The weakest Super League ends with a lack of super strong teams, and the differentiation is becoming more and more obvious - summary of the 2023 season of the Chinese Super League

In the last round of the Chinese Super League on November 4 in the most eye-catching two games, Dalian team staged a god script, 2-3 at home to the champion Shanghai Port, although Nantong Zhiyun also lost 1-2 at home to Tianjin Jinmen Tigers, but in the end Dalian people still could not escape the doom of relegation, Nantong was lucky to escape. At this point, the curtain of the 2023 Chinese Super League season has officially come to an end. Although the Chinese men's national football team will soon re-enter people's attention, there may be no less talk about the Chinese Super League around the past season.

(1) The least competitive season

After Harbour won the Chinese Super League championship one round ahead of schedule, the reporter once raised a question of "gold content" and said that the gold content of the Harbour team's second championship in five years is not high. Now that the entire season is over, if the 2023 season is put into the process of the historical development of the entire Chinese Super League, this point of view can be corroborated.

First of all, the Chinese Super League champions have scored a total of 63 points in 30 games, which is the lowest score in history since Guangzhou won the Chinese Super League title for the second time in 2012 with 58 points, and only the same number of championship points that Shandong Taishan won in 2010 before the start of the "Golden Yuan Era". But in 2010, Tarzan had lost just three games for the year, while Harbour had lost five games in the past season.

Of course, due to the impact of the epidemic, such as the 2020 season, because of the elimination system to determine the rankings, and the 2021 season, because only 22 rounds were played, not all the participating teams have ever met, which is still a bit unscientific, so these two seasons need to be excluded. However, the Tarzans also scored 51 points in 22 rounds of the 2021 season, averaging 2.32 points per game, surpassing the 2.10 points per game that the Harbor team averaged this season. In the 2022 season, with 18 teams participating, Wuhan Three Towns scored 78 points in 34 rounds, with an average of 2.29 points per game, which is also stronger than the average points per game of Harbor S.

Harbour, on the other hand, won just 19 games in the year, far less than the 21 they won in their first Super League win in 2018 and the same as the 19 in 2016 when Guangzhou won the title. It was also the fewest wins in a single season since the 2012 champions Guangzhou won 17 games in a year. Of course, in the 2012 season, the Guangzhou team changed coaches in the middle of the season, replacing Li Zhangzhu by Lippi, and Lippi needed to be readjusted in all aspects after taking office, so there were some twists and turns. The following season, Guangzhou won the championship with a record 24 wins and 77 points (16 teams). Going back then, the 2010 champions, Tarzan, won just 18 games a year. As a result, Harbour have won the fewest games this year than the champions of the Chinese Super League in the past 11 seasons.

Super League championship points after 2010

Year Champion points

2023 Shanghai Port 63 points (30 rounds)

2022 Wuhan Three Towns 78 points (34 rounds)

2021 Shandong Taishan 51 points (22 rounds)

2020 Jiangsu Suning Knockout Format

2019 Guangzhou 72 points (30 rounds)

2018 Shanghai Port 68 points (30 rounds) 

2017 Guangzhou 64 points (30 rounds)

2016 Guangzhou 64 points (30 rounds)

2015 Guangzhou 67 points (30 rounds) 

2014 Guangzhou 70 points (30 rounds)

2013 Guangzhou 77 points (30 rounds)

2012 Guangzhou 58 points (30 rounds)

2011 Guangzhou 68 points (30 rounds)

2010 Shandong Taishan 63 points (30 rounds)

Secondly, from the perspective of relegation, aside from the impact of the epidemic in the three seasons from 2020 to 2022, the competition system of the entire league, including the competition methods of home and away and centralized competition system, has changed greatly in the relegation and relegation situation of the league. Under normal circumstances, the 22 points obtained by Nantong Zhiyun, which was finally relegated, is impossible to relegate in previous seasons, and even Qingdao Manatee, which has 28 points and finally ranks 13th, is difficult to relegate. Manatee's 28 points are just 25 points higher than 25 points for Tianjin Tianhai, who finished 14th in the 2019 season, and was subsequently disqualified due to access issues. The 28 points are only better than Chengdu Sheffield United, who were relegated in 15th place in the 2011 season, with 27 points.

In the past under normal circumstances, the Chinese Super League needed to accumulate at least 30 points if you wanted to be relegated, and "30 points" was also considered the minimum score for relegation (under the scale of 16 teams), and like in 2016, Shijiazhuang Yongchang got 30 points and was still relegated; Similarly, in the 2010 season, Qingdao Zhongneng, the predecessor of Qingdao Manatee, scored 30 points, and Chongqing Lifan and Changsha Jinde behind him accumulated 30 points, but they were barely relegated because of the superiority of the relationship between each other.

More than that, Shenzhen only scored 12 points in the whole season, which is even lower than the 14 points obtained by Beijing Ren, who finished at the bottom of the 2019 season, setting a disgraceful record of the fewest points won by a team of 16 teams in a single season in the 20 years of the Chinese Super League.

Super League relegation and relegation points after 2010

Season 14th place relegation/points Relegation team/points

In 2023, Nantong Zhiyun 22 points, Dalian 20 points, Shenzhen team 12 points

In 2022, Shenzhen team scored 30 points, Guangzhou City scored 23 points, and Wuhan Yangtze River scored 19 points

                Guangzhou 17 points Hebei -3 points

2021 Knockout format

2020 Knockout format

In 2019, Tianjin Tianhai scored 25 points, Shenzhen team scored 21 points, and Beijing Renhe scored 14 points

In 2018, Tianjin TEDA 32 points, Changchun Yatai 32 points, Guizhou Hengfeng 24 points

In 2017, Henan Jianye scored 30 points, Yanbian Fude scored 22 points, and Liaoning Hongyun scored 18 points

In 2016, Shandong Taishan 34 points, Hangzhou Greentown 32 points, Shijiazhuang Yongchang 30 points

In 2015, Guangzhou R&F scored 31 points, Kweichow Moutai scored 29 points, and Shanghai Shenxin scored 17 points

In 2014, Henan Jianye scored 30 points, Dalian Albin scored 29 points, and Harbin Yiteng scored 21 points

In 2013, Changchun Yatai 32 points, Qingdao Zhongneng 31 points, Wuhan Zall 16 points

In 2012, Dalian Shide 34 points, Shanghai Shenxin 30 points, Henan Jianye 26 points

In 2011, Nanchang Hengyuan 29 points, Chengdu Sheffield United 27 points, Shenzhen team 23 points

In 2010, Qingdao Zhongneng 30 points, Chongqing Lifan 30 points, Changsha Jinde 30 points

Therefore, we have been saying in the past season that "the competitiveness of the Super League is too poor" and "the level is too low", etc., I am afraid it is easy to understand, and the longitudinal comparison of the data at the top of the standings and the bottom of the table has fully supported this. I am afraid that this situation cannot simply be attributed to the end of the "Jin Yuan Era". The "Golden Yuan Era" has indeed introduced a large number of world-class foreign aid and good foreign coaches, but the core is probably the decline of Chinese local players in the past 10 years. In 2015, after the Brazilian coach Scolari led the Guangzhou team to win the AFC Champions League for the last time, he repeatedly emphasized that the key to the Guangzhou team being able to regain the championship was not to have foreign players like Paulinho, but to have a group of high-quality Chinese local players. Nowadays, Chinese local players can no longer find high-quality players, so it is inevitable that the competitiveness of the entire Chinese Super League will decline. Before the start of "Jinyuan Football", the competitiveness of the Chinese Super League may not be inferior to that of today's Chinese Super League, because the quality of China's local players is relatively better, otherwise why is there a saying of "Wang Xiaoer's New Year"? Therefore, if the Chinese Super League wants to improve its competitiveness, I am afraid that the first thing that needs to be solved is not to spend money on the introduction of big-name foreign aid, but to improve the quality and standard of Chinese local players. But what "commercial football" pursues is short-term effects, and what the boss needs after spending money is a rapid improvement in performance, rather than cultivating people. This is the most prominent contradiction after the marketization of Chinese football.

(2) There is no super strong team, and the differentiation is more obvious

Judging from the reality of the past two or three years, the biggest difference between the "post-Jinyuan era" and the "Jinyuan era" of the Chinese Super League is probably that there is no "super team". The so-called "super team" is that there is a clear gap between the league points of the top four teams in the Chinese Super League and the points outside the top four. Taking the 2019 season, the last season before the epidemic, as an example, the Guangzhou team that won the championship has 72 points, Beijing Guoan is close with 70 points, and the third place Shanghai Port has 66 points, these three bite each other very tightly, but the fourth place Jiangsu team only has 53 points, 13 points behind the third place. In the previous 2018 season, there was a difference of 10 points between Shandong Taishan, who finished third, and Guangzhou, which won the championship, and a full 20 points between Jiangsu, who finished fifth, and Guangzhou.

In the past 2023 season, Harbour led Shandong Taishan by 17 points at most, but in the end they only won the title by 5 points. If it weren't for the series of events that happened at the beginning of the season, no one knows what the end would have been. In fact, before the season, the champion of the 2022 season, Wuhan Three Towns, the runner-up Shandong Taishan, and the third-place Shanghai Port were considered the three favorites for the 2023 season. Wuhan Three Towns is almost a "copy" of Guangzhou Evergrande, and it is also the strongest foreign aid lineup in the post-Jinyuan era, but because of their respective changes at the beginning of the season, not to mention that Three Towns is still a second-year student, making the harbor family dominant, but it is also a matter of things and people, far from being able to compare with the past.

To some extent, it is precisely because of the absence of super teams that the first group in the Chinese Super League has made great strides to "shrink", resulting in a sharp decline in the competitiveness of the entire Chinese league. In the past season, it is worth noting that there is a clear "gap" between the top eight and the bottom eight in the standings, that is, the 8th place Tianjin Jinmen Tigers end up with 48 points, while the 9th place Changchun Yatai only has 39 points, a full 9 points behind each other. The points gap between the top eight is not large, and the victory or defeat of a game will affect the league standings; The same is true between the bottom eight.

Therefore, the previous Chinese Super League was generally divided into three groups, namely the "Champions League", "AFC Champions League Group", and "Relegation Group", but now the Chinese Super League, which has fully returned to normal, has directly evolved into the "first group" and "relegation legion" after there is no "super strong team". In the first group, judging from the current situation, whether it is Harbour or Taishan, when facing the teams ranked third to eighth in the standings in the future, they may not have the same big advantage as before, and the competition between them will be more fierce.

From this point of view, in order to comprehensively enhance the competitiveness of the Chinese Super League, I am afraid that the first thing is to improve the level of the "leader", because the "leading" team has the task of representing the Chinese Super League to compete in the Asian Elite League and the AFC Champions League, and needs to compete with the Korean, Japanese and Australian football clubs. In the past, the reason why the Chinese Super League was able to rank first in Asia in the "Technical Points Ranking of Member Associations under the AFC" was precisely because the "leading team" had strong competitiveness. The national team, which is composed mainly of players from the "leading team", has a certain competitiveness.

Nowadays, in the first group of the Chinese Super League, such as Zhejiang team, Chengdu Rongcheng, Wuhan Three Towns, etc., are all "second-year students", including Tianjin Jinmen Tigers, in fact, to some extent, they can only be regarded as "second-year students", they still need enough time to become a real strong team, after all, the so-called "heritage" is accumulated year after year, day after day, rather than relying on "money" to quickly pile up.

In contrast, clubs in the "relegation legion" need to be relatively stable. Over the past season, these teams have been plagued by off-the-field factors from time to time, resulting in a constant period of ups and downs. And the most negative news around the club's salary arrears and dissolution basically comes from these relegation teams. It is precisely the instability of these clubs that has led to the lack of solid foundation of the entire Chinese Super League.

So, from this point of view, how can the Chinese Super League improve its competitiveness and standards? How to make the Chinese Super League more deeply rooted in the hearts of the people and win back the hearts of the people? Different clubs face different situations and situations. But in any case, only stability can develop, and if the Chinese Super League cannot be stabilized, there is no way to talk about development. In the past season, the Chinese Super League has been spent in "instability". Therefore, as soon as possible, the Chinese Super League, including the Chinese League A and the Chinese League B, can be stabilized, which is probably the first issue and principle that football managers need to consider.