During the 2023 Chinese Super League season, Shandong Taishan were ill-prepared and did not finish building their squad until two weeks before the tournament. This led to another loss in the Super Cup final and the loss of the title. Head coach Hao Wei's coaching level was limited and lacked foresight, remaining stuck in the same old rut with a tactical system that lacked positive changes. Assistant coach Fabio came too late, but he came up quickly. He temporarily replaced Hao Wei, who could not lead the team due to family reasons. In the third round of the Chinese Super League, Fabio led the team to play Zhejiang. Although he won 2-1, the match was not satisfactory. Fabio also admitted that the team's overall performance was not good, and he could not control the field even with one more player.
In a game where Fabio is still honing his new formation system, the starting line-up has been fine-tuned. Fellaini played as the single arrow, Sun Guowen, Moises and the relaxed partner had three forwards. Sun Junho and Li Yuan have two backs, Liu Yang, Zheng Zheng, Shi Ke and Wang Tong have four defenders and Wang Dalei. The starting lineup is worth €8.78 million, but is the oldest in the Chinese Super League, with an average age of 31.5. Such a system is hardly a backbone.
Meanwhile, Zhejiang's head coach Qiao Di also demonstrated the 4231 system, with Mu Xiekui, Frank, Li Tixiang and Lucas leading the 11 men. In the game, Zhejiang team defense pressure, in the 19th minute of the game to get a red card, side defender Yue Xin dangerous shoveling knocked down Sun Jun Hao, by the referee directly sentenced; Taishan played a man, in the 26th minute of the game, Taishan attacked, Moyses scored a goal; in the 64th minute of the game, Fellaini chose to pass the ball, to help Sun Guowen empty goal, Taishan 2-0 lead.
In the 78th minute of the game, Sun Guowen gave a gift by mistake, the ball was cut off by Zhejiang, and Mu Xiekui counterattacked from a small angle to give Zhejiang some hope of scoring 1-2 Taishan. In the 90th minute of the game, Zhejiang, playing with one less player, made an efficient fast break and Frank finished the tie-breaking goal. Unfortunately, Taishan won 2-1 as offside was not valid in the first goal.
Due to Sun Guowen's mistake as well as Taishan's offense hitting the goal post twice and Hu Jinghang's one-touch loss, Taishan only got a 0:0 draw when they should have won easily on the field of play. However, in the 87th minute of the game, the naturalized international Fernando amazingly got rid of the opposing players, and then successfully sent a direct ball, creating a one-touch opportunity for Hu Jinghang, who finally succeeded in pushing a shot through the goal to score. According to the statistics, Taishan's ball possession was 61%, compared with Zhejiang's shots was 14-9, and the shots on goal ratio was 4-4, which finally became a small victory of 2-1.
As far as the player level is concerned, Taishan's four new recruits decided the game. They were Sun Guowen, Li Yuanyi, Fernando and Hu Jinghang. Sun Guowen has been a key player for Taishan in gaining points; although he sometimes makes mistakes, he is credited for his goals. Li Yuanyi has become Taishan's main midfielder, with a clear role in offense and defense. Fernando, on the other hand, has recovered after coming on as a substitute, making threatening passes in two consecutive matches and earning an assist in the last one. Unfortunately, Fernando was not in good shape for this game, and Fabio confirmed that he was injured again, with a strain during the game. Hu Jinghang, on the other hand, had a chance to kill the game, but failed to score from a single shot, exposing his lack of shooting accuracy. Considering that the playing time of the four is increasing, it will help Taishan to achieve stable results in the future as long as the integration is ideal.
