The most intuitive impression of the 2023 Chinese Super League is that the games are intense, players run more aggressively, confrontations are more intense, and except for Shenzhen and other individual teams, the gap between the other teams is very small, usually a draw or a goal, and most of the matches suspense lasts until the last moment of the game. In the penultimate round of the league, the dust settles on the ownership of the championship, and in the final round of the league, there is suspense over the Champions League quota, relegated teams and top scorers.
It must be said that at the beginning of the season, expectations were not optimistic for the league, but in the middle and end of the season, the fans were very enthusiastic, the matches were very close, and the whole thing went very well, exceeding the initial expectations of the majority of the fans.
Of course, the league still needs to further improve its technical and tactical content, further improve the pace of play, further improve the net playing time, and after strengthening the confrontation, acceleration is the next task, and finally the final improvement of technical and tactical content. The Chinese Football Association (CFA), the preparatory team of the CFA and the teams must also strengthen the management of the substitutes' bench and the management of discipline on the field.
The 2023 season saw a significant change in the level of confrontation: the average number of confrontations in the 240 matches of the Chinese Super League reached 101.64, much higher than the previous three seasons, which were 98.32, 90.13 and 93.39, respectively. The side-by-side comparison of the confrontation data is slightly higher than that of the Japanese J-League (100.68 times) and the Korean K-League (101.60 times).
In other words, at the level of confrontation, the Chinese Super League is close to the Japanese and Korean leagues. Watching the matches intuitively we can see that although the Chinese Super League is at the technical and tactical level, confrontation is indeed present throughout (including at the level of hot confrontation), and in previous interviews many foreign aiders have talked about the very intense confrontation in the Chinese Super League.
Interesting statistic is that the average number of yellow cards in the Chinese Super League (3.79) is much higher than that of the J-League (2.82) and the K-League (3.57). Apart from disciplinary management and individual violent fouls, the most important thing is blocking tactical fouls, which is actually a reflection of fierce competition.
This season, the Superliga teams have invested more in their offense: averaging 2.77 goals this season. That's not a great number, but the chances per game (18.17) and shots per game (24.65) are both 5 to 10 percent higher than last season.
Another statistic is that there are more games between a draw and a goal to separate the winners from the losers. There have been 67 draws in 240 games this season, or 27.92%, which is much higher than in the 2022 season. Another statistic is that more matches can be decided by a single goal. In the previous 12 rounds, for example, 96 matches, 34 draws and 44 matches were decided by one goal. More than 80% (81.25%) of the matches were still full of suspense in the last minute, which means that the strengths of the teams tend to be balanced and the matches are more intense.
For the 2023 season, the average running distance of 213,064 meters is similar to the past, but the high-intensity running distance of 15,524 meters is an increase from the past, with this figure for the 2019-2022 seasons being: 9,812, 10,074, 12,172, and 15,439 meters, respectively.
At the end of the 28th round of the league, there were still two rounds to go, with Champions League, Champions League quota and relegated teams still missing. At that time, Shanghai Port was five points ahead of Shandong Taishan. In addition to Shanghai Port, Shandong Taishan, Shanghai Shenhua, Zhejiang, Beijing Guoan and Chengdu Rongcheng still have a chance to win the AFC Elite and AFC Champions League 2 quota.
The title was decided in the 29th round with Shanghai Port winning the title. The top four in the league were decided in the final round. At the end of the 28th round, fourth-ranked Zhejiang ended up third, sixth-ranked Chengdu Rongcheng was fourth, and Shanghai Shenhua, which had been in the top three for a season, was fifth. Relegated teams also appeared in the final round. Dalian and Nantong Zhiyun fought until the end. Nantong Zhiyun lost, but Dalianjin took a 2-0 lead and eventually lost. Unfortunately, they were relegated.
A noticeable phenomenon in the league table in the 2023 season is that the two groups are completely different. The most obvious manifestation of this is that the eighth-placed Tian Jin Menhu got nine points ahead of the ninth-placed Changchun Yatai in the league. In fact, these two teams are relatively close to each other, just because the performance of some games is a bit different, the points difference is so big that no team in the Premier League has room to relax.
Shenzhen and Dalian, who were eventually relegated, are actually the victims of the golden dollar soccer. Due to some problems last season, they bear a heavy burden. Shenzhen was unable to reform its stock and Dalian was banned from signing directly. In a sense, the 2023 season is the end of golden dollar soccer. the super teams of the 2022 season (Qingdao Hainiu and Nantong Zhiyun) and the 2023 season (Sichuan Jiuiu and Qingdao West Coast) are both civilian teams.
In the 2023 season, the law that the economic base determines the superstructure is also evident: the standings are basically proportional to the strength of the teams, with the exception of individual teams.
From the current situation, the stratification of the groups in the 2024 season of the Chinese Super League is also relatively clear. If the seven teams such as Shanghai Port, Shandong Taishan, Zhejiang, Chengdu Rongcheng, Shanghai Shenhua, Beijing Guoan and Wuhan don't change much, they should be the upper group of the league.
Tianjin Jinmen Tiger, Changchun Yatai, Henan strength in the middle, but there is a certain gap with the strength of the upstream group. After that, Meizhou Hakka, Cangzhou Lion, Qingdao Hainiu, Nantong Zhiyun, Sichuan Jiuniu, Qingdao West Coast is expected to invest about 100 million or even less than 100 million yuan, is a typical civilian team.
The fact must be recognized is that the technical and tactical level of the Chinese Super League and Japan and South Korea have a clear gap, the overall gap and individual gap is very obvious, which has been fully verified in the AFC Champions League. Even Shandong Taishan's AFC Champions League record, its overall technical and tactical level is not as good as Japan. Compared with the South Korean team, it relies more on targeted tactics, strong willpower and outstanding performance of key players.
In the AFC Champions League, most of the goals conceded by Chinese Super League teams were not scored by counter-attacks, but by the opposing team in positional defense or even bus defense, proving the overall technical and tactical level of the Chinese Super League is insufficient.
It is well known that there are three important aspects of a quality league: more intense confrontation, faster tempo and higher technical and tactical level. The difficulty of improving these three levels increases in order: it is easier to intensify the confrontation, it is not easy to improve the tempo and it is the most difficult to improve the technical and tactical level.
As we said before, the more intense rivalry in the 2023 Chinese Super League means that the first step in the recovery of the Chinese Super League has been completed. The basis for improving the technical and tactical level is to comprehensively improve the technical and tactical quality of local CPL players, which obviously cannot be realized in a short time. Therefore, the key to the 2024 CPL is to speed up the pace of play, i.e. to increase the tempo and net playing time.
The most worrying aspect of the 2023 season is the overall drop in net game time in the Premier League: 50 minutes and 51 seconds of net game time, compared to 52 minutes and 13 seconds, 52 minutes and 23 seconds, 54 minutes and 30 seconds, and 52 minutes and 11 seconds in the 2019-2022 season.
Net game time must be based on high intensity matchups and more intense games. Unfortunately, for the 2023 season, the games were intense, but the net playing time was greatly reduced. An effective approach in this regard would be to further enforce substitution and field discipline. In recent years, "bench disturbances" and "players mobbing the referee" have become almost commonplace. Some of the key decisions were understandable. The problem is that these phenomena have now spread to all kinds of decisions, and there is also a "legally unaccountable public" mentality among bench staff and players.
Suggestions are: on the one hand, the CFA and the preparatory group of the Chinese Football Association to strengthen the training of referees, to reduce the number of misjudgments, to reduce the occurrence of different scales, to disclose the standard of external penalties, and to further "popularize the law"; on the other hand, the clubs should be clear about the attitude of strict law enforcement. On this basis, to strictly punish the "bench riot" and "siege referee", never mercy, delaying the game time and other behaviors more strict law enforcement. At the same time, for all kinds of delaying the game time behavior, must make a clear response in the extra time, more than ten minutes of extra time is also the same.
The penultimate round of the 2023 season saw numerous disputes between the two sides in the match between Shanghai Port and Shandong Taishan. The game saw a whopping five red cards (four on the pitch and one on the bench). In addition to the normal penalties, the CFA Disciplinary Committee imposed a fine of 100,000 RMB on both clubs, initially showing this determination.
As for further strengthening the pace of the game, it needs the efforts of the clubs, such as higher level of robbery, more competition in the midfield, minimize bad fouls such as buses and other delaying behaviors such as "lying on the grass". I hope that more clubs will realize the shift to a faster tempo based on strong confrontation, which is not only a responsibility to Chinese soccer, but also a responsibility to themselves and their fans.
