Summary of the 2023 Chinese Super League: The level of foreign aid has declined, the referee has ruined the game time, and the confrontation is stronger than that of Japan and South Korea

The 2023 Chinese Super League season is a small milestone, and after several closed seasons, it is finally back to normal. Full resumption of home and away games, fans back on the pitch and more. However, the overall level of the league is showing a downward trend compared to the past, especially with the end of Jinyuan football, the loss of excellent foreign aid, the decline in the level of foreign aid is very obvious, because of the technical disadvantage, the physical confrontation has been strengthened, and in general, the game is fierce but the level is reduced. Let's take a look at the stats for the entire season.

First of all, let's take a look at the data of foreign aid, according to domestic media, a total of 89 people participated in the Chinese Super League this season, with an average of 7.4 appearances per game, and in recent years, the data of 7.4 times in the Chinese Super League is very high. The reason is that in the past few years, it has been difficult for foreign players to return to the team, many of them have been stranded in Brazil or Europe, or some foreign players do not want to come back to participate in the closed league at all, so few teams will have full foreign aid. Now that the objective problems in all aspects have been lifted, the number of foreign aid participating in each team has rebounded.

Although the number of foreign players on the field has increased, the number of foreign goals scored has decreased. The average number of goals per game for foreign players this season is 1.56, and in the 2019 season it was close to 2.08 goals, and then it fell into a state of continuous decline, and then it came to 1.97 goals, and last year it was only 1.2 goals, of course, the number of foreign players last year was also the lowest, and now it is 1.56 goals. This data fully shows that the goal-scoring ability of foreign aid is weakening, and it is closely related to the decrease in the level of foreign aid. However, the level of foreign aid has decreased a lot, but the Chinese Super League clubs still rely on foreign aid, and both offense and defense have to rely on foreign aid.

After talking about foreign aid, let's take a look at the overall statistics. Fans can clearly feel the increase in the number of confrontations this season, and the data does reflect it, with a total of 240 Super League matches in 30 rounds, with an average of 101.64 confrontations per game, which is more than the average number of confrontations per game in the past three seasons, and even more than Japan and South Korea. This kind of competition in pursuit of physical confrontation cannot be said to be bad or good, and the increase in physical confrontation will inevitably show that the data on foot skills and getting rid of it are backward. The ball is always in contention, which reduces the flow and spectacle of the game.

In addition, this season, the referees have been in the limelight, and various controversial decisions have been frequent, resulting in the rhythm of the game being disrupted, the consistency is not as good as before, and the net time of the game has dropped across the board. The net playing time for a game this season is just 50 minutes and 51 seconds, and the minimum time in the first four seasons is 52 minutes. This is a very unsatisfactory statistic, the referee has to bear some responsibility, and the unfair decision makes both sides spend a lot of time looking for the referee's theory and the conflict between the two sides. Overall, although the 2023 season is a milestone and a season of full recovery, all the statistics are showing a downward trend.