With the Asian Cup approaching, our national soccer team is planning to gather again on the 17th of this month, with the destination pointing directly to the United Arab Emirates to start preparations. Coach Jankovic has reportedly finalized the new national team lineup, but has delayed making it public because he needs to wait for the three Chinese Super League teams participating in the AFC Champions League to finish their group stage finishes.
According to Tianjin Daily, the Asian Cup is a major test for Coach Jankovic's ability to continue to run the national team for the next World Cup, and even whether he can continue to run the national team for the next World Cup. In this regard, Jankovic attaches great importance to the plan to add three players, and high hopes for Jiang Guangtai and Wang Qiuming, these two players are expected to lock the seat. Meanwhile, Li Shuai, who missed the World Cup due to injury, will also return to the national team.
Not to be overlooked, our soccer team will be grouped with hosts Qatar, Lebanon and Tajikistan in this Asian Cup. Qatar is expected to top the group as the sixth-ranked team in Asia with a clear advantage of playing at home. China's soccer team with Asia's 19th-ranked Tajikistan and Lebanon to compete for the second place in the group.
Although Qatar naturalized players, and consecutive World Cup, but from the historical record and technical and tactical level, the national football team is not completely at a disadvantage. After all, compared with Japan and South Korea and other strong teams, Qatar's strength is still a gap, the national football team is expected to impact the group first.
Reaching the knockout stage of the Asian Cup is the basic requirement of the FA for Coach Jankovic. And as fans, we expect the national soccer team to break into at least the top eight, which is crucial to rebuild confidence and compete for more places in the next World Qualification Tournament.
Against this background, the first match against Tajikistan was crucial. A good start will help the national soccer team to take the initiative on the way to promotion and get into competitive shape as soon as possible. However, Tajikistan, ranked 19th in Asia, is not an easy opponent, and its players are physically superior to our soccer team. Coach Jankovic will need to adjust his tactics and focus on defense, which will demand more from the midfielders.
For this match, Coach Jankovic is expected to use Jiang Guangtai, who has outstanding defensive ability, to replace Zhu Chenjie, and form a three center backs with Jiang Shenglong and Wu Shaocong. Li Ke and Wang Qiuming, who have excellent blocking ability, will partner the double back, and Wang Qiuming will be responsible for organizing the attack and providing support for Wu Lei.
As for fans' concerns about Ekson and Fernando, it is unlikely that Coach Jankovic will bring them to the Asian Cup. After all, these two players were not selected in the World Cup qualifiers and are at the end of their careers. This means that there are only two naturalized players left in the national team that could be in the starting lineup.
