In April 2024, at the U23 Asian Cup, the Chinese Olympic team stopped in the group stage. The young team commanded by Cheng Yaodong only achieved a record of 1 win and 2 losses in 3 group games, missed the knockout stage, and also missed the ticket to the Paris Olympics.
After the game, Cheng Yaodong felt good about himself in an interview and affirmed the mental outlook of the players on the field. He believes that although they lost to Japan and South Korea, the process of the game made people see the hope of Chinese football. However, Cheng Yaodong also admitted that he is under a lot of pressure, his contract has expired, and he wants to take a good rest next.
From Cheng Yaodong's words, it is not difficult to find that he has left the post of coach of the Chinese Olympic team. As for his performance during his tenure, the authoritative football media has a different evaluation.
Improper employment and failure to improve ability
During Cheng Yaodong's four years as coach of the national Olympic team, he has convened more than 200 players to be selected for the national team. Under his leadership, these players not only failed to improve their abilities, but regressed to varying degrees.
The key reason for this is likely to lie in Cheng Yaodong's improper selection and employment of players. On the one hand, he may not have a precise grasp of which players have national team potential; On the other hand, even if there are potential players selected, they are not given full and reasonable opportunities to use and develop.
In the three group games of the U23 Asian Cup, Cheng Yaodong's employment arrangement was also criticized. For example, in the first game against Japan, the opponent was sent off in the first half, forming a situation in which the Chinese team had a numerical advantage. It should have taken advantage of the situation to exert more offensive pressure, but the Chinese team's tactical deployment was to shrink the defense and ultimately miss the opportunity.
Emphasis on meetings rather than actual combat
During Cheng Yaodong's tenure, he often held meetings to discuss tactics and strategies. The frequency of meetings has left many players and staff feeling exhausted.
"He has meetings every day, from morning to night. A player who played under Cheng said, "A lot of times, meetings end up with no substance, and a lot of time is wasted. "
Another staff member revealed: "Cheng Yaodong likes to discuss tactical theories, but he has very little time for actual combat drills on the field. We basically held back the energy of the meeting, but we couldn't put it into practice. "
For a long time, the players lost confidence in the tactics and strategies laid out by Cheng Yaodong, and felt that they were difficult to really implement in actual combat.
Ignoring adversarial training
In addition to too much theoretical discussion, Cheng Yaodong also has deficiencies in the arrangement of training courses. A number of players who have worked under him have reported that the weekday training sessions lack confrontation and cannot effectively train the players' physical confrontation ability.
"Cheng Yaodong's training sessions are quite single, and most of the time he spends his time doing some non-confrontational passing and ball control exercises. A former member of the National Olympic team said, "There are very few resistance pairings and competitions, which makes our physical fitness not effectively trained." "
There has been a long-term lack of confrontational training, and in the official matches of the U23 Asian Cup, the players of the Chinese Olympic team are often either knocked down or pushed away when they compete in FYZH. This undoubtedly increased the defensive pressure of the game and affected the efficiency of the offensive and defensive transitions.
Insufficient on-the-spot adjustment
Finally, Cheng Yaodong also showed deficiencies in on-the-spot command adjustment. In the group stage of the U23 Asian Cup, the Chinese team has encountered unfavorable situations in every game, but Cheng Yaodong failed to make adjustments in time and missed a good opportunity to turn the situation around.
For example, in the first game against Japan, although the Chinese team fell behind in the first half, the favorable situation of the opponent's loss created the conditions for the equalizer. However, Cheng Yaodong failed to adjust his tactical deployment in time at halftime and missed the best opportunity to equalize. In the end, the Chinese team was passively suppressed by the opponent and it was difficult to get rid of the passive situation.
In the second leg against South Korea, China actually performed well in the first 30 minutes, creating some scoring opportunities. But soon began to be disrupted by the high pressure of the South Korean team, and when he tried to deal with it, Cheng Yaodong did not make timely adjustments to relieve the pressure, and finally lost 0-2.
In general, the lack of on-the-spot command and adjustment has directly affected the ability of the Chinese Olympic team to control the scene at critical moments.
It can be seen that Cheng Yaodong, as the coach, has some deficiencies and problems in many aspects such as personnel deployment, training arrangements, and on-the-spot command. It was the cumulative impact of these problems that ultimately led to the Chinese Olympic team's exit from the group stage of the U23 Asian Cup.
They should be called upon to take greater responsibility
The poor performance of the U23 Asian Cup made Cheng Yaodong questioned and blamed in coaching. Some people believe that in his four years in office, although he gathered more than 200 players and played 52 warm-up games at home and abroad, he only achieved such mediocre results in the end, and the manpower and material resources invested obviously had little effect.
For the development of Chinese football, the U23 Asian youth team is a very important echelon, and cultivating and reserving excellent players is its main responsibility. But under the leadership of Cheng Yaodong, this responsibility seems to have not been truly fulfilled. On the contrary, he has caused many players to regress their abilities to varying degrees.
As a coach, if you can't even build the team's main lineup and the growth of the players can't be guaranteed, isn't it a waste of youth training resources? Cheng Yaodong, as the coach, should bear the main responsibility for this.
Of course, the development of Chinese football did not happen overnight. To fundamentally change the status quo, we need to start from many aspects such as the youth training system, professional leagues, and coach training. But Cheng Yaodong, as the coach of the national team, failed to do his part, but left many regrets. Therefore, it makes sense that he will leave class.
Next, the Chinese Football Association should learn this lesson, be more cautious when hiring the new coach of the National Olympic team, and choose candidates with real professionalism and modern football concepts. The new coach not only needs to have an in-depth understanding of the youth training concept, but also has excellent quality in terms of tactical level, on-the-spot command ability, management ability, etc.
Only by choosing the right coach, the training courses and game strategies of the national Olympic team can truly fit the development trend of modern football. Only then can the growth space of the players be maximized, and the overall strength of the whole team can be steadily improved.
In addition, while creating a good working environment for the coach, the Football Association should also strengthen supervision to avoid the coach from taking a detour in the employment of personnel and tactics. When necessary, we must dare to criticize and correct in a timely manner, and we must not rest on our laurels and be complacent.
Of course, it is not enough to just change the manager, and Chinese football also needs to fundamentally solve the various stubborn problems of the youth training system. For example, there are still many problems in the current youth training work, such as too much parental intervention, focusing on the score and ignoring the process, and only commercialization, which hinder the growth of excellent players.
In response to these problems, the Football Association and local Football Associations should formulate practical reform measures, improve the relevant systems, and create a good environment for the growth of outstanding players. At the same time, it is also necessary to increase investment in youth training, whether it is hardware facilities or teachers, it must be greatly improved.
In addition, the ecological environment of domestic professional leagues also needs to be further optimized to provide a better stage for the growth of outstanding youth players. Only when the professionalism and marketization level of the league are improved, can the youth players be infiltrated with the corresponding professionalism.
In general, Cheng Yaodong's defeat in the National Olympic team is certainly a sigh, but we should focus on the bigger picture of the development of Chinese football. Only by fundamentally solving the problems of the youth training system and professional environment can the overall strength of Chinese football be comprehensively improved.
Although there is still a long way to go, as long as we persevere and work hard for a long time, Chinese football will eventually come out of the haze and regain its glory. I wish the motherland's football career to flourish and shine on the world stage!