It is unbelievable that Choi Kang-hee made such a cheap mistake in the streak. midway through the 2023 season, he ditched Leonardo, who was out on loan, and instead brought in Pato, the golden boot of the Indonesian league, who unfortunately did not help the team in any substantial way. The deal will undoubtedly be a huge loss if he cannot be rented out or sold in 2024! This time, Choi Kang-hee decided to use his connections to bring in high center forward Zeca and midfielder Kazaishvili from the K-League, banking on the hope that this time around, he can avoid a repeat of the same mistake! Looking back at the K-League players brought in in the history of the Chinese Super League, the overall results have been quite good.
The Chinese Super League has a history of bringing in foreigners from the Korean league such as Kim Shin-wook, Son Jun-ho, Malcolm, Kang Sang-woo, Kim Dae-jang-woo, Felipe, Palacios, etc., and all of them are not to be underestimated, so I expect Zeca and Kazaishvili to have a good performance as well. Tall center forward Zeca can not only be the pivot point of Taishan team, his footwork is excellent, speed and breakthrough ability is also excellent, not just a center forward standing in front of the goal. As a result, Taishan's counterattacks will be more threatening, putting pressure on the opponents from the first line of defense, which is quite fierce!
If Kazaishvili can organize the game smartly from the front and play the role of a midfield commander, then T&T's forward attack will become impressive! When Moises is not present, Klassan needs to drop back to receive the ball away from the opposing goal and reorganize the attack. However, this approach tends to slow down the pace of the game when switching from defense to offense. Choi Kang-hee made no bones about this problem after his team's 0-3 defeat against Yokohama Mariners. It shows the obvious reason why we lost, so we need to strengthen the team in a targeted manner.
Can Kazaishvili be a "cheap alternative to Montillo"? Montillo's strength is obviously better. He was compared to Kong Ka, who dared to take him lightly when he was able to take his place in the strong Argentine national team. At his peak, he was worth a whopping €6 million, but in his three seasons with Taishan, his performances were unimpressive. in 2014 and 2015, he made a total of 40 appearances, scoring just five goals and providing five assists. It wasn't until 2016 that he really stepped up his game, making 24 appearances, contributing nine goals and three assists and becoming a key player in the relegation push.
If Kazaishvili can successfully feed the shells for Kressan and Zeca, he will be no less useful than Montillo. In the Chinese Super League, we can't just look at a player's reputation and individual ability, and hopefully he can quickly integrate into the Taishan team and contribute more to the team. In terms of individual strength, Gerdes is indeed better than Cressan, but in terms of team contribution and integration, Gerdes is not as good as Cressan. Even when De Bruyne and Messi came to the Chinese Super League, they didn't necessarily perform the best in terms of statistics.
Zhejiang's Li Tixiang and Taishan's Fernando both had 3 assists in the AFC Champions League group stage, making them tied for 4th place on the AFC Champions League assists list! This good news makes Chinese fans both happy and sorry, because these two excellent "pie feeders" were not selected for the national team. The embarrassment for local players is that they have fewer opportunities and less experience when they are young. They suddenly explode after the age of 30, but their physical condition starts to decline. However, players over 30 such as Wu Xi and Zhang Linpeng are also still fighting on the field, so why can't Fernando and Li Tixiang be the odd man out on the bench? Lao Yang (the coach) is too conservative!
