Reporter Chen Yong reported that the Chinese women's football team won the Asian Cup, and the Chinese athletes had unlimited scenery at the Winter Olympics, such a moment, I am afraid that the only idea of the Chinese men's football team is: forget me, forget me. However, there will always be people who can't help but talk about the Chinese men's football team. In fact, for the Chinese men's football team, they will inevitably return to the fans' vision again, because in a month and a half, they will play in the last two games of the round of 12, and in the middle of this year, they will play in the East Asian Cup.
Where is China's men's football road? This is a topic we have to face.
After the 1-3 loss to Vietnam, for a long time afterwards, the topic of men's football was largely humiliating, and rational analysis did not seem to stir up a little wave.
The summary of the fiasco of the national football team actually needs to be carried out from two levels. One is the development path of Chinese football, which is actually the real reason for the fiasco of men's football, including football decision-making and management system, youth training, etc., which is the "way to cure the root cause". The second is to analyze from the level of men's football preparation and competition, which is the "way to cure the symptoms".
More precisely, the overall dismal record of the top 12 matches, as well as the problems of low technical and tactical ability, lack of game awareness, and inability to adapt to the intensity and rhythm of the game, are mostly caused by the overall problems of China's football development. However, the 1-3 loss to Vietnam alone is more of a reason for the national football team itself.
Among them, the preparation and competition of the national football team itself actually involves multiple levels:
The first is the overall coordination of preparations, especially the overall planning of national football and leagues. The league has two consecutive stages of 3 days a game, and the national football team throughout the year does make the national football players physically and mentally exhausted, especially the psychological fatigue, the performance in the Sino-Vietnamese battle is more like a big outbreak, which must be fully reflected at the decision-making level.
The second is the national football team's own preparation and competition arrangements. This includes both objective factors and subjective factors. The objective level is the lack of coaching and running-in time, and the subjective level, the poor performance in the Sino-Vietnamese battle is precisely some of the old players, this part of the old players have been in the national team for a long time closed training and competition, the mental state is extremely bad, but some new people are more scrappy, which may also be the reason why the national football team summoned 10 "newcomers" on February 7.
The third may be the most helpless: the bad record of the national football team, including being beaten by the Japanese team in two consecutive games, and the final 1-3 defeat to Vietnam, the confidence of the national football players is a very, very big blow, and the psychological shadow brought about by it can be imagined. We can even say that the existing national team, because of this heavy blow, it is impossible to regain confidence in the future, and reconstruction is inevitable.
Fourth, the morale of the players. This is probably the most headache. Of course, the fighting spirit and the confidence mentioned above do not exist in isolation, there are reasons for the cultural inheritance of the team, there are reasons for absolute strength, and there are also reasons for preparation and appearance.
Finally, regarding Li Xiaopeng and his coaching staff, because of this defeat against Vietnam, the road to coaching in the future has become extremely difficult. Whether to continue coaching needs to be decided by the relevant departments, but if you continue to coach, you also need to comprehensively sort out your own coaching ideas, and come up with new things and new ideas for fans to recognize, which also needs to be based on the premise of team reconstruction.
Overall, if the national football team wants to get out of the trough, it needs the comprehensive development of Chinese football, which can not be completed overnight, but at the micro level, reasonable measures can effectively improve the plight of the national football team.
One possibility is: if the existing national team is fully rested, can it regain its combat effectiveness? Not to mention that the fans are certainly not convinced, even football practitioners, including the coaching staff, may not dare to believe easily, although the physical and psychological level can be restored, but the confidence is not so easy to restore.
In fact, whether in the short, medium, or long term, reconstruction oriented towards youth is the only option. Maybe the fans also said that the reconstruction of youth can solve the problem of national football? Of course not. The record of the national football team is unlikely to have a substantial rebound. But at least one thing, these young people do not have psychological historical baggage, and there is always a glimmer of hope in building a national team that dares to fight.
The short-term aspect is the last two Round of 12 matches, as well as the East Asian Cup in the middle of the year. In the last 2 round of 12 matches, if no newcomers appear, it is estimated that fans are reluctant to watch the national football game again. There's also the Mid-Year East Asian Cup – originally scheduled for December last year, but China is the host because the Qatar World Cup was decided to be rescheduled to July. Because of the conflict with the league, it is impossible for japan and South Korea to participate in the real national team, and at present, Japan intends to send a U21 national team to participate, and South Korea intends to send a U23 national team to participate. In this case, the Chinese Football Association has two choices, one is to send a national team dominated by young players to participate, and the other is to send a U23 national team to participate as an important preparation for the Asian Games.
In the medium term, the 2023 Asian Cup - the 2023 Asian Cup will be held in China from June to July 2023, when the players in the 1989 age group will be 34 years old, and it is necessary to update the national football team in terms of age law.
As for the 2026 World Cup qualifiers, it may be a bit long ago, when the vast majority of players of the 89 generation will probably withdraw from the historical stage.
Therefore, whether from the current embarrassing reality of the national team, or from the perspective of the national team's future short-term, medium-term and long-term goals, the rejuvenation of the national football team is probably the only choice.
In fact, on the issue of temperament level such as confidence and fighting spirit, there is an old saying: a lion with a group of sheep can defeat a sheep with a group of lions, so the choice of core players of the national football team is very important. In fact, the coach can also affect the temperament of the team, but the influence and the influence of the team's core players are still different, Lippi's experience of resigning in anger twice shows all this, and Lippi, the world's top coach, is also angered by the performance of the national footballer, and more than once.
From this, the biggest difficulty in the reconstruction of the national football team is clearly seen: how to find a core player with real leadership ability for the national football team. If a player cannot complete this task, it is also necessary to find at least a few mainstays for the national football team, who have the ability, influence and professional attitude to ensure the basic stability and morale of the team.
Let's first look at the theoretical reconstruction framework of the national football team.
In the goalkeeper position, Wang Dalei, Liu Dianzuo and Yan Junling are currently 33 years old, 32 years old and 31 years old respectively, and the replacement of the national football goalkeeper is currently a problem, but the problem of these three goalkeepers maintaining a good game state within 2 to 3 years is not big, but the choice of goalkeeper position, in the future, the temperament of the game may be heavier than the basic technical and tactical ability.
In the back line, the 28-year-old Jiang Guangtai has basically become the core player of the national football team, the 22-year-old Zhu Chenjie also has rich experience in the game, and Gao Zhunyi, Wu Shaocong, Tong Lei are also quite energetic, in addition to the Mesozoic Generation, there are Deng Hanwen and Wang Tong to choose from. On this line, there is also a lack of real spiritual core players.
In the middle of the midfield, Dai Weijun and Yan Dinghao are currently calling for a higher voice, but one of them has just staged the debut of the national football team, and the other has not yet played for the national team, so the middle road is the problem of the reconstruction of the national football team, which is the same as the biggest difficulty in the reconstruction of the national football team, that is, finding core players with leadership ability.
Wu Xi's characteristic is that in terms of temperament, he is more introverted, and more importantly, he did not play in his favorite position during the entire round of 12. His more suitable position is not a defensive back, but a central defender, who can play his strong running ability and strong offensive ability, but the national football team really can't find an excellent defensive back, and can only catch the duck on the shelf.
Overall, the midfield of the national football team is still a difficult point for reconstruction, and the difficulty of the midfield is greater than the difficulty of the defensive line.
Comparatively speaking, on the offensive end, whether it is a winger (full-back and winger) or a center forward position, the choice of national football team is relatively generous, Wu Lei, Wei Shihao, Zhang Yuning, Guo Tianyu, these local forwards and wingers have good abilities, in addition, Wu Xinghan, Liu Binbin, Zhou Junchen and so on are good wing players.
As for the vast majority of the veteran players in the current mainstream of national football, of course, the national football team can not be abandoned, their ability is still very strong, they also have rich experience, but for the national football team, the criteria for choosing them can not be simpler, that is, whether they are willing to play and run like young people.
In other words, although this article we titled "rejuvenation reconstruction", rejuvenation is the long-term consideration of the national football team, but age is never the core issue, attitude is the key, the reason for the use of "rejuvenation" for expression, the reason is that some of the old players show numbness and drift attitude is too disappointing, and generally speaking, the attitude of young players is generally no problem.
As for the selection of personnel for the last 2 rounds of 12 matches, it is recommended that all veteran players who are open all year round are on leave, and there is no need to recruit overseas players and Brazilian naturalized players.