On August 28, Suzhou Dongwu announced a coaching change, with Lu Bofei resigning as coach. Four days later, Suzhou Dongwu announced the arrival of new head coach Niu Hongli. Niu Hongli started his first game in charge of Soochow soon after his appointment, and on the evening of September 2, he drew 1-1 at home against Shanghai Jiading Huilong. With a focus on building Jiangsu's local lineup, Niu Hongli's first task on the job was to help stabilize the team.
A draw is acceptable for the first game on the job.
On September 1, Suzhou Dongwu FC officially announced that new head coach Niu Hongli is the first team coach. The day after the official announcement, the team had a China First Division match, a home game against Shanghai Jiading Huilong. In fact, four days before the match, Niu Hongli had already taken over Lu Bofei's handsome stamp and walked into Dongwu's training ground.
Over the past four days, Niu Hongli has mainly watched a lot of game video and talked to members of the coaching staff who stayed behind. He also communicated with the players through the four days of training with the team. Due to CFA regulations, Niu Hongli was unable to stand on the bench and direct the team on the 2nd match day, so his first match after taking over was done from the stands. After taking an early lead, the team was pulled into a 1-1 draw. Although the draw was a bit unfortunate, Niu Hongli could still accept the process of the game. After all, he just took over the team and there were still a lot of difficulties to overcome.
Niu Hongli has spent more of his coaching career as the first deputy to Coach Wang Baoshan. In the process of coaching many Chinese Super League, Chinese First Division and Chinese Second Division, he is the main participant in technical and tactical formulation and training practice. Serious and sincere work is what most people in the industry say about him. Dongwu management was able to contact him for coaching partly because he used to be an old friend of Jiangsu soccer and had coaching experience at Sun Tian; on the other hand, it was based on the recognition of his life and work attitude.
