Shenhua leads the super league in "stability", and there is still room for improvement in strong dialogue!

Special correspondent Gan Hui reports After 13 rounds of the Chinese Super League, Shanghai Shenhua leads the standings alone with 10 wins, 2 draws and 1 loss, accumulating 32 points. In the just-concluded 13th round, Chengdu Rongcheng, Beijing Guoan, Shanghai Port and Shandong Taishan all drawn, and Shenhua slightly widened the gap with the chasers. Chengdu Rongcheng is two points behind in second place, Beijing Guoan and Haigang have 26 and 24 points respectively, and Shandong Taishan has 21 points.

Although Shenhua currently has a two-point advantage in the standings, the league is not yet halfway through, and the teams can also make personnel adjustments through the summer window. Therefore, there is still a lot of uncertainty in the race for the league title. Shenhua still has a long way to go if she wants to have the last laugh.

If the team that has played the most consistently so far this season is selected, Shenhua should be the best team.

Against teams outside the BIG5 (Shenhua, Rongcheng, Guoan, Haigang and Taishan), Shenhua has won all of them so far without conceding a single point. The other BIG5 teams all lost points: Chengdu Rongcheng Ping, Yunnan Yukun, Qingdao West Coast, lost to Tianjin Jinmen Tigers; Although Beijing Guoan is unbeaten so far this season, they have dropped six points against Tianjin Jinmen Tigers, Wuhan Three Towns and Qingdao Manatee; Harbour Ping Qingdao West Coast, losing 2 points; Shandong Taishan drew with Henan and Qingdao Manatee, lost to Yunnan Yukun, and lost 8 points.

The Chinese Super League has a total of 30 rounds and lasts nine months, which is a long process, and in this process, the team aiming for the championship must get enough points to add weight to the championship. Last season, the direct dialogue between Shenhua and the eventual champions Harbour dominated with 1 win and 1 draw, but the draws against Tianjin Jinmen Tigers and Shenzhen Xinpeng City lost 4 points and directly affected the final ownership of the championship.

This season, the head coaches of many teams have praised Shenhua's strength after the game. After losing 0-4 to Shenhua, Qingdao West Coast head coach Shao Jiayi said: "I lost this game convincingly. In today's game, Shenhua is indeed the better team. At the same time, in my opinion, they are also the best team in the Super League this year. I admire the staff, the performance of the players on the pitch and the determination they show on the pitch. ”

After Dalian InBev lost 0-3 to Shenhua at the "Devil's Home" Dalian Barrauda Bay Football Stadium, head coach Li Guoxu said: "The score and process are the same, and the loss to Shenhua does let us see the gap between ourselves and the Chinese Super League team." Even the head coach of Beijing Guoan, a rival for the title, said: "The difference with Shenhua is due to the fact that they are better than us in many aspects. ”

Indeed, Shenhua's bench depth and fitness reserves have helped the team currently lead the Chinese Super League. In the last two rounds of the league, Slutsky has used up 5 substitutions, and the substitutes Xu Haoyang, Yang Zexiang, Xie Pengfei and Yang Haoyu are all national players, as well as magical veterans in the Han Super League, these players are enough to become the absolute main players in many teams.

Excellent physical fitness is also a major feature of Shenhua. Slutsky's style of play emphasizes fast-paced, high-intensity, and quick transitions. After he coached Shenhua, one of the major changes for Shenhua was that his physical fitness became better, and he was able to maintain the high intensity and fast pace of the game from the beginning to the end. This helped Shenhua to continue to exert force at the end of the match, thus turning the tide of the battle in an unfavorable situation. In the games with Henan and Yunnan Yukun, Shenhua won the final victory by relying on goals in the second half and even the last 15 minutes when the score was behind.

At the beginning of this season, Shenhua once injured a big player in one game. Amadou, Zhu Chenjie, Andre, Mineiro and Jiang Shenglong and other absolute main players have all entered the injury list. When the team experienced three consecutive games against Shandong Taishan, Chengdu Rongcheng and Meizhou Hakka, captains Wu Xi, Li Ke and Andre were injured to varying degrees.

Of all the wounded, Amadou was the most seriously injured and had been out for the longest time. The expected recovery period was three to four months, and he missed all 11 games in the league as a result.

Amadou played a pivotal role in Slutsky's 442 diamond midfield. It can even be said that the No. 6 position played by Amadou is the most critical link in Shenhua's tactical system, and it is the pivot of offensive and defensive transitions. At the same time, Amadou is also one of the team's best performers and most effective foreign players. Therefore, his long injury and suspension once made people worry about Shenhua.

Judging from the team's performance, under the construction of Slutsky, the Shenhua team has become more systematic, so the injury of individual core players has not had a painful impact on Shenhua. After Amadou's injury, Slutsky used Lee, who was brought in this season, to play in the No. 6 position. Due to the lack of consistent playing time last season, Li Ke's performance was not too good at first, but as the game deepened, he gradually integrated into Shenhua's system.

In fact, not only the experienced naturalized player Li Ke, but also the young player Liu Chengyu was able to top up in time when foreign aid Andre was absent due to injury, and even scored in 3 consecutive games to help the team win consecutive victories.

In the Shenhua created by Slutsky, every player is important, but every player is not irreplaceable.

Last season's Slutsky, a big label was stubbornness. For a while, he played almost with a lineup, even with the same substitutions.

However, in the league schedule that has just passed, Slutsky has clearly made some adjustments and changes. At the beginning of the league, Slutsky put more emphasis on attack, for example, the two full-backs were always pressed on the top, almost equivalent to wing-backs, but this put a lot of pressure on the always stable defensive end. The team conceded back-to-back games and it became very difficult to keep a clean sheet.

After the match against Zhejiang, Slutsky twice mentioned in public that the team needed a "balance between offense and defense". His ideas quickly became apparent on the pitch. In the last 7 games, Shenhua has kept 4 clean sheets against opponents, scoring 16 goals while conceding only 4 goals, and the defense is indeed a lot more solid. At present, Shenhua ranks first in the Chinese Super League in terms of goals scored and goal difference.

Slutsky's changes are also reflected in the use of personnel. In this round away against Dalian InBev, Jiang Shenglong did not go to Dalian due to injury. Before the game, it was widely believed that Eddie would replace him. Previously, when Zhu Chenjie and Jiang Shenglong were absent due to injury, Slutsky sent Eddie to the top, and his performance was also good. However, Slutsky unexpectedly used Kim Soon Kai this time, which is also the first appearance of the season, and his last official appearance was back in October 1 last year against Johor Bahru in Malaysia's AFC Champions League elite league.

It should be said that Shenhua still handed over a good answer sheet in the first 13 rounds. However, in the game that has ended, Shenhua also has regrets: Beijing Guoan and Shanghai Port, which drew with uneven personnel, lost to Chengdu Rongcheng away.

In the BIG5 head-to-head match, Shenhua's overall record is not as good as Chengdu Rongcheng and Beijing Guoan. Chengdu Rongcheng 3 wins, 1 draw and 10 points, Beijing Guoan 2 wins, 2 draws and 8 points, Shenhua is 1 win, 2 draws, 1 loss and 5 points, Haigang 2 draws, 2 losses and 2 points, Shandong Taishan 1 draw, 3 losses and 1 point. Obviously, while maintaining the stability of the team, Shenhua also needs to further improve the record of strong dialogue. In the second half of the league, Shenhua played 1 away and 3 home against the BIG5 team, and only played away against Beijing Guoan.

According to the information released by the Chinese Football Association, the summer transfer window of this season's Chinese Super League will open on June 23 and close on July 21. For each team, this is an opportunity to further optimize the lineup and improve the team's combat effectiveness. The effect of the personnel adjustment of the second rotation will also affect the final ranking of the team season to a certain extent.

Asked "what the manager thinks about the summer transfer window just around the corner", Slutsky said: "I definitely want the team to get more wins, but it's hard to sum up the team in a short period of time. I think the five foreign players in the team are of a good level at the moment, especially Amadou, who is still in the recovery stage, and I hope he can come back to the team training as soon as possible. In terms of domestic reinforcements, I think the quality of our homegrown players is very good and I think it's good to keep the squad stable. Of course, no one knows what will happen in the future. "In the second transfer period last season, Shenhua did not adjust foreign players, but used the summer window to bring in Chen Jinyi and Fernando.