In the late afternoon, our men's soccer team announced its new assembly lineup.
The recent announcement of the national team's assembly list has raised a lot of doubts. It seems that head coach Jankovic seems to have observed very little of the Chinese Super League (CSL) game and his knowledge of CSL players is quite limited. He has both selected players who should not have been selected and left out talents who should have been selected. With such a lineup for the upcoming 36 World Cup qualifying matches, the outlook does not look promising.
Jankovic has picked a total of 24 international players this time around. This international squad has not changed much from the June training list, with only naturalized player Li Ke and Wu Xi, who was absent due to injury in the previous edition, as the real new faces. It's as if Jankovic has turned a blind eye to the Chinese Super League for a while and just copied the list from the previous edition, which is quite suspicious of a closed-door approach.
The inclusion of at least six players in this new National Football League list is unconvincing. The inclusion of these six players has sparked widespread skepticism from the media and fans. They are: Sun Guowen, Zhang Linmiao, Wang Shenchao, Xu Xin, Wang Ziming and Li Lei. Sun Guowen has struggled to gain a foothold at Luneng; Zhang Linlian, Wang Shenchao and Xu Xin are players from Shanghai Hong Kong and have been in a slump recently; Wang Ziming has been relegated to the fringes of the Beijing Guoan team; and Li Lei, despite his strength, has just recovered from an injury. Obviously, it is not a wise move to introduce him into the national team at this time.
In addition to the six unqualified international players mentioned above, the national soccer team selection also left out several powerhouse Chinese Super League players. They are fully qualified to enter the national team with their current performance. These 6 forgotten international players are: Li Tixiang, Dai Weijun, Buy Jiang, Tan Long, Zhang Xunzhe, and Wei Shihao.
Li Tixiang, Dai Weijun and Baiti Jiang are top Chinese midfielders with all-round abilities. They are not only good at interceptions and steals, but also have the ability to attack and be creative in front of goal. Tan Long and Wei Shihao are extremely valuable additions to the Guoan forward line, as they not only possess explosive power and creativity in front of goal, but are also good at seizing chances. In particular, Zhang Xizhe, who has exploded recently for Guoan, is a much-needed midfield commander for the national team. He has superb footwork and has been hailed as a local De Bruyne. However, it is puzzling that such a midfield soul has been neglected by Jankovic.
If these 6 unqualified players were removed and 6 national football legacies with positive form and outstanding performance were introduced, this list would be perfect and outside criticism would be reduced. Unfortunately, there are no ifs in the world of Chinese soccer.
