Plagued by the club's poor financial situation, Chinese Super League stalwart Shanghai Shenhua's performance has been fluctuating a lot in the past few seasons. They often achieve good results in the first half of the league, but in the second half, they immediately start to drop the ball, especially in the final stage of the league, when they become the scoring boys of other teams.
However, after Jiuzhi Group took over the club, Shenhua has been very stable in the league this season. Currently, they have 15 wins, 6 draws and 7 losses in 28 rounds of league matches and are third on the table.
Jiuzhi Group's goal after taking ownership is to rebuild Shenhua into a strong Chinese Super League team. The goal for this season is to make it to next year's AFC Champions League. Now Shenhua is just one game away from realizing this goal. In the next round of the league, if they can beat Tianjin Jinmen Tigers on the road, they can win the top four of the league.
Moreover, Shenhua is now in the semi-finals of the AFC Cup. If you can beat Qingdao Hainiu in the next match, you can meet Shandong Taishan in the final. If you can win the title again, Shenhua can win the ticket to next season's AFC Champions League. Even if you lose, it doesn't matter because Taishan wins the title and goes directly to next season's AFC Champions League, and Shenhua, who is fourth in the league, gets a place in the AFC Champions League play-offs.
From the current situation, Shenhua has 90% certainty to enter next year's AFC Champions League. In order to achieve good results in the AFC Champions League, the club also needs to adjust Shenhua's player lineup.
Shenhua's signings have not been successful this season, with only one of the five foreigners, Amadou, being really easy to use. Malele's technique is too rough and Basogo is too injury prone. Teixeira is also a glass body and doesn't play much of a role in the team's offense. Not to mention Yan Xinli, a Chinese defender who has no other advantage than his good size.
Therefore, if Shenhua club wants to continue to make a difference in the next season, it is necessary to replace these four foreign aiders, and bring in foreign aiders who can be the core of the midfield organization, as well as have the ability to score consistently in front of the field.
In terms of local players, head coach Wu Jingui has promoted many young players this season, Jiang Shenglong has become an absolute mainstay in the back four, and Wang Haijian and Xu Haoyang have been good enough in the midfield this season to be as good as foreigner Teixeira.
In order to further improve the overall strength of the team, Shenhua needs to continue to bring in strong local players. Recently, many key players, such as Dalian Ren, Wuhan Sanzhen and Shenzhen, have been involved with Shenhua, including Xie Pengfei, Deng Hanwen and Wang Zhenao.
Of course, Shenhua doesn't have two feet on the shuttle bus to next year's AFC Champions League yet. The next three league and AFC Cup matches against Tianjin Jinmen Tigers, Zhejiang and Qingdao Hainiu are very important. To avoid a long night's sleep, Shenhua must try to beat Tianjin Jinmenhu in the next round, so they can focus on preparing for the Qingdao Hainiu AFC Cup semi-final without having to think about the result of their final round match against Zhejiang.
Although there is no hope of competing for the Chinese Super League title this season, there is still hope for the FA Cup title. Four years ago, Shenhua beat Shandong Luneng to win the AFC Cup. It is also worth mentioning that it was Taishan coach Cui Kangxi who led Shenhua to beat Luneng to win the AFC Cup...
