Reporter Rumi reports that the Chinese Super League has returned to full normalcy this season, and after the ebbing of gold dollar soccer, the league has entered a relatively stable season. There are no super foreign aid and no high-priced players, and the quality of the league has improved compared to the epidemic period. The data show that the ability of foreign aiders to score goals in the Chinese Super League has declined, but the number of assists has improved, and the key passes and offensive organization, the Chinese Super League is still more dependent on foreign aiders.
For three years now, the quality of the Premier League has been tested. Since 2020, a tournament system has been adopted. At that time, many teams returned their foreign aid late or not at all. Since then, some foreign aiders have chosen to leave.
Last year, the league gradually opened up later in the season, and this year, with home and away fully restored, the issue of returning foreigners no longer exists, but for a variety of reasons, many music departments are more focused on the cost performance of their foreigner options.
In this year's Chinese Super League, a total of 89 foreign aiders played, accounting for 15.29% of the 582 registered players. The average number of appearances by foreign aiders was 7.4. This figure has fluctuated over the past four seasons. For example, in the 2019 season, the average number of foreign aid appearances was 6.1, in the 2020 season the average number of appearances was 7.4, and the worst was the 2021 and 2022 seasons, with an average of only 5.4 appearances.
The reason for the decrease in the number of foreign aid appearances is on the one hand due to the impact of the epidemic. On the other hand, many clubs have problems and wages have dropped, leading to the departure of foreign aiders. Of course, there are also some clubs that have international lawsuits and are affected by injunctions that prevent them from signing.
While the average number of foreign aid appearances in this year's Chinese Super League has returned to its pre-epidemic status, one particularly interesting statistic is that the average number of goals scored by foreign aiders has not recovered.
The statistics show that the average number of goals scored by foreign aiders in the Chinese Super League in 2019 is 2.08, and the 2020 and 2021 seasons have continued to decline, with 1.97 and 1.2 goals respectively. Compared with the previous two seasons, the number of goals this year has rebounded, but the average of 1.56 goals per game is still significantly lower than that of 2019 and 2020, which also indicates that the goal-scoring ability of foreign aiders has declined from the past.
Taking the number of goals scored by the Golden Boot team each year as an example, 2019 can be said to be the last heyday of foreign aid in the Chinese Super League. In the Chinese Super League, there were super foreigners such as Xavi, Paulinho, Teixeira and Carrasco. That year's Golden Boot team was Zahavi, scoring as many as 29 goals, Paulinho and Aixon ranked second, scoring 19 goals and 18 goals; by 2020, due to the tournament system, the number of league rounds was reduced, and the Golden Boot team, Bakambu, scored only 14 goals; last season, the Malcolm's Golden Boot team's total of 27 goals bounced back, but it didn't surpass the number of the Golden Boot team's goals before the epidemic occurred.
After the ebbing of golden dollar soccer, salary restriction + economic crisis, super foreign aiders have left the Chinese league, and clubs have gone back to the old days when value for money was important. As a result, the decline of foreign aid's goal scoring ability is related to the decline of clubs' purchasing power. In the short term, it is difficult for the Chinese Super League to return to the era of spending a lot of money on foreign aid.
However, despite the decrease in goals scored, the team system still relies on foreign aid in the league. This season, the average number of assists per game for foreign aiders has rebounded significantly, 0.88, three years higher than the epidemic and only 0.01 less than the 2019 season; in addition, the average number of chances created per game is also higher than the past three years, only 0.5 times lower than the 7.84 in 2019. It can be said that on the offensive end, the Chinese Super League teams still rely on foreign aid, and to a greater extent.
As the Chinese Super League has always relied on foreign aid, the performance of a team has a lot to do with the overall level of the team's foreign aid. In recent years, although the overall quality of foreign aid has declined, there is still a gap in terms of horizontal comparison between teams. From the perspective of the top eight teams in the Chinese Super League, the foreign aid configuration of Harbor, Taishan, Zhejiang and Rongcheng is good.
Harbour had Oscar, Vargas, Caron, Pinko and brought in Joao in the middle of the season. Although manager Javier underutilized several foreigners other than Oscar, there is no denying that they had some ability and a good configuration of domestic players that eventually won the Super League title.
The quality of Taishan's foreigners has been relatively consistent, which is a basic guarantee of their performance. Cressan has scored 12 goals in the Chinese Super League this year and has come on as a substitute on a number of occasions. He did even better last year, scoring 25 goals. In addition, although Fellaini and Moises are both 35 years old, their numbers on the offensive end are still outstanding. Fellaini has 11 goals and 2 assists this season, and Moises has 5 goals and 10 assists, which were the heroes of Tarzan's second place finish.
Zhejiang entered the AFC Champions League zone for the second year in a row with good foreigners. At the beginning of the league, they lost four times in a row and finished at the bottom of the table, then caught up to the third place in the league by their own strength. With a two-front war, they have withstood the test in the league despite the unsatisfactory results in the AFC Champions League. Mu Xiekui still has 18 goals to his name despite being 36 years old; Lennardo came from Yatai and was then ranked first in the top scorer list. After coming to Zhejiang, he continued his good form, scoring 12 goals in the AFC Champions League and the Chinese Super League, including 9 goals in the Chinese Super League and 10 goals in Changchun, and managed to take the Golden Boot; in the midfield, Frank is the attacking pivot, and his role is to execute the attacking tactics of coach Jordy.
Fourth-ranked Rongcheng didn't make much of a move in terms of foreign aid this year, bringing in only a fifth foreigner in Palacios. In addition, after Romulo was injured and out for the season, a replacement, Andrigo, was brought in. The biggest feature of Rongcheng is that the foreigners are not weak and their form is getting better and better every year. Romulo and Felipe were not particularly noticeable when they were in the Central League before. After being promoted to the Chinese Super League, they gradually adapted and integrated into the Chinese Super League for two years, and had a use for them. Even Andrigo, who replaced Romulo, plays the same role as Romulo; as for replacement wonderkid Palacios, he has accomplished a lot of victories this season, including a good win over the leaders. Although the team did not qualify for the AFC Elite League this year, it has improved its ranking compared to last year.
Shenhua scored the fewest goals of the top eight and had a weak foreigner setup. While Malalele scored 11 goals, he didn't waste a handful of chances all season. As for the other foreigners, Basogo, Amadou and Teixeira's stats aren't good enough. They could finish fifth in the league and reach the FA Cup final, relying more on the ability of domestic players. It can be said that Shenhua is a special existence among the top teams.
Tri-Town and State are also not strong in their foreign aid setups and have experienced a mid-career loss of foreign aid.
In the first half of this year, the core of the three towns, Stancho, has been significantly worse than last season, and Davidson's form in front of goal has also declined. Malcolm, the golden boot of last season's Chinese Super League, returned in the summer window and did not play at the level he should have due to constant injuries; Guoan's situation is similar. Ademi and De Souza, who were brought in at the beginning of the year, were controversial. Early departures in the summer window led to an early exit from the championship sequence this season.
