Even worse than the 2-3 loss: on the morning of May 19, Guoan FC announced that Zhang Yuning, Lin Liangming and Li Lei had been injured in the 12th round of the Chinese Super League against Changchun Yatai two days earlier.
According to the announcement, confirmed by the post-game inspection, Zhang Yuning left knee medial collateral ligament damage (partial tear) Ⅰ - Ⅱ °), need to review the assessment after 3 days, full recovery not less than 4-6 weeks; Lin Liangming for the left thigh biceps femoris muscle strain Ⅰ - Ⅱ °, full recovery not less than 2 weeks; Li Lei left foot talofibular anterior ligament tear Ш °, full recovery not less than 8 weeks.
That said, these three players will definitely miss the league's next 13th and 14th rounds; however, after the 14th round (May 26th), the upcoming National Football League (NFF) training session, and even on June 6th, Zhang Yuning and Li Lei essentially miss the 36th round of the World Qualifying Asian Championship at home with Thailand.
For the national team, for Ivan and for the Chinese fans, this is undoubtedly a disastrous "accident".
Originally, the suspensions of Wu Lei and Li Yuanyi had a great impact on the national football team. Especially the former, the impact on the national football offensive line is fatal. Some time ago, Ivan watched the league, one of the main purposes is for the national football team "looking for guns". During this period, Wei Shihao and Alan and other people's outstanding performance, and even Aixon in the past 12 round "fire line comeback", are considered to be "looking for guns" task is basically completed. Zhang Yuning, Wei Shihao, Alan, including Ackerson, can still hold up the flag of the national soccer team's offense, because Wu Lei is absent and Fernando is injured.
The sudden bad news, however, will likely leave Ivan completely stunned.
Theoretically, Lin Liangming could be back from his injury in two weeks. However, as the main substitute for the left winger (left forward) or striker of the national soccer team, even if he can't participate in the game, players such as Chen Pu and Barton can be replaced (Wei Shihao starts), and the impact is not great. As the main replacement at left back, Li Lei is in a largely similar situation. Li Shuai, Gao Junyi and even Jiang Zhipeng, Wu Xinghan, Wang Shenchao and Li Ang. Except for Liu Yang, they are all good "backups".
But without Zhang Yuning, it would be an "injury" to the entire offensive system of the national soccer team. Under the premise of the unpredictable status of Ackerson, the national soccer team will have a huge tactical "vacuum" without a high center forward or even a pivot point.
Worst case scenario, without Zhang Yuning's "pivot", it will probably be impossible or difficult to attack. The point is that Tan Long, who is big, strong and impactful, is not a center forward for Zhang Yuning, even if he is selected. To put it bluntly, once Zhang Yuning is out of the picture, Ivan's imagined attacking tactics will have to be radically altered in a reactive manner. In haste, the effectiveness of such changes could be greatly reduced.
This news is the worst news ushered in by the national football team after Wu Lei's absence, and it is also the fact that everyone does not want to face, but has to accept.
The battle between China and Thailand is so important that the national soccer team is currently in an awkward situation where they can't lose, or even draw, but only win. With so many starters on the offensive line, it's really unexpected and casts a heavy shadow on the prospects for the line.
The national team is now at a point where there can be no more dangerous attrition due to injury!
In order to achieve this, I specifically suggested an emergency suspension of the Super League, with the 13th (May 21 and 22) and 14th (May 25 and 26) rounds of the league postponed by two rounds. In other words, the 15th round, which was scheduled for May 14, was changed to the 13th round, with the other rounds pushed back. The main purpose was to avoid further injuries to possible international players. This is not a case of "the league making way for the national team", but a special situation that had to be taken in reality. Even if this is a last resort for the league to make way for the national team, I believe the outside world can understand.
To be honest, this is one way to minimize the loss of the national team due to injury attrition at this time. Otherwise the recurrence of similar situations would be further aggravated with more unpredictable consequences.
