Staying in Spain for nearly 3 and a half years, he played 97 La Liga and La Liga games, scoring a total of 10 goals, which is not a brilliant statistic. When The success rate of Wu Lei's one-on-one confrontation at his feet and head fell from 42% in the first year to 29% this season, the 30-year-old Wu Lei is indeed not excellent in La Liga. However, for that little goal possibility, Wu Lei paid for sprinting again and again. He is only a substitute striker for the la Liga team, but he also has his own dreams and persistence.
01. For a goal: Wu Lei kept sprinting for half an hour
Espanyol, who was at home in this match, shot a total of 11 times, only 2 shots on target, all from Wu Lei.
Is this because Wu Lei is excellent? Wu Lei has played a total of 17 La Liga games this season, and finally scored his first goal, even 666 days after the last La Liga goal.
Wu Lei's movement in this round makes people look a little sad. This time, when his teammates took the ball, Wu Lei was the first to sprint forward.
In fact, Wu Lei had already rushed out of the opportunity, but his teammates ignored him and did not send a straight plug to Wu Lei, who entered the penalty area without the ball.
Through the live broadcast footage, it can be seen more clearly that Wu Lei is a long-distance sprint run plus continuous ballless movement, always paying attention to the teammates holding the ball, and wants to run the best receiving line.
However, his teammates ignored him, and 2 consecutive ball carriers did not consider passing to Wu Lei, even though he was already in a good position.
Especially the second teammate who took the ball, in fact, can clearly see Wu Lei in the back point of the vacancy, if the pass comes, Wu Lei has the opportunity to directly impact the goal.
So why don't teammates consider passing Wu Lei? Because the success rate of Wu Lei's processing after taking the ball is really not high. Just like this time on the counter-attack, Wu Lei took the ball to the side to advance, and as a result, he chose to turn around and pass back after encountering pressure from defenders, and also passed the ball out of bounds.
Wu Lei, who played for nearly half an hour in stoppage time, successfully played 0 one-on-one confrontations and 3 mistakes in 5 passes. The lack of ball ability makes Wu Lei not enough trust from his teammates.
The opponent actually despised Wu Lei a little, this time after the Spaniard forced the ball to steal, the Celta defender moved to the middle of the road to follow the empty players, giving way to the flank outside line to Wu Lei forward.
Wu Lei did not miss this shot, seized the opportunity to face the goalkeeper, sent the ball to the bottom of the net, and won applause and recognition for himself.
02. It's a bit difficult for Wu Lei to stay in the big five leagues in the future: he needs to adjust his positioning
From the statistical point of view, the 30-year-old Wu Lei is also in the decline period of his physical state. Compared with the 2018-19 season that just landed in La Liga, and the full year of the 2019-20 season, the decline in Wu Lei's one-on-one success rate this season is very serious.
In the first half of the year, 42% of the single-player confrontation was not satisfactory, and the 39% of the second year was already a critical point, and the current success rate was only 29%, which may indicate that Wu Lei should really consider leaving the five major leagues.
Perhaps Wu Lei can consider the Dutch League, where the team pays attention to high-level pressing and rapid offensive and defensive conversion, which will be a more conducive platform for Wu Lei, who is good at inserting without the ball. At the same time, Dutch football pays attention to fast movement and full attack and full defense, and if Wu Lei goes there, he will also have the opportunity to contact a more creative and romantic style of football.
Wu Lei's goal in the Copa del Rey in Spain this season came from a snatch in front of goal. After his teammates penetrated the side, Wu Lei cut in from the weak side and scored in front of the goal.
This is a very common shot in the Dutch football system. The technical characteristics of Wu Lei are still more suitable for the Dutch League and the Belgian League.
Wu Lei's core competitiveness is to run a single knife without the ball. If he stays in the big five leagues, he can only be positioned as a substitute at most, by playing 20-30 minutes, using the physical advantage to continue to sprint in a short period of time to crush the opposing defender (such as this game against Celta left-back Garland).
03. Scored 12 goals in this World Preliminary Tournament: Wu Lei deserves the name of a brother of the national football team
This time in the World Preliminary Tournament, Wu Lei from the top 40 to the top 12, a total of 16 games scored 12 goals and contributed 3 assists, becoming the team's top scorer + assist king. At the same time, in the round of 12, the Asian region top scorer list tied for the first place. Although the Chinese men's football team has a number of naturalized forwards, it is Wu Lei who can attack the team at key moments.
Wu Lei scored a total of 4 goals in this World Preliminary Tournament, and these 4 goals brought 5 points to the team. You know, the national football team finally won a total of 6 points.
Especially in the face of Vietnam's meikai double + kill, Wu Lei defended the last dignity of the national football team. The goal that scored oman was a classic moment that was extremely memorable.
Although we will complain that Wu Lei missed a lot of scoring opportunities, including failing to score the second goal to seal the victory against Oman, and against Australia, he also missed a good chance to hit the half-empty goal.
However, as long as you have watched the national football game, you will understand the importance of Wu Lei to the team. He may be just a third-rate player in the Europa League, but he is a real brother in the national football team. In the second stage of the Top 40 competition, it was Wu Lei who scored consecutive goals for the Philippines and Syria, which allowed the national football team to successfully advance to the round of 12 in a critical situation.
Wu Lei personally has a very low profile in life, he once gave up the high salary and low-hanging fruit in The King, Champion and "Historical Position" in China, and chose to go to Europe to prove himself.
With 10 goals scored in 97 games in the Spanish league, which is not a good result. But Wu Lei scored in La Liga, Copa del Rey, Europa League preliminaries, Europa League main matches, and against Barca, filling the gap in Chinese football and creating new history.
Chinese football needs more people to go out, even if their final destination is the Bundesliga, or the bench of the middle and lower reaches of La Liga.
This is the result of the current situation of China's football strength, but it cannot erase the efforts and sweat of those who bravely go out.
Conclusion:
Chinese football may not be too much to respect, but Wu Lei should be the one who can win recognition. In the Asian Cup on our doorstep in 2023, I am afraid that Wu Lei will need to become the "fig leaf" of the team. The 30-year-old Wu Lei may no longer be young, but for the sake of Chinese football in the trough, it may take a few more years to carry the banner.