Dai Weijun, a naturalized international who has been honing his skills in the English Premier League for years, was expected to be a fish out of water when he joined Shanghai Shenhua and quickly made his mark.
However, the reality is very different from the expectations. Since his debut at the beginning of July, in just 40 days, Dai Weijun's figure in Shanghai Shenhua seems to be gradually blurred, his performance is mediocre, and even a bit "invisible". Although his footwork is delicate, flexible, excellent ball control skills, in the interception, stealing and forward organization is also unique, but the vision limitations, the lack of threatening passes, making the overall performance is not as satisfactory as it should be.
According to statistics, from the summer to join the last round of 3:0 to beat the Shenzhen team in the game, Dai Weijun for Shanghai Shenhua played 9 games. In these 9 games, his performance did not meet the outside world's expectations, so far, no grain, only contributed an assist.
Contributing only one assist in nine games is a fair statistic for a second-tier domestic player, but a bit bleak for naturalized player Dai Weijun.
Analysis suggests that Dai Weijun's lackluster performance at Shanghai Shenhua is as much to do with the need to improve his individual ability as it is to do with his failure to get consistent playing time. Although he has played 9 games for the team, he has only made 3 starts and seems to have been somewhat neglected by coach Wu Jingui. The limited playing time has made it difficult for him to prove himself in matches. Let's not forget that Dai Weijun's performance in Shenzhen last season was amazing, with 12 starts in 20 games, contributing 2 goals and 6 assists, making him one of the best local players.
Therefore, we cannot conclude that Dai Weijun's future at Shanghai Shenhua is worthless just based on his performance in these 9 games. We should keep our fingers crossed and expect head coach Wu Jingui to be bolder in his use of players and give Dai Weijun more chances to play. Otherwise, he may be tempted to leave Shanghai Shenhua.
