The 2021 Chinese football season finally came to an end after the final two next season's Chinese Super League places were determined yesterday.
After last Sunday's FA Cup final, Shanghai Harbour manager Lecco, who lost, said he was not satisfied with the league and cup results with only two runners-up. For Harbor fans, after winning the first Chinese Super League championship in the 2018 season and winning the Super Cup in early 2019, three consecutive seasons of the championship trophy are "seen but not touched", and the disappointment is also overflowing.
There is no doubt that the Harbour team is the strongest team in the Chinese Super League and has the strength to compete for the final championship. In the past three seasons, the team has indeed seen the hope of winning the championship in the final stages, but it is impossible to break through the window paper again.
Impact champion is a systematic project, every link, every detail is crucial. The harbor team did not do a good job in a very, very important link.
The importance of foreign aid to Chinese clubs is self-evident, so The Harbour team, which has the last super foreign aid Oscar in the Chinese Super League, can continue to remain in the championship group.
But it is also for this reason that the only team with five foreign aides, Shandong Taishan, has become the double champion of the 2021 season, and the Harbor team, which only has two foreign aides left at the time of the championship, is simply unable to return to the sky.
Compared with Shandong, a "Jia Desong"
It can be said that Shandong Taishan can beat the harbor team, and the club management is one of the key factors in terms of winning the work. The most direct example is Jia Desong of Taishan, Shandong.
The Brazilian centre-back, who also played in Wuhan Sanzhen in the first half of the year, joined Shandong Taishan in the summer transfer window on loan. Not only did it reinforce the weak links in the team's center-back position, but it also repeatedly scored in key games. These include the opening record in the chinese Super League championship group and the first battle of the harbor team, the stoppage time kill in the match with Beijing Guoan, and the world wave victory in the FA Cup final.
Judsson, who is worth only 500,000 euros, is enough to prove that Shandong Taishan Club has a progressive vision on the outside, not to mention that the South Korean international Sun Junhao, who signed at the beginning of the season, is expected to be elected the best player in the 2021 Chinese Super League.
Without contrast, there is no harm. At the same time as Shandong Taishan targeted the introduction of Jia Desong, Shanghai Harbor Club also signed Hebei's Brazilian foreign assistant Paulinho. But the foreign deal did not make up for the weakness of the forward line caused by the departure of center Arnautovic.
In the Chinese Super League championship stage and the FA Cup final, the harbor team's center forward position is only Liu Zhurun, a 20-year-old young player from a winger background, Hu Jinghang, who has not played for a long time, and substitute striker Li Shenglong. Not only are they not up to the standards of a championship team in terms of strength, but they are also not from the right center in position. The final result also proved that in the case of Shandong Taishan's full main force, the number of goals scored by the Harbor team in such a forward configuration is zero.
Therefore, although Paulinho's overall performance is not bad, the reinforcement was not successful in the case that head coach Lecco likes to use two-wing cross tactics and needs the fulcrum of the high school striker.
Interestingly, the reason why the three towns in Wuhan are willing to release Jia Desong to Taishan in Shandong is because they have introduced the high school striker Mal Kang of the Hebei team, and the foreign aid has exceeded. Malcolm, who should have been the most suitable for the Harbour team to bring in foreign aid to replace Arnautovic, was also one of the options. If the Harbor team had signed Malcom at that time, perhaps the three towns of Wuhan would have left Jia Desong to continue playing in the middle division.
Anau, a son of a mistake full of ropes
And it's not just Paulinho this season, but the outreach work of the Harbour Club management from 2019 cannot be considered successful. The 2018 Chinese Super League champion is essentially a continuation of the dividends of the top foreign aid configuration of Hulk, Oscar, Akhmedov and Axon in 2017.
In the summer of 2019, Axon moved to Guangzhou to complete the naturalization, and the Harbor Club selected Austrian centre-forward Arnautovic. The Premier League resume, the European international, looks beautiful but the actual effect has proved to be not good.
The first is that Arnautovic's style does not fit Pereira's tactical system, and for two seasons he has been basically outside the team as a whole. Secondly, he and the captain Hulk are "two tigers in a mountain", not only can not cooperate together on the court, but also have problems between the two on the field.
Unable to form immediate combat power, Arnautovic's arrival did not bring much of a boost to the strength of the Harbor team in the final sprint stage of the 2019 season. Whether it is the life-and-death battle in the quarter-finals of the AFC Champions League, or the battle of Tianwangshan in the Chinese Super League away to Tianhe Stadium, the Austrians' performance is very flat.
In the 2020 season, the mismatched Arnautovic and Hulk moved from the field to the field, and it was still in the semi-final stage of the Chinese Super League. In the crucial second leg, the head coach Pereira simply put two big-name foreign players who did not obey each other on the bench together, which greatly affected the team's combat effectiveness. More ironically, after Harbour took a one-goal lead, Pereira replaced Hulk and Arnautovic in succession, and the team was reversed in extra time.
After the AFC Champions League expedition, the Harbor team did not take Arnautovic with them, but Hulk was hidden by the snow because of the conflict with the manager, and the team only reached the round of 16.
At the end of 2020, between the two big-name foreign players, the Harbour Club finally chose Arnautovic, who still had a contract, and gave up Hulk, whose contract expired.
Unexpectedly, Arnautovic, who performed well at the beginning of this season in preparation for the European Championship, finally chose to leave the team after the End of the European Championship because he could not stand the long-term closed environment of the Chinese Super League. In the absence of preparation and planning for the Harbour Club, it directly caused the team to suffer irreparable losses in the championship stage.
The "FIFA virus" under the epidemic
In the FIFA matchday national team event, the international footballers of various countries either returned to the club with an injury or a tired body after playing, so it has always been called the "FIFA virus".
The signing of a key International from a European country like Arnautovic is not a wise choice because players have to go through long flights between Asia and Europe and there is a jet lag. Regardless of whether the European Championship is held in 2020 or 2021, Arnautovic will miss many Of the Chinese Super League matches of The Harbour, affecting the competitiveness of the team.
What is even more unwise is that after the outbreak of the new crown epidemic, the Harbor Club still chose Australia international Mooy, which is equivalent to a double "virus" blow. One is that players want to go back to participate in national team matches; one is that entering China also needs to be quarantined for a long time, not only to miss the game, but also to affect the physical state.
The impact of the "FIFA virus" on Mooy will continue into this year. Australia has reached the crucial stage of the World Cup Asian qualifiers, and Mooy will certainly not be absent like at the end of last year. There is also the Qatar World Cup this year, although the World Cup will be unveiled at the end of the year, but the previous warm-up matches will be arranged on the international match day, and Moi should participate in the whole process.
In contrast, Shandong Taishan's former Belgium international Fellaini quit the national team in March 2019 and has been single-mindedly playing for the club for one season, becoming the backbone of the team's now double crown. South Korean international Sun Junhao also participated in the second stage of this season's FA Cup and the Chinese Super League after communicating with the Korean Football Association.
Finding foreign aid requires more professionals
Of the five foreign players with a contract with the Harbour team, captain Oscar's contract expires by the end of 2024. Although there has been a scandal with Barca in recent days, if the harbor team's goal is still to compete for the title, it will not let go of the "little golden man" who still has a long-term contract.
With four foreign players remaining, Mystrovic, who has been reimbursed for a full season with a knee ligament injury, will expire his contract at the end of this year, and unluckily he has not yet played a formal game for the Harbor team; another seriously injured player, Brazilian striker López, is also at the end of this year, and he is currently actively recovering in Brazil and preparing for the new season; Moi's contract will not be until next summer, and the newly joined Paulinho and the Harbor team will sign a two-and-a-half-year contract until the end of next year.
Head coach Lecco said about the squad next season, "As a coach, I want to make the existing squad play the best thing, bring the existing players well, and the club has special personnel to do the relevant analysis and evaluation." Nevertheless, I believe that after a whole season, he will definitely have his own ideas about foreign aid, depending on whether he can get the support of the club's management.
For now, at least, if Harbour FC is still looking forward to a championship trophy, a strong center from outside must be considered. The second is whether the foreign aid in the center-back position needs to be replaced by a healthier one, after all, in the case of consecutive major injuries, The state of Mystrovic is unknown. Also, it turns out that López's ability does not fit the forward configuration of the championship team, leaving him to play the fifth foreign aid, or finding a more capable foreign aid instead?
Of course, if there is a real need to replace foreign aid, it is time to test the operational ability of the management of the Harbour Club. Especially in the case that the Chinese Super League has investment restrictions, foreign aid has transfer fees and annual salary restrictions, to find cost-effective foreign aid, more professional people are needed to operate.