Special correspondent Liu Zhun reported that after the Spring Festival, the clubs of the Chinese Super League have started construction one after another. Although head coach Chen Yang and player Tan Long were quarantined in Suzhou with the national team, Yatai prepared according to the plan that Chen Yang had previously formulated, and they would assemble in Haikou after the Lantern Festival. Like last season, Yatai began preparations for next season at the end of the season. At present, Yatai's spring training plans for the AFC Champions League play-offs, internal and external promotions, and preparations for the new season are all proceeding step by step.
Actively respond to the AFC Champions League play-offs
On March 15, Yatai will embark on a 2022 AFC Champions League play-off against the winners of the Australian Premier League Sydney FC and the Philippines Kaya.
According to the plan, Yatai will assemble in Haikou on February 16 to prepare for the 2022 season, but Chen Yang and Tan Long will not end the quarantine until at least the 24th. In the short one-month preparation period, yatai is worth looking forward to in the play-offs with what kind of mentality.
Judging from Yatai's style of "preparing for everything first" for many years, the AFC Champions League play-off will make a number of plans according to the epidemic prevention and control policy, the actual situation of the team, and the experience of Harbor and Guoan participating in the playoffs in 2021. At present, Yatai is actively preparing for the home stadium in accordance with the relevant regulations of the AFC and the epidemic prevention and control policy of Changchun City, and the club has asked four foreign aides from Junier, Eric, Serginho and Okore to return to the team in time, but considering the "14+7" isolation policy, foreign aid may not be able to participate in this play-off.
In 2021, the AFC Champions League play-off and Group F main event will be held in Bangkok, Thailand, and the time difference is only three days, the harbor is on June 23 and Kaya for the play-off, and on the 26th, the group stage of Group F begins. However, the AFC's proposed start time for the 2022 AFC Champions League play-offs is one month away from the start of the group stage (the group stage of the AFC Champions League East Asia region starts on April 15 and 16).
Considering the inconvenience, Yatai's AFC Champions League play-off is likely to be held in the host of The Winner's Group H, just like in 2021, and the competition time is three or four days before the main match.
With the mid-to-mega odds starting in late April, these conflicting off-field factors have made it difficult for Yatai to focus on the AFC Champions League play-offs. At present, the Yatai U21 team is training in Kunming, if the above difficulties and conflicts cannot be resolved, the possibility of yatai being like last year's haigang, guoan, Guangzhou and other teams will be involved in the youth army.
Spain's high school striker became the fifth foreign aid
On March 24 and 29, the national football team will play the last two rounds of the top 12 matches, and from the perspective of epidemic prevention and control policies, they will return to China for quarantine as soon as March 31, which means that the new season of the Chinese Super League will not start until late April. For Yatai, from February 16 to late April, the preparation time was only more than two months, which was greatly shortened compared to previous years.
The 2021 season of the Chinese Super League is held on New Year's Eve, and clubs will not start the holiday until the end of the league on January 5 this year. Before the holiday, head coach Chen Yang left a "winter vacation homework" for all the players, hoping that they would not be too relaxed during the 6-week vacation, and must complete the self-training plan according to the requirements of quality and quantity. The coaching staff feedback that all players upload training videos and accept the supervision and assessment of the coaching team.
Affected by the epidemic, the Chinese Super League has played two consecutive years of tournament system competitions, and clubs have been greatly affected. At present, there are voices calling for the resumption of home and away games, but the Chinese Football Association and the city where the club is located need to make a response plan. Therefore, before the introduction of the clear news of the resumption of home and away games, Yatai will make two-handed preparations, on the one hand, to comb the home software and hardware with the AFC Champions League play-offs, and on the other hand, to step up personnel adjustments to cope with the expanded Chinese Super League.
On February 11, the Polish media took the lead in breaking the news that Spanish striker Eksposito, who played for Bosnia and Herzegovina and Silesia, transferred to Yatai with a three-year contract and an annual salary of 1 million euros.
The 25-year-old Exposito is 1.90 meters tall, started his career in Las Palmas in La Liga, joined Silesia as a free agent in 2019, and in the 2021/22 season, he played 24 league games with 10 goals and 5 assists, which attracted the attention of Stuttgart in the Bundesliga and Dynamo Houston in the Usliga, but the winner was Yatai.
In order to cope with the new season of the Chinese Super League, Chen Yang built Yatai's keel for the core with foreign aid. In the 2021 season, the performances of Junier, Serginho, Eric and Okore were obvious to all and were retained. However, Chen Yang's tactical system still lacks a high school striker, from the data, ExePosito can not only do the fulcrum, attract defense, but also, his foot skills are also good, long-range shooting ability is strong, he will be the team's fifth foreign aid.
ExePosito is more in line with the requirements of Yatai's youth, and it is reported that in order to make the age structure of the team more reasonable and more potential, the club plans to transform the first team this year to reduce the average age by using young players. In terms of internal assistance, Li Shuai, who is relegated to the middle division with dalian people, is expected to return to his old club and strengthen the left back. Rao Weihui, the main player of last season, is over thirty years old, and the impact of injuries and suspensions has only made 13 appearances, which has greatly weakened the competitiveness of the team.