Naturally, it must be up to Wu Lei. Being a veteran who can maintain this kind of form is good enough, but the embarrassment of having no one to follow is just heartbreaking.
Similar to Wang Frost's heartfelt words after the World Cup loss, Wu Lei expressed a lot of his feelings before and after the award ceremony. He said, very "impolitely", that the national soccer team is no longer second-rate in Asia. Although it is necessary to enter the next round of matches (the 18th round of the preliminaries), but the enemy may not have enough confidence.
This assessment is not inferiority complex, nor is it unobjective. Just look at the performance of the national soccer team in the Asian Cup, it's not on the same level as the UAE winning the title, and there's no 100% chance of winning against opponents like Tajikistan and Lebanon, which no one really expects. In the past, we were only afraid of Japan and South Korea, but now, everyone is.
Of course, Wu Lei also gave great encouragement to his teammates and fans. He said he would do his best to bring confidence. Show your good stuff to the team and everyone in the game. However, while this sounds solid, it's actually extremely difficult. Take Wally himself for example. Mistakes in the preseason have basically become a "given" in his play, as have mistakes in the local games. Wu Lei has his own problems, but it's more about the circumstances.
International players don't have more opportunities to experience the atmosphere of local Chinese tournaments. If they are slow and don't talk about confrontation, it leads to a poor grasp of offense and defense transition. When you come to international matches, no one is used to you. On a speed, a body, a confrontation, losing the ball is inevitable. Also the basics are not solid and twice as difficult.
As a new coach, Ivankovic is indeed a fresh start. But how can these problems be solved by a few coaches and a few days and months? If it's just a change of scenery, then the problems are still problems.
