the first, come to Mokdong in Round 29. The remaining opponents are all below Seoul in the table and most will defend deep. Against a low block, the full-back arriving unmarked from deep is the extra man Seoul need, and he is the one who does it.
Crosses, and the short corner. Forty-seven percent cross accuracy is high for any wide player, and the short-corner routine with Carius and Euller has already produced one goal. With Seoul behind Suwon FC on goals scored, they need a way to score that does not depend on Euller doing it alone, and he gives them one.
Either side, either shape. He has played right back, left back and both wing-back roles. With Bae Seo-jun, Son Hyuk-chan and Kim Joo-hwan rotating on the other side, and Kim Do-gyun willing to switch between a back four and a back three from week to week, the full-back who can fill any of those positions is the one that makes the switch possible.
The verdict at Round 27
A full-back who came back from the army last October, walked into the side and has not left it except through injury, is the best-rated player in his position in the division by the one measure that counts them all, and has six goal involvements from the back. The flaws are real, in the air and in the two meetings with the leaders, and the goals have stopped for five weeks. But Seoul won one of three without him and 13 of 23 with him. That is the case.
Grade so far: B plus. The plus is for the goals at Gimhae and Suwon FC, the four assists and the minutes. The absence of an A is for the aerial numbers, the quiet stretch since the middle of August, and the two nights against Suwon Samsung.
Match log
| Round | Opponent | Result | Minutes | Goals | Assists | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Suwon Samsung (A) | L 1-2 | 90 | Little width | ||
| 2 | Gyeongnam (H) | W 1-0 | 90 | |||
| 3 | Busan (H) | L 2-3 | 90 | |||
| 4 | Cheonan (A) | D 0-0 | 90 | Nine clearances | ||
| 5 | Daegu (A) | W 3-1 | 90 | |||
| 6 | Suwon FC (H) | W 3-0 | 90 | 1 | Cross for Lee Ju-hyeok’s opener; Best XI | |
| 7 | Paju (A) | W 3-1 | 90 | 1 | Set up Byun Kyung-jun’s second; yellow | |
| 8 | Ansan (A) | W 2-0 | 90 | Yellow | ||
| 9 | Hwaseong (H) | L 1-2 | Injured | |||
| 10 | Gimpo (H) | W 2-1 | Injured | |||
| 11 | Chungnam Asan (A) | L 0-3 | Injured | |||
| 12 | Yongin (H) | D 2-2 | 90 | Returned from injury | ||
| 13 | Seongnam (H) | W 3-1 | 90 | 1 | Pass for Park Chang-hwan’s clincher | |
| 14 | Jeonnam (A) | W 1-0 | 90 | |||
| 15 | Chungbuk Cheongju (H) | L 1-2 | 90 | Four shots | ||
| 16 | Gimhae (A) | W 3-1 | 90 | 1 | Left back; empty-net third; Best XI | |
| 18 | Suwon FC (A) | D 2-2 | 90 | 1 | Headed goal against his former loan club | |
| 19 | Cheonan (H) | W 4-3 | 68 | Right back from here on | ||
| 20 | Busan (A) | W 2-1 | 90 | Forced a save; cleared in the late scramble | ||
| 21 | Hwaseong (A) | D 0-0 | 81 | |||
| 22 | Ansan (H) | W 3-1 | 90 | 1 | Short-corner pass for Euller’s first | |
| 23 | Paju (H) | D 1-1 | 90 | Free kick past the post | ||
| 24 | Seongnam (A) | D 1-1 | 90 | Long shot saved in the 96th minute | ||
| 25 | Chungbuk Cheongju (A) | W 2-0 | 90 | Clean sheet | ||
| 26 | Suwon Samsung (H) | L 0-1 | 90 | Late cross for Gabriel | ||
| 27 | Daegu (H) | W 2-1 | 90 | Right wing-back; four chances created |
Statistics from the K League record and the club site, with match detail from the season’s digests and Korean match reports. One correction to earlier coverage: he played left back, not right back, in the win at Gimhae, and his goal there was an empty-net finish rather than a header. Part 8 follows.