Super League half-way summary: hot spots are frequently difficult to hide the decline in level
Since the full start of the new season on April 15, after nearly three months, this year's Chinese Super League schedule has quietly passed halfway. Shanghai Port, who were regarded as favourites to win the championship before the season, led the table with three points, which should be expected, but in the face of the growing voice of coach Javier being shouted "out of class", can the Port team finally have the last laugh? At least the second half of the season was still full of suspense. As in previous years, the competition for the relegation zone in the Chinese Super League is still fierce this year, and no one can guarantee that it will be relegated.
(1) Is the level of competition rising or falling?
It must be admitted that compared with the three seasons under the epidemic, after the full restoration of the home-and-away system of the Chinese Super League this year, the competition and competition of all parties have increased significantly. Although the schedule of the entire season is relatively intensive, especially because the tournament only starts in mid-April and needs to be completed in early November, there are many double matches a week or three matches in half a month, and more rounds cannot be scheduled for weekends or rest days, but the competition between the teams is still fierce, and the degree of confrontation is higher than the closed conference system in previous years.
However, this "improvement" is compared to the situation under the epidemic in the past two or three years, if you compare horizontally, not with the Qatar World Cup and European competitions, just compare with the AFC Champions League, you can clearly see that the level of the Chinese Super League is actually only down but not up! In the absence of world-class big-name foreign aid and excellent foreign coaches, the competition of the Chinese Super League cannot be compared with the neighboring Korea-Japan League in terms of confrontation and changing pace. In the past, the Chinese Super League relied on super foreign aid and could also compete with its neighbors South Korea and Japan, but now, after the foreign aid that was slightly better in the Chinese Super League and was not very famous, also jumped ship and left and switched to the South Korea-Japan Football Club, the newly introduced foreign aid of the Chinese Super League can hardly be compared with the South Korean and Japanese foreign aid. In this case, to say that "the overall level of the Chinese Super League has improved" is obviously stupid. Perhaps the AFC Champions League group stage in August, which will begin in August, can further confirm this.
In fact, it is precisely the decline in overall strength and the decline in the quality of overall foreign aid, so after the half of the Chinese Super League, the division of the entire group has become more and more serious. In addition to the Shanghai Port team, which is the "leader" in the championship team, the Shandong Taishan team, the Wuhan Three Towns team and the Shanghai Shenhua team, which are currently following the harbor team, will continue to catch up with the harbor team in the second half. What's more, the current leading advantage of the harbor team is not obvious, but the team's "short board" is also extremely obvious. The 10 teams outside, Henan, who ranked 11th on the standings, to Dalian, the last, were all intertwined and fought hard for relegation. With the current situation, it may be difficult to know which two teams will be relegated until the last minute. Of course, how do the clubs and teams involved in the anti-corruption and anti-gambling process deal with it? Does it affect the general trend of relegation? These issues are beyond the scope of this article. Halfway through, the battle may be more interesting around the two hot spots of title and relegation.
(2) Hot spots inside and outside the field cover up problems
Looking back at the first half of this year's Chinese Super League, when the technical and tactical level is not yet comparable to previous years, various dramatic results and off-field excitement dominated this year's Chinese Super League. For example, taking the 15th round of the league just past as an example, Shanghai Port FC hosted Dalian People, which was a "head-to-end battle", which was said to be a game without suspense, and Dalian Renren was not favored at all. But the final result was 1-1, and the always proud Javier had previously abandoned several foreign players such as Valdés, Pinker and Paulinho Jr. in a row, and used more Oscar and Caron, two foreign players plus local players to compete with the powers, because they have always been ahead of the points table, even if the Harbour fans are dissatisfied with the team's performance, especially the distrust of manager Javier, but because the results are acceptable, Javier is also supported by the club, so this also makes Javier "fearless". However, in the match against Dalian Renren, in the face of the delay in breaking the deadlock, Javier also had to send several foreign players in the final stage, hoping to win the opponent. But in the end, the 1-1 result made the sound of "class end" sound again.
This move is actually further evidence that several foreign players in the team are still higher than local players in terms of strength and level, but why abandon them before? It can only be said that it is the problem of Javier himself. This may only further exacerbate the crisis of confidence in Havel. Although currently leading the table, with Shandong Taishan gradually emerging from the predicament of the beginning of the season, although there is a gap of 9 points, there is no guarantee that there will be no surprises in the remaining 15 rounds. Of course, not to mention the Shanghai Shenhua team, which is only 3 points behind. After changing the new owner, as the "boss" in the same city, Shenhua obviously will not give up the opportunity. As for the Wuhan Three Towns team, which finally walked out of the home game without a win, and the Beijing Guoan team, which has a good momentum after changing coaches, I am afraid that it will not easily let go of the harbor team.
In addition, there are many final stages of lore and equality, and unexpected situations will occur in almost every round. In the general situation of anti-corruption and anti-gambling, in the face of the emergence of such scenes, few people associate these scenes with "match-fixing" and "gambling". This was perhaps the most comforting of the first half of the Chinese Super League.
Of course, there are many controversies about referees, although many fans of "victimized" teams still insist that "it should be thoroughly investigated" and "the black whistle forces have not been eliminated", but in fact, these penalty disputes are more about business ability, business standards, and of course, there are reasons for the difference in fans' understanding of football rules. Therefore, these disputes should actually start from the business, find ways to improve the professional ability and level of the referee, rather than simply stand on the moral high ground to create a hot spot of public opinion.
The most emotional thing outside the stadium is the enthusiastic fans everywhere. After the epidemic, many fans' viewing requirements and tastes have changed a lot at least from the perspective of the Chinese Super League in the first half of the year, of course, the better the team's league results, the more it can attract fans to watch the game, the most typical is probably Tianjin Jinmen Tigers, half against Nantong Zhiyun team, 48,577 attendance set a new high in recent years, which is obviously inseparable from the performance of Jinmen Tigers this season, and Jinmen Tigers are the only undefeated team so far. This came as a surprise to everyone. Perhaps it was with so many fans watching the game, Xie Weijun's header in the final moments was flat, allowing the undefeated golden body of Jinmen Tigers to continue.
As for the home atmosphere of the Chengdu Rongcheng team, there is no need to say more. And this has largely driven the home atmosphere of other Chinese Super League teams, and all clubs are trying to imitate and surpass, so that the atmosphere of the entire Chinese Super League can be said to have entered a new stage.
(3) Lao Wu is less than against foreign teachers
Frankly speaking, in the entire first half of the Chinese Super League, the most emotional is probably Wu Jingui's Shanghai Shenhua team and Yu Genwei's Tianjin Jinmen Tigers, these two teams ranked second and fourth respectively, I am afraid that most people expected. Before the season, the two teams were listed as mid-table clubs at best, and few would have felt that they could challenge for league title or AFC Champions League qualification. However, halfway through the fixture, Shenhua is currently only three points behind Harbour, and the Jinmen Tigers are the only team unbeaten so far. In particular, Shenhua is currently in the process of alternating old and new, and the strength and thickness of the Jinmen Tigers team are far from being comparable to the harbor team, Shandong Taishan team, Wuhan Three Towns team, etc., but the results and performance are amazing.
It has to be said that the two coaches still showed a considerable level throughout the process. Wu Jingui, who is in his sixties, is currently the coach with the most games in the Chinese Super League. I remember repeatedly emphasizing that as a coach, if you want to become a good coach, you can not simply learn by learning, but you need to independently command the game and accumulate a field to achieve a leap. The "1-0" drama directed by Wu Jingui this year illustrates this point well. So far, Wu Jingui has coached more than 250 matches independently, and has experienced and seen various game scenes, so whether it is the grasp of the overall game or the on-the-spot command, he has a different experience and feeling from "raw melon eggs". In the first half of this year, Wu Jingui was repeatedly praised for the Shenhua team in terms of personnel, troop formation and on-site scheduling, which is precisely the time for it to show its independent coaching ability and level. With the Shenhua team in the situation of alternating old and new and a large number of old players leaving, it is probably no coincidence that the Shenhua team can rank second after half the way.
And Yu Genwei has not coached many games independently, not yet a hundred, but as a football player who relied on his brain rather than his body to "eat" when he was a player, on the one hand, he was able to enter the role quickly after teaching, and on the other hand, he found a good foreign assistant, which helped him accelerate his growth. Therefore, in the face of unpaid wages at many other clubs, the Tigers may not be the kind of club that can give high salaries, but can pay salaries on time. This goes a long way towards ensuring that players can play with peace of mind. When the whole situation is not very good, "no arrears" becomes the biggest motivation, and with it, good grades are also good.
In contrast, more than half of the clubs in the Chinese Super League have hired foreign coaches this year, but most of them are "raw melon eggs", and they have almost no experience in leading teams in European professional clubs before taking over the Super League clubs. Therefore, many foreign teachers this year have been repeatedly shouted "out of class", especially coaches from Spain and Portugal. So, like Spanish coach Pedro led the Wuhan Three Towns team to win the championship last year, but this year he also unfortunately became a "class off". Even in the eyes of many local fans and journalists in Wuhan, this is an expected result, "and it should have been out of class a long time ago." This is actually the same situation as the current Shanghai Port team head coach Javier who is ranked first on the points table is called "out of class", Javier and Shanghai Port team's existing squad is completely mismatched, it is difficult to lead the port team to make a big difference.
To some extent, affected by the tide of anti-corruption and anti-gambling, each team can only temporarily hire foreign coaches, but many of these foreign coaches are probably just clubs "choosing foreign teachers for foreign teachers" and letting "raw melon eggs" practice their hands. This further lowers the technical and tactical content and standard of the Chinese Super League, and it will also become the most important winner in the second half to determine the different fate of each team. Just like Shandong Taishan's unbeaten team for eight consecutive rounds, from the 14th place at the beginning to the eighth place in the upper half, after three consecutive rounds of silence, finally ranked among the top six, and the point gap with the harbor team has narrowed to three games, South Korea's old coach Choi Kangxi may not only bring Shandong Taishan eight rounds of undefeated, but the morale and combat effectiveness of the entire team have been greatly improved and improved. It is precisely because of this that Shandong fans and the outside world are more optimistic about Shandong Taishan team to challenge Shanghai Port team.
Starting from Tuesday (11th), a new round of the 16th round of the Chinese Super League will begin, and the teams may not have much time to make a better summary, even the entire first half. However, after half the course, the whole trend has become clear, those who should be relegated fight for relegation, and those who should compete for the championship work hard for the championship. This will be the most important main line that dominates the entire second half.