After the national football team successfully advanced to the round of 12 after the victory over Syria, the upcoming is the lottery group ceremony, and the final group results will be produced in early July. I am about to face a higher level of strong hands, I believe that the national football team is also ready. As the best chance to impact the World Cup in 20 years, fans naturally hope that the national football team will finally achieve its wishes.
It is foreseeable that in the round of 12, due to the general strength of the opponent, the backfield position of the national football team will be under greater pressure. In addition to the most stressful centre-back positions, the left and right full-backs also have very heavy defensive tasks. However, unlike the center-back, which is mainly defensive, the full-back still has some requirements for offensive ability. At present, the left-back position of the national football team is occupied by Wang Shenchao, who has experienced defensive ability as the captain of SIPG. However, in recent games, Wang Shenchao has basically focused on defense, and correspondingly, he has reduced his assists. If it comes to offensive ability, there is one person who is more suitable for the left-back position, but he has been alienated from the team for two years due to injury, and this player is Li Xuepeng.
At his peak, Li Xuepeng was the main player of Guangzhou Evergrande and the national team, and as a left-back, he was fast and explosive. Li Xuepeng's speed talent can be called the top in Asia, and there are often scenes of him eating opponents raw with speed in the game, and Li Xuepeng's one-foot cross is sometimes quite threatening.
Li Xuepeng comes from a football family, and his father is Li Xicai, the coach of Shide women's football, so Li Xuepeng naturally embarked on the road of football since childhood. Since 2008, 20-year-old Li Xuepeng has occupied a major position in Dalian Shide. At first, Li Xuepeng played in the full-back position, and in the game against Guoan that year, he scored 2 goals and delivered 1 assist.
Later, because of the needs of the team, Li Xuepeng changed to play left-back, and in the following seasons, Li Xuepeng was the main full-back of the Shide team. After the dissolution of Shide, Li Xuepeng joined Dalian Albin, and li Xuepeng was also the team's undisputed main left-back player for several seasons in Albin. Later, because of his poor financial situation, Li Xuepeng was sold to Guangzhou Evergrande at a low price. At that time, Evergrande signed Li Xuepeng for a transfer fee of more than 20 million yuan, and from the back, this transfer is definitely worth it.
After arriving at Evergrande, Li Xuepeng got a broader space for development and a competitive stage, and he also repaid Evergrande with many stable performances. In Evergrande, Li Xuepeng gradually became the main force of the team and played many important matches with the team. Although Li Xuepeng has played for the national team as early as 2010, if he really occupies the main position in the national team, it is after coming to Evergrande. After joining Evergrande, Li Xuepeng's frequency of entering the national team has become higher and higher, and he played the whole game for 6 times in the 2018 World Preliminary Round, which is impressive. It was in that year that Li Xuepeng sat firmly in the main position of the national football left-back.
However, the good times were not long, and in the 2019 season, Li Xuepeng began to suffer injuries and the playing time was reduced, and once reached a very serious level, and sometimes Li Xuepeng had to rely on the pre-game closure to play. When playing the closure, Li Xuepeng had to endure the pain of drilling the heart. In the entire 2020 season, Li Xuepeng only played 3 games, with a total of only more than 30 minutes. After the start of the 2021 season, Li Xuepeng did not get even a second of playing time.
Now it seems that not to mention when Li Xuepeng will return to his peak state, even playing a game has become a luxury. The 32-year-old Li Xuepeng is not very old, for Chinese players is a prime age, at such a good age, Li Xuepeng can only recuperate outside the arena, which is really a bit regrettable.
From Li Xuepeng's experience, we can see that the biggest enemy of professional players is injury. If Li Xuepeng can maintain his healthy form, he will definitely be the starting left-back of the national football team now, and there is no controversy. Many fans will fantasize about the healthy Scene of Li Xuepeng and Zhang Linpeng flying together after the left and right positions, and the strength of the national football team will be further enhanced, but now it seems that all this can only be a beautiful idea.
So when do you think Li Xuepeng will be able to return to the game?