China's Top 12 Dilemmas and Challenges
At dawn on October 13th, Beijing time, the Chinese team embarked on the journey of the fourth round of the group stage of the 12-team tournament to challenge the Saudi Arabia away from home. However, China started the match with a two-goal deficit in the first half, and despite the replacement of naturalized players in the second half, they were defeated 2-3. So far, Saudi Arabia has won all four matches and is way ahead of the rest, while China has won 1 and lost 3 matches, ranking fifth in the group, and the situation of advancement is worrying. More saddening is that after four rounds of group matches, the Chinese team has not yet formed a stable tactical system, the team's defensive shortcomings are also exposed.
Defensive shortcomings highlighted
In the four rounds of group games, China conceded nine goals, Saudi Arabia and Australia scored three goals each, Vietnam penetrated the Chinese goal twice, while Japan appeared to be "polite" to the Chinese team, scoring only one goal.
In the standings, China is the second worst team in defense, except for Vietnam, which has conceded 10 goals. In four rounds of matches, the Chinese team changed four sets of starting lineups, and the backline personnel even changed every game. Whether it was a four-guard or five-guard formation, the problems at the defensive end were never solved. On the contrary, head coach Li Tie's frequent changes in formation, but reduced the team's overall tacit understanding and adaptability.
The problem of midfield defense also failed to be effectively resolved. As early as during the 40 strong match, there are media pointed out that Li Tie crafted 442 formation lack of specialized blocking midfield, Zhang Xizhe is not good at defending, Wu Xi as a single back waist tired, difficult to resist the 12 strong level of opponents. However, these analyses have not attracted enough attention from the coaching staff. Four rounds of group games, the Chinese team in the midfield has never been able to take advantage of the second half with Saudi Arabia, the national football team has just accumulated a little advantage in the midfield, Ji Zhongguo was replaced by Zhang Xizhe ......
Coaching staff shakeup tests future of national soccer team
According to the plan, the national football team will take a chartered flight back to Shanghai at 10 p.m. local time in Jeddah on the 13th, and then head to the Shanghuli Hotel in Suzhou for quarantine. The next month will be an important window of adjustment for the national soccer team, because in November China will have two home matches against Oman and Australia. If they want to keep a glimmer of hope of advancing, they must get at least four points from these two matches, otherwise the national football team will be out of the tournament early.
The last 12 tournament, the Chinese team in the four rounds of the group stage after the end of the coaching team made adjustments, Gao Hongbo took the initiative to resign, Lippi took over the national team, and then under the leadership of Lippi, the national football team gradually back on track, and once saw the group out of the line of hope, only in the match with Syria, in the last minute by the opponents of the free kick leveled, unfortunately out of the game.
In this case, whether or not to make adjustments to the coaching staff is a question that must be considered by the top management of the Football Association. Compared to the last 12 rounds of the first four rounds of only 1 point, the current 3 points seems to have a breakthrough, but it should also be recognized that, compared with the top group, the Chinese team's points gap is significant, has fallen out of the group. Now the group's top two Saudi Arabia points have reached 12 points, Australia, despite the loss of this round, points also reached 9 points. If the current situation to meet the two group matches in November, China is likely to be early exit after two games.
Li Tie's coaching ability questioned
Undeniably, to Li Tie as the head of the coaching team for coaching the national team to pay hard work, but from the situation of the first four rounds of the group stage, as a relatively young coaching staff, in the face of the 12 strong such as the top Asian tournaments, Li Tie appeared to be inexperienced. In addition, the epidemic prevention and control of many difficulties, but also greatly increased the difficulty of Li Tie coaching.
Four rounds of group matches, Li Tie dished out four sets of starting lineups completely different, technical and tactical requirements are also very different, these let the outside world on Li Tie's general idea of the 12 strong tournament is confused. And clinical command, Li Tie repeatedly self-denial type of "big bet", also let people worry about the prospect of the national football team. After the match with Saudi Arabia, the Chinese team's official microblogging, a large number of fans left a message requesting Li Tie's dismissal, in fact, also reflects the overall perception of the fans of the performance of the Chinese team in the first four group matches.
Prior to this year's Top 12, the CFA officially announced that it had signed a five-year long term contract with Li Tie, expressing its full support for him in this unconventional way. However, no one expected that in less than two months, the two sides would come to a crossroads of dilemma.
