Many new stars have lost their main positions after returning to the club, is the long-term training of the national brand really effective?
Reporter Lu Mi reported that the 2023 season of the Chinese Super League has passed halfway, and judging from the matches that have been played, the proportion of young players playing and even the performance can be said to be few highlights. Rising stars who have performed well in previous seasons, such as Abrahan, Hu Hetao, Mutalif, Liu Zhurun, etc., have rarely played in the league after a long period of national training this season, and even after returning to the league in June, they either did not have the opportunity to play, or their performances were difficult to meet people's expectations.
Although Olympic coach Cheng Yaodong said: "Croatia's training camp should be said to be worth the money, and the team's confidence and players' ability have been greatly improved. However, combined with the team's record of losing both matches with the Uzbekistan Olympic team in June and the return of players to the club, it remains to be evaluated how effective the long-term training of the national youth team will be in the upcoming competition.
In the past three years, due to the epidemic, there has been almost no intensive training and overseas training of national brands, and after the full liberalization began this year, the training and training of national brands at all levels have also begun.
In order to prepare for the 2024 Paris Olympic Qualifiers and U23 Asian Cup, as well as the preparations for the Asian Games to be held in Hangzhou this year, the National Olympic Team and the Asian Games team started training in February this year. The Asian Games team runs for 10 days from February 4 to February 14; The National Olympic Games lasted for 20 days from February 7 to February 27.
The training of the two teams has drawn many players from the Chinese Super League and China League One teams, of which Shanghai Shenhua has contributed 12 young players to the two teams, and the Asian Games team has also gathered league main players such as Wang Haijian, Zhu Chenjie and Jiang Shenglong. The players drawn by the Olympic team during this period are more players who have just been cultivated by the club and have no opportunities in the league.
However, in March, the U20 Men's Asian Cup ended, and the National Olympic Games took the lead in starting the second training camp. The period was extended from March 10 to June 21, which lasted 3 months and 11 days, and the personnel of the training also underwent some changes. In addition to some players selected for the first phase of the National Olympic Games continuing to participate in the training, the team also added some players from the first phase of the Asian Games training, such as Tao Qianglong, Liu Zhurun, Liang Shaowen, etc., and also included several players who participated in the U20 Men's Asian Cup such as Hu Hetao and Mu Talifu. However, a few players, such as Tao Qianglong and Huang Zihao, did not go for some reasons.
During the training camp in Croatia, the Olympic team had a lot of warm-up matches and confrontation matches, and after returning home in early June, in the middle of June, they played two friendly matches with the Uzbekistan Olympic team, which ended in two defeats. With the end of these two friendly matches, the training camp officially ended, and all the players were able to return to the club to rest and return to the league.
With the end of the interlution, the Chinese Super League also continued, and after the return of the players who participated in the training camp of the National Olympic Games, two situations appeared. The first is that the original player was not the main player or the main substitute in the club, and basically maintained the previous state after returning to the team. The second is that players who originally had many league opportunities at the club may not be in good shape or lose the most basic opportunities to play after returning from training. In the second case, it is more obvious.
For example, Liu Zhurun and Abra Khan of Shanghai Port have previously shone in the league. In the 2022 and 2021 seasons, Liu Zhurun has made at least 10 appearances per season as a striker, including six starts in two seasons, and has scored goals. As a midfielder, Abra Khan has made 17 appearances, 6 starts, scored goals in the 2021 season, and in the 2022 season, he missed most of the games due to injury, and by this season he has recovered from injury, but after participating in all the training of the National Olympic Games, he has not played any games as of the 16th round, and even the club squad cannot be entered, and Liu Zhurun did not get a chance to perform until last night's game against Shenzu.
This situation is typical, as an important reserve of young players in the team's first team, especially when the first team changes the head coach in the new season, missing the important inspection period of winter training, it is basically difficult to squeeze into the framework of the main team or substitutes in the medium term, and it is reasonable not to be trusted.
In addition, the two twin stars in the Chengdu Rongcheng team, Jutan Lifu and Hu Hetao, were born last season, and their skills and courage are among the best among players of the same age, so they are also favored by several levels of national brands, participated in international competitions, and also entered the long-term inspection sequence of the National Olympic Games. It is worth mentioning that in the process of the two training overseas with the National Olympic Games, Chengdu Rongcheng actually encountered a bottleneck in the employment of personnel, and the injuries of Jin Aoyou and Luo Muluo made the team stretched thin in the employment of the wing. The "Gemini" who returned from training seems to be at the right time, but judging from the substitute appearances in the last two games, the two have been in worrying form, and even came off the bench and were replaced, and their self-confidence has also been affected.
Xu Zhengyuan, as a coach, is very aware of the physical condition of the two after their return, and compared with the outstanding performance of the two in the league last year, it is an indisputable fact that the current state has declined. The main reason is that they missed the physical reserves and technical and tactical drills synchronized with the first team during winter training, and there was no training that matched the rhythm of the league. On the contrary, Tao Qianglong, who did not train with the national Olympic team, made 8 appearances in the league, with 3 goals and 1 assist. He also provided an assist in the Asian Games match against South Korea's Under-24s.
Long-term training may be a good opportunity for players who usually have no opportunities in the league, but for players who have opportunities and perform well in the league, there is more time to delay, and it is impossible to ensure their stable state at important moments. This is a two-sided effect of long-term training, and players in different situations are affected differently. The long-term training of the National Olympic Games is first of all to prepare for the competition, especially the Olympic qualifier group stage to be held in September, as for whether the long-term training and even sacrificing some players' appearances in the league can achieve the desired results, the September qualifiers can be confirmed.