Taishan laughed at the stadium with a score of 4:0 and the cheers of the fans were loud and clear. The victory not only washed away the pain of the previous loss, but also allowed the team to continue to put pressure on Shanghai Shenhua and secure second place in the league.
But the joy of victory could not hide the problems exposed by Shandong Taishan. Despite the defeat of Cangzhou Lions, their tactical conception was still flawless. Looking back at the whole game, both teams left many moments to ponder.
From the perspective of the Terriers, we need to analyze in depth where the team needs to improve.
First of all, if not for Školjic's departure in the middle of the game, the Taishan team might not have had the last laugh. While that statement may be hard for fans to accept, it is an indisputable fact.
Before the match, everyone was anticipating that Taishan would go all out on offense while the Cangzhou Lions would adopt a defensive strategy and try to get a point. Head coach Zhao Junzhe studied Taishan thoroughly. Despite Choi Kang-hee's lineup adjustments, overhead kicks are still the killer app for Taishan. As long as the defense does well, other tactics pose no threat to Cangzhou Lions.
With Pato as the starting striker, Taishan hardly created any threat. Under Školjic's defense, Pato appeared powerless, both on the ground and on high balls, which made Shandong Taishan players anxious.
After Pato's injury, Choi Kang-hee replaced Fellaini early. Fellaini stood in the position of high center forward, the most familiar attacking system of Taishan team, which was all expected by Zhao Junzhe. Obviously, the core of Zhao Junzhe's pre-match tactical arrangement is the high center forward system around Fellaini. As a result, even the energetic Fellaini struggled to gain an easy advantage. Zhao Junzhe had Školjic defending Fellaini, plus one defender interfering and attacking, making Shandong Taishan's high ball tactics fail time and time again.
Throughout the first half, Taishan dominated the offense but did not form an effective goal threat. On the other hand, Cangzhou Lions, while being stable in defense, used two capable foreigners in front of the field to constantly threaten Taishan's defense. If it wasn't for bad luck, Taishan would have fallen behind.
In the face of this situation, the players and fans on the pitch were filled with impatience. But there is really no way out, Školjic completely wrapped up Fellaini, the offensive end can not catch the first point, the whole offensive system will be greatly reduced, the team will be difficult to form a sustained threat of attack.
However, perhaps God favored Shandong Taishan as Cangzhou Lions defender Školjic left the field shortly after the start of the second half due to injury. This left Fellaini's high point completely unrestricted. It was basically impossible for domestic defenders to defend Fellaini one-on-one. Then, whether he was struggling at the first point of the box, creating chances for his teammates, or choosing to shoot himself, Fellaini put a high center forward's abilities on display.
When goalkeeper Han Feng made a fatal error, allowing Fellaini an easy breakaway, a big win was actually doomed.
Because Taishan team has been occupying the initiative of the game, and the second half resumed the attacking state, the team lacks a goal, or as long as the knot is opened, the result will naturally come naturally. Cangzhou Lions were later broken, although they wanted to organize an attack, but in the face of Shandong Taishan team that had already kicked out of the state, it was obvious that they could not do anything. Their own defense system was full of holes, and there was no calmness in the first half. Whether it was the defense of Fellaini in the penalty area or the staring at other players near the box, there were many problems, which led to Li Yuanyi's long range shot and Cressan's masterpiece.
Therefore, we can't help but ask: if Škorđić hadn't been injured and still maintained his absolute defense against Fellaini in the first half, would Taishan have won? It's really hard, after all, as time goes by, the more impatient Taishan is, the less efficient Taishan's offense in front of the field is, especially a few keys are serious anomalies (which will be mentioned in detail below), so it's really hard for Shandong Taishan to find effective breakthroughs with Školjic present. Perhaps, as impatience develops, they themselves will have problems again, allowing Cangzhou Lions to seize the opportunity, and even break through.
Two, Xiang Xiang, Chen Pu, Liu Yang, what the hell are they doing in this game?
As a right back in this game, Kichijo's overall performance was a disaster. The right side he was guarding was basically exploded by Owusu. The few times the Cangzhou Lions threatened, it was basically from this side of the field, and almost all of them were caused by Auspicious's own mistakes. There was basically very little success in either breaking up the ball or defending one-on-one, the inserted passes were not as good as they could have been, and the overall form was poor. Fortunately, the opponents lacked luck. If the loss of the ball leads to the team being moved, Ji Xiang will undoubtedly be the number one culprit of the Taishan team.
Also, the low form is particularly upsetting to Choi Kang-hee. He wanted him to play for a while longer and find his feelings. However, seeing this situation, he could only replace Ji Xiang with Wang Tong quickly, and then he stopped such a passive situation.
Furthermore, Chan Pu, a popular international player, was not even fit for this game. Due to Liu Binbin's injury, Choi Kang-hee gave Chen Pu the main right winger and left side for Cressan to take the responsibility. Although Chen Pu has some speed, extraordinary is also very good, but in this game, he one-on-one against the defenders, basically unsuccessful, take the ball also tried to eat the opponent with foot technology and speed, but the defenders are not fooled, insisted on keeping up with the rhythm of the Chen Pu, do not rush to steal, resulting in Chen Pu is very helpless. Can not get rid of the opponent's defense, can not pass an effective threatening ball, so we see a lot of times, as long as Chen Pu take the ball, almost always in the eyes of the opponent, hurried pass, the final effect can be said to be hot eyes.
Finally, left back Liu Yang, arguably the worst player on the team if not for two passes, then Liu Yang and Ji Xiang. Liu Yang is said to be guarding the left side of the field not as much as the right side, so whenever there is an opportunity, Liu Yang will be involved in the team's offense in a timely manner. But we all know that Liu Yang had a very hot statistic in this game, which is losing players 26 times! What is this concept? It's easy to understand, which means that whenever he gets the ball and the opponent's defense forces a robbery, it basically works! That's a pretty incredible performance, and as you know Liu Yang is also a very favorite player of national soccer coach Yankovic.
What's more, the play on the defensive end and in the passing game in general was breathtaking, and even more so on the offensive end. Crezan created a lot of open opportunities for Liu Yang when he went deep. So many times, Liu Yang breaks near the baseline and there is no defense within a few meters, which is the perfect time to make a pass.
However, Liu Yang, who was undefended, was very far off the mark with every pass. Even though Fellaini was ambushed at the back, he still couldn't receive Liu Yang's passes. The strength of each pass is extremely out of place. No wonder the fans joked that "Liu Yang trained Fellaini as a wingback"! It was because Liu Yang's cross went to the other side, Fellaini had to go to the other side to get the ball.
Taishan's first goal was created by Liu Yang's pass. In fact, if you watch the replay, you can clearly judge that the pass was also big. It was because the pass was so big that it was blocked by a defender, and the ball just reduced its power and dropped behind the goal, burying itself behind Fellaini's header! If the defender hadn't blocked it, the pass likely would have continued to fly near the other touchline.
Fellaini's second goal was caused by a direct pass from Liu Yang. This is also easy to explain, trailing Cangzhou Lions eager to attack, not so much energy in the defensive end, coupled with the Taishan team has taken the lead, the psychological burden has been put down, Liu Yang is a big space, passing exquisite assists is not difficult to understand. But it can't cover up previous embarrassments over and over again! (Speaking of which, we must admire Taishan for the fact that even though Liu Yang's passes were so outrageous, the team still believed in him, and would certainly pass him the ball whenever he had the chance to do so! One could also say that the last two passes were the result of selfless trust from his teammates, fed hard!)
The above two points are the most obvious deficiencies of the Taishan team in this game, and we need to analyze the process of the game rationally. A big win is satisfactory, but we should see the deficiencies in the middle and correct them after cognizance. Liu Yang and Chen Pu need to improve their adjustment status. If they can't adjust themselves in time, they will not only have an unstable position in Taishan, but also Jankovic will abandon the two in the upcoming international match day.
