At the beginning, how to deal with the new Shenhua who "survived the disaster"?

Special correspondent Gan Hui reports that the drums of the 2023 Chinese Super League are about to beat, and on the evening of April 16, Shenhua will welcome its first opponent of the new season, last season's FA Cup champion Taishan, at the new home stadium Shanghai Stadium.

"When I watched the schedule today, two words popped into my mind – thankful, glad everything started to get back on track." A member of the Shenhua team said, "Last year, the whole year of salary arrears, the stock reform has not made clear progress, and the whole person's mood is restless, especially in the second half of the year." I don't know what will happen to the club next, what to do when the contract expires. Fortunately, now step by step back on track, moreover, I can continue to play in Shenhua, and the real home and away games are back. ”

Five or six months ago, many people sweated over Shenhua's prospects. Indeed, the Chinese Super League clubs Hebei and Yangtze River, which were also fined league points for unpaid wages, were not allowed to enter, and only Shenhua "survived".

Shenhua, who "survived the disaster", will face a test in the opening stage of the league. From the perspective of the schedule, in the first 8 rounds, Shenhua will face Taishan (first round, home), harbor (4th round, away), Three Towns (7th round, home) and Guoan (8th round, home) and other 4 strong teams, of which the match against Harbor is the first leg of the new season "Shanghai derby".

Three Towns was the champion of the Chinese Super League last season, and this year introduced new signings such as Wei Shihao, Li Yang, Yan Dinghao, Wang Yi, Luo Jing, Chen Yuhao, etc., judging from the performance of the Super Cup, this team is more mature in terms of playing style and mentality; A few days ago, Guoan officially announced the arrival of 8 players De Sousa, Adami, Ngardewu, Li Lei, Yang Liyu, Fang Hao, Feng Boxuan, and Han Jiaqi, and after making a big increase, Guoan's goal for the new season is very clear, that is, to attack the championship with all his might; Taishan has achieved quite stable results in the past two years, and this year introduced naturalized players Fernando, as well as Tong Lei, Sun Guowen, Huang Zhengyu, etc., which are also one of the strong contenders for the league championship; Last season, Harbour's performance had its ups and downs, but with the return of the Chinese Super League's biggest foreign signing, Oscar, the Harbour line-up is luxurious.

In the opening stage, they encountered 4 strong teams in succession, and the difficulty of Shenhua can be imagined. Head coach Wu Jingui said, "We will try to put the team together in a short time as much as possible, and strive to play our own things in the game against strong teams, reflecting the spirit of Shenhua." ”

On the evening of the 8th, Wu Jingui specially watched the Super Cup match, "Taishan is recognized as the favorite to win the championship, although the Super Cup lost to Three Towns, but I think that their tactical play in the league has not been fully shown, Taishan's internal and external support strength is very strong, the first game to play such an old strong team, it must be very difficult." We admit that the opponent is better than us, but we will fight hard to give everyone a good game, and we will also try to play at a high level. ”

Last season, Shenhua ended their winning streak by drawing their opponents in the first leg against Three Towns, but in terms of the Super Cup, Three Towns is more mature than last year, "Three Towns currently has the top foreign players in the Chinese Super League, and their domestic players can be said to be a combination of two championship teams." Yan Dinghao, Wei Shihao, Xie Pengfei, etc. are all players of the former Chinese Super League champion team, they have the temperament of a champion, a good mentality, rich experience, this group of players are in the year of play, the team combination is very good, very powerful. Wu Jingui said.

For Shenhua, the team is in a race against time.

Although Shenhua assembled winter training as early as February 16, due to the influence of the national football team and the Asian Games team, Wu Xi, Zhu Chenjie, Jiang Shenglong, Wang Haijian and Wen Jiabao were almost absent from the entire winter training preparation period, and did not return to the team until April 1. In addition, Zhang Wei, a new signing who was only officially announced, also came to Shenhua after completing the training task of the Asian Games team.

Therefore, for Shenhua, the real running-in training began when this batch of national team members arrived at the team, that is, on April 1. After the Asian Games test match with Yatai, the team members generally did not react enough. Xu Haoyang, who was the most prominent in that game, said, "Our team is currently in the run-in period, so we have not been able to play to the fullest in the game. ”

After returning to Shanghai from Wenzhou, the Shenhua coaching staff did not arrange a holiday, and the next day they immediately put into preparation training at the base, "We are too short of time, the national brand players come back, to the first game of the league, we only have about 10 training sessions to grind the lineup." Wu Jingui said.

What is even more unfortunate is that Shenhua foreign aid has suffered injuries. Bassogo was ironclad in the previous phase of the league due to a torn Achilles tendon; Yan Xinli, a Chinese-American player with high hopes, accidentally broke his foot during training the day before the Asian Games test match and has been recovering since returning from Wenzhou. Wu Jingui said, "Yan Xinli has not trained with the team in the past few days, and whether he can train with the team next week depends on the situation." ”

Another new foreign signing, Amadou, is still in Ramadan, "physical fitness will have a certain impact, but he will slowly adjust himself." After that, he ate normally and believed that he could perform better in the game. Wu Jingui said.

On April 12, Shenhua will hold a departure ceremony for the new season. For the new season, the club has created a relatively relaxed environment for the team, and there are no too high requirements in terms of results. After all, Shenhua, who had just been "rescued", did not have the strength to compete with the Chinese Super League team. A number of team members said in chats with reporters that they felt that Shenhua's current positioning was probably at the mid-table level.

Of course, the club has long-term plans and plans, and the rejuvenation of the team is to prepare for the future. Wu Jingui said, "This year, our team is mainly younger. Now you can see that we don't have a lot of players over 30, but they are all very strong players. We will build a squad with old and new ones to make the young players grow up faster. "The young players are energetic, but relatively not too stable," in our lineup, Zhu Chenjie, Xu Haoyang, Jiang Shenglong, Liu Ruofan, etc., are all 99/00 players, Ma Zhen is also very young, and began to play a little more last year. Everyone knows that young players are often not too stable and may need to play a few games before they are psychologically stable. We know our situation very well, young is our strength, but we still need time to polish and temper. ”

With a long-term goal, you won't be frustrated by temporary setbacks. Shenhua's coaching staff will also give young players enough time and space to tolerate mistakes, "Young players will definitely make some mistakes, but I have a principle, that is, the spirit cannot be lost. In the new season, Wu Jingui put forward high requirements for the team members in terms of spirit, "I tell the team members, no matter how strong the opponent is, we must go all out and have the spirit of never giving up. ”

The new season of the Chinese Super League is about to open, with big changes in the lineup, short running-in time, many young players, and strong opponents at the beginning... In the eyes of the outside world, Shenhua faces a bunch of difficulties. In this regard, Wu Jingui said, "As a coach, we cannot use any difficulties or any reasons as an excuse, we must bravely face and bear bravely, let the team run in as soon as possible, and let the players build confidence and courage to face the league." We don't stress other reasons, the game is fair to everyone. Objectively speaking, we have some difficulties, but our coaching staff will bravely take on the responsibility and lead the team well. ”