This season, under the leadership of new coach Muscat, Shanghai Port has played a new atmosphere that has not been seen in previous seasons. The team as a whole seems to be more united and stable, and the technical and tactical style of play is more reasonable and flexible. After the first 6 rounds, they won 4 and drew 2, undefeated, and currently have 14 points, 5 points behind the leader Shanghai Shenhua in the case of 1 round less, ranking third, and is undoubtedly a big favorite for the Super League championship this season.
Muscat pays great attention to the balance between attack and defence, and in order to improve the control of the team's midfield, he asked Shanghai Port Club to buy two new foreign players in one go. All of them are new Brazilian signings, 30-year-old Leao Chitadini and 28-year-old Mateus Rusa. Now, under Muscat Muscat, these two Brazilian midfielders are gradually forming the standard configuration of the Shanghai Port midfield duo.
However, as these two new Brazilian midfielders gradually sat in the main position of Shanghai Port's midfield, several local players who played as midfielders gradually became awkward. For example, the veteran Cai Huikang and Yang Shiyuan have gradually been snubbed by the new coach Muscat to varying degrees.
However, the most depressed person should be Xu Xin, the iron waist of the national football team. Although Cai Huikang was snubbed, after all, he is older, and it is understandable that his playing time has decreased; Yang Shiyuan has been the team's long-term chicken ribs, so it is normal to become a chicken rib again. Only Xu Xin will have mixed feelings in his heart, not a taste, after all, in the first two seasons, he was still an indispensable and absolute main force of the team.
The data shows that in the first 6 rounds of the new season, although Xu Xin got 5 appearances, the number of starts was only a pitiful 3. It can be seen that with the addition of two new Brazilian defenders, Xu Xin has gradually become a marginal man under the new coach Muscat.
Xu Xin not only has excellent physical fitness, but also has a very outstanding ability to intercept and steal, and at his peak, that is, during his tenure in Guangzhou Evergrande, Xu Xin can prevent Hulk, the former ace of Shanghai Port, from doubting life. Because of his outstanding performance, Xu Xin was once hailed by Chinese fans as the successor of Evergrande captain Zheng Zhi. Due to his outstanding performance in the Chinese Super League, Xu Xin has also been selected for the Chinese national team many times before, and during the period when Jankovic was in charge of the national football team, Xu Xin also once became the absolute main force in the midfield and backfield, which was deeply respected. Who would have thought that just after a winter window, Zheng Zhi's successor had a reversal of fate at Shanghai Port, from the absolute main force of the past to the fringe of the team. Thinking about the former local famous iron waist, it has gradually become the chicken rib of the team, which can't help but make people sigh.