What is Calderon Trying to Build? - First Look on Kitchee's Pre-season

By HK Kickers
28 August 2025

After two consecutive disappointing fourth-place finishes, Kitchee have waived two head coaches (Kim Dong-jin and Edgar Cardoso). For the upcoming 2025-26 Season, they have brought in Iñigo Calderón to take charge of the most successful club in HKPL history.

Unlike Cardoso, Calderón has had a very rich playing experience in Europe and later in his career, Asia. He is best known for his seven solid seasons in Brighton & Hove Albion, where he was voted the player of the season in 2014-15. After his retirement in 2019, the Spaniard returned to his former club Alavés as assistant manager to the reserves, and subsequently to Brighton again as the head coach for their under-18 side. His first senior job came last December, as he was appointed manager of Bristol Rovers in League One. His tenure at Bristol Rovers was far from marvellous. The team under his charge only picked up 6 wins out of 26 and failed to escape relegation to League Two. Calderón left the club after the season.

A crucial factor for Calderón’s return to Asia would be John Morling, the current technical director of HKFA, who also served as the academy manager of Brighton from 2012 to 2022. Ken Ng, the Chairman of Kitchee, revealed that Morling played a role in the club’s search for a new head coach, weeks before the official announcement of Calderón’s appointment. A move to Hong Kong and taking over an ambitious club like Kitchee undoubtedly sounds beneficial to the Spaniard, who needs to accomplish something enormous in the early days of his coaching career.

Right after the appointment came a training camp in Thailand and three friendly matches. 2 of them were broadcast live while the remaining one, reportedly against Lion City Sailors, was played behind closed doors. The Bluebirds failed to claim a victory in the two “open” games, holding Chiangmai United to a 1-1 draw and narrowly losing to Kasersart FC 1-2. Nevertheless, the display in the pre-season games may offer us something compelling and the new manager some food for thought.

For match details of Kitchee's Thailand preseason trip, you can also check out the report compiled by Angry Boundary Street: Click here 

• Pressing

What we can say with some certainty after binge-watching these two friendlies is Calderón's intention to build a clear pressing structure for his new club. He fielded a common 4-3-3 formation but switched the team to resemble closely to a 4-4-2 when they needed to press high. One of the attacking midfielders was pushed up front to partner with the lone striker. While they were positioned to pinpoint the two central defenders of the opposition, they were flexible and taught to press the goalkeeper as well when the ball was recycled back there. The remaining two midfielders, who initially held back, were also transformed under Calderón into aggressive pressers. They were comfortable with pressing proactively when the first line of press was broken down by forward passes. Their defensive line was also positioned high to maintain a compact structure, partly enabled by the departure of defenders with lower mobility, namely Hélio and Leon Jones. 

The adoption of hybrid pressing proved effective, especially in the second game against Kasersart, where they regained possession and created several attacking opportunities immediately after the opposition's goal kicks. Their chance conversion remains an area to improve on, an issue more prominent when Juninho and their new signing Adrián Revilla were not on the pitch. The former has become the flag-bearer of Kitchee's attack, and with his direct style of playing, he may flourish under the Spaniard.

• Callum Beattie

Callum Beattie, after an astonishing season with HKFC, makes the deserved move to the Bluebirds and has already obtained an HK passport after years of residence. As evident from his performance in the friendlies, his arrival is more than just a squad player or a "filler" with local player status but a tactically great boon to his new team.

Playing at the left-back position, Beattie provides solid defensive action, but it is his attacking instinct and impressive skill set that matter the most. He is willing to make overlapping runs and cross the ball into the box decisively. He is also aggressive in winning back the possession; his good physique makes him a rather intimidating opponent for the local league attackers to encounter.

Beattie also seems comfortable playing in different positions at the back as the game requires. With the ball, he has the ability to run into the midfield space and offer a man advantage in possession, which will definitely prove conducive to Kitchee's ability to control the game.

• The rise of academy products

Kitchee has always aspired to be the "Ajax of Asia" in terms of the club's youth system development. Few would doubt the Bluebirds' excellent training facilities for the young guns, but the same cannot really be said regarding the intention to play them at all.

Something appears to be changing, probably, this season under Calderón. A handful of academy products had their chance to play in the pre-season friendlies, or even to start. More impressively, most of them had seized the chances and showcased their potential to boost their hierarchy within the team.

While Kanda and Kendy, two midfielders with rich HKPL experience, are added to the team, young players like Li Siu-hin and Chan Shing-chun are expected to be given abundant playing time from the new Spanish head coach. Li Siu-hin even participated in the buildup for the first goal in the friendly vs Chiangrai United, forming a good working relationship, apparently, with veterans like Juninho and Adrián Revilla. Defenders like Lam Pak-yin and Kam Chi-kin expressed their courage on the pitch. Not to mention Yuen Chun-him, who returned from the Spanish side CF Amposta, will attempt to make his case for greater participation in the first team.

There are, of course, more issues and signs within this newborn Kitchee team that attract more scrutiny. We will have a clearer picture after their first league fixture vs Eastern. The Blue Derby, albeit unlikely to be a blockbuster champion decider, will always be a great opportunity for new coach and new players to set out their ideas and talents.