52-man roster
The draft begins!
Yesterday (7th) afternoon, the Chinese Football Association announced the first training list of the new Chinese men's national football team. Contrary to the previous legendary news, the total number of players selected for the first period is more than 50, while the coaching staff is also more than 10 and as many as 15. Although there is not much time left before the away match against Japan on January 27, it is more appropriate to call such a large-scale recruitment of players to some extent the "training camp" or "selection camp" of the Chinese men's football team, rather than the real national team, and then make a final sprint to prepare for the seventh and eighth rounds of the round of 12. Moreover, a foreseeable situation is that in the future, when the national football team conquers Japan, at least half of the players will leave.
1
Group training The Coaches of the Chinese Super League are basically shortlisted
It has to be said that due to the major changes in the management system and management mode of the Chinese men's national football team compared with before, therefore, under the requirements and guidance of the relevant management departments, after entering 2022, although the Chinese men's national football team is still called "national team collectively", in fact, from January 11 in Shanghai, this team will evolve into a "national selection team" or "training camp", and will be divided into two or three groups, that is, the "red, yellow, blue" model used by the national team in the past. This is also why although the national team is preparing for such an important game as the round of 12, it is why it is a huge coaching team of 52 players and 15 people in addition to head coach Li Xiaopeng.
Starting from 12 January, when the national team starts its first training session, the selected players will be divided into different groups to train separately. Different teams need to be led by different coaches to train. Therefore, in the newly released national team roster, in terms of the coaching staff, a very obvious feature is that in the just-concluded Chinese Super League, almost all the local managers of the Chinese Super League have transformed into members of the national team coaching team.
For example, Chen Yang is the head coach of Changchun Yatai team, as a promotion horse, leading the team to qualify for the AFC Champions League; Li Jinyu, Wang Liang, Li Leilei, etc. were previously assistant coaches of wuhan team, assisting Li Xiaopeng in Wuhan, and after Li Xiaopeng took over as the head coach of the national team, Li Jinyu led Wuhan team to successfully complete the relegation task as head coach; Zheng Zhi, as the actual manager and captain of Guangzhou team, led the team to participate in the final stage of the Chinese Super League; Yu Genwei was the head coach of Tianjin Jinmen Tigers. The team finally completed the relegation task, Jinmen Tiger did not need to participate in the relegation play-offs; Zhao Junzhe served as the head of the Chinese coaching team in Guangzhou City; the only Chinese Super League coach who did not enter the coaching team was Hao Wei, who led Shandong Taishan to win the Chinese Super League championship.
Gao Yao, on the other hand, was once the head coach of the Kunshan team in the Chinese League One, and "left class" after the team lost to Heilongjiang in September last year and has been idle at home; Sun Xiang has been working at the Shanghai Harbor Club since retiring; Shao Jiayi has served as the team leader and assistant coach of the China 03 age group U19 national youth team; and Sun Jihai has "cameoed" in Haikou to help direct the Chinese U23 women's national football team for training.
As for the two foreign assistants, such as Jose Pep, who is still stranded in Spain, it is estimated that it will be difficult to come to China to assist Li Xiaopeng during the first training camp; the physical coach and Brazilian Owen Wilk is from Shanghai Shenhua, which is also a temporary helper.
Because Li Xiaopeng's takeover itself seems to be a bit hasty, and the Chinese Super League is immediately resumed after the national team returned from the United Arab Emirates to end the quarantine, it is difficult for Li Xiaopeng to immediately finalize a new coaching team, after all, many coaches have not yet ended their contracts with the original clubs. In this case, the relevant parties simply directly gathered all the local coaches in these Chinese Super Leagues, the so-called "many people have great strength", and used "collective wisdom" to make up for individual deficiencies. So this time, such a coaching team was organized.
It should be pointed out that it is impossible for all the members of the coaching team to follow the team to Japan or Vietnam to participate in the whole process, but only to "temporarily help" during the Training Camp in Shanghai. Some of these coaches may stay, and Li Xiaopeng will officially finalize the assistant team after returning home after playing against Vietnam on February 1.
It is worth mentioning that in the 16-person coaching team this time, Li Xiaopeng, Yu Genwei, Zhao Junzhe, Shao Jiayi, Sun Jihai, Ou Chuliang, Gao Yao and other 7 people were all players in the 2002 World Cup, and Zheng Zhi was the only player who led the team to the World Cup at the time, Milu, who was the only "regretful player who did not bring the World Cup", which may be the largest and highest level of a local coaching team in the history of the Chinese men's national football team. Moreover, people like Sun Xiang, Wang Liang, Li Jinyu, Li Leilei, etc. are also regulars in the past national team, only Chen Yang and Hu Yu have no experience in the national team, but Hu Yu has always been a physical coach, and Chen Yang's achievements in leading the team in recent years are also obvious to all. Therefore, this coaching team may be a major attraction of this national team, but what is the final effect? Time will be given for answers.
2
A comprehensive examination of 52 people is prepared for upgrading
It is said that the first training of the new national football team organized in Shanghai is more like a "training camp" and "selection camp", and it is very important that a total of 52 people participated in the training. You know, this figure is basically equal to the total number of 53 people selected by the predecessor Li Tie when he organized various national team training sessions in 2020 and 2021. And, if you look at it from the perspective of location, it is more able to illustrate this point.
For example, in the position of goalkeeper, a total of 6 people were selected this time, in addition to Liu Dianzuo, Yan Junling, Wang Dalei and other three regulars in the position of the previous national team, like Hou Sen, Han Jiaqi, Wang Zhifeng and other three are the first time in history to participate in the national team training. In the future two matches against Japan and Vietnam, it is enough to keep three goalkeepers. But the reason why three new faces were called into the team, it is very important that Wang Dalei is 89 years old, Liu Dianzuo is 90 years old, and Yan Junling is 91 years old, from the age structure of the entire team, although the goalkeepers are often "evergreens", as long as they maintain a good state, age is not an obstacle at all. However, the age difference between the three goalkeepers is only 2 years, and it is necessary to have fresh blood like Wang Zhifeng in the 97 age group and Han Jiaqi in the 99 age group to maintain a successor in this position, and it is also more important to let the younger players have some experience in the national team. As for the selection of Hou Sen, who was born in 1989, it is more to consider his performance and good form in the past season.
Therefore, it is easy to understand that the national football team has recruited so many players this time. Among the 52-person training list announced this time, 13 people were selected for the national team for the first time to participate in the training, of which in addition to several older but in good shape players such as Li Shenglong (92 years), Zhao Hongluo (89 years), Hou Sen (89 years) and so on, most of them are players after the age group of 97. The message conveyed in this is very clear, that is, the average age of the current Chinese men's national football team is too large and needs fresh blood. Although these players will not be used in a short period of time, especially in the two deadly matches against Japan and Vietnam, if you look at the Asian Cup in 2023, it seems necessary for these players to enter the national team and feel the atmosphere of the national team in advance.
In addition to the need for upgrading, the shortcomings of the team itself also need to be strengthened. In the two most rare full-back positions of the national team at present, the left-back position has been called in 6 people this time, in addition to retaining the previous Wang Shenchao and Li Lei, like Liu Yang and Li Shuai, two 95-year-old players who have entered the national team in the Lippi era have returned, Zhao Hongluo was selected for the first time because of his good league performance, and Wu Shaocong also became the second "post-00" player in the national team after Zhu Chenjie because of his good performance in the league. [Note: Jiang Shenglong is the third "post-00s" player. 】
In the right-back position, with the injuries of Tang Miao, Tomorrow and Wang Gang, in the case of not being able to play the two games against Japan and Vietnam in the round of 12, there is a need for new forces, so Ji Xiang, who won the Chinese Super League championship, was re-selected, and Wang Tong, as one of the main right-backs during Li Xiaopeng's coaching of Shandong, was also selected normally. In addition, it should be reasonable that Deng Hanwen, the first "95-age" player who was selected in the Lippi era, was re-selected. As for which of these two positions will eventually appear in the next Round of 12? I am afraid it will depend on the performance during the Training Camp in Shanghai.
From the current situation, the main framework of the players or main substitutes of the Li Tie era to compete in the top 12 matches has basically been retained, in addition to the 13 players mentioned above who were selected for the national team for the first time, like He Xi, Wei Zhen, Shi Ke in the center-back position, and Liu Yang, Li Shuai in the full-back position, Wang Ziming on the front line, a few six or seven people have not been selected for the national team of the Li Tie era, and all the others are "old faces". This also shows from one side that the excellent players available in Chinese football are basically just a few faces. Of course, young players like Barton who performed well in the round of 12 regrettably missed this training session because of injuries.
In the Li Tie era, a total of 53 players have been selected for the national team to participate in the training, of which Guangzhou (11), Beijing Guoan (9), Shandong Taishan (8), Wuhan (6) are "big households", and the total number of these four clubs has 34 people selected. Among the 52 people announced this time, the St. Co., Ltd. Chinese Super League champion Shandong Taishan team became the "first big household", with a total of 10 people selected; guangzhou team retreated to second place, with 9 people selected; Beijing Guoan and Shanghai Haigang followed closely behind, with 7 and 6 people selected respectively. The Wuhan team that Li Xiaopeng coached before taking over the national football team also had 3 people selected, and the Shenhua team was also 3 people.
However, despite the large number of people, from the current situation, at least half of the players in this 52-man list will not go with the team, after all, there is no need for so many players in the two games, and the coaching team will also "shrink".
Perhaps, the team that left for Japan on January 23 can be regarded as the real "Chinese men's national team".
#新一期男足国家队52人名单 (first-time ★ winner) #
Goalkeepers (6 people): Liu Dianzuo, Hou Sen ★, Yan Junling, Wang Dalei, Han Jiaqi ★, Wang Zhifeng ★;
Center-backs (10): Jiang Guangtai, Zhang Linpeng, Yu Dabao, Li Ang, He Xi, Wei Zhen ★, Shi Ke, Zheng Zheng, Jiang Shenglong ★, Zhu Chenjie;
Left-back (6): Wang Shenchao, Wu Shaocong ★, Liu Yang, Li Shuai, Zhao Hongluo ★, Li Lei;
Right defender (3): Deng Hanwen, Ji Xiang, Wang Tong ★;
Zhongqian (9): Yan Dinghao ★, Zhang Xizhe, Chi Zhongguo, Xu Xin, Wu Xi, Peng Xinli, Wang Shangyuan, Arthur Junmin, Dai Weijun ★,
Full-backs (10): Gao Tianyi ★, Jin Jingdao, Liu Binbin, Yin Hongbo, Xie Pengfei, Tan Long, Wei Shihao, Yang Liyu, Fernando, Luo Guofu;
Forwards (8 players): Alan, Axon, Zhang Yuning, Wang Ziming, Guo Tianyu, Li Shenglong ★, Liu Ruovan ★, Wu Lei.