With the approach of the second round of the Haikou World Preliminary 12 tournament, China's men's national football team has successfully completed two preparatory warm-up matches. on March 15, the team will play the final battle with the U23 national football team, which is also the farewell warm-up in Haikou before the departure of the two teams. For the national football team, this training not only to improve the technical and tactical level and team spirit, but also to face a difficult problem - to find the captain Wu Xi's successor.
Captain Wu Xi received a yellow card after the national soccer team suffered an unexpected loss in their final match against Vietnam. Together with the previous yellow card against Japan, Wu Xi will be suspended for accumulating two yellow cards and miss the match against Saudi Arabia. As captain, Wu Xi's role in the team is indispensable, especially in the team's lack of competitiveness in the midfield, his role is difficult to replace. However, the suspension forces the national soccer team to look for a suitable replacement again.
In the two warm-up matches against Changchun Yatai, the coaching staff of the national soccer team played in a 343 formation. In the first match, Jin Jingdao partnered Liao Lisheng in midfield; in the second half, Gao Tianyi and Yan Dinghao came on as substitutes. In the second match, Xu Xin partnered Liao Lisheng in the starting lineup; in the second half, players such as Wu Xi and Artemisia came on as substitutes. This was actually a search for a suitable replacement for Wu Xi. Before the first match, Xu Xin just returned to the team, the coaching staff arranged Jin Jingdao to partner Liao Lisheng to observe the actual effect. However, Xu Xin's performance in the second match was not ideal, which was related to his resumption of training. Currently, the issue of midfield combination and deployment has not yet been finalized. As Wu Xi contributes to both offense and defense, and the other midfielders of the team have outstanding offensive and defensive characteristics, how to deploy the combination needs to be considered. Especially in the 343 formation, the midfielders may choose more parallel positions, forming a "one up, one down" posture, and therefore need to have a strong defensive ability and "hardness". In the face of Saudi Arabia and Oman's changing style of play, the national football team needs to strengthen the thickness and hardness of the defense.
At the moment, it seems that if Liao Li Sheng plays, it will bring some advantages. Liao Lixiang scored three goals in the 2016 Rio Olympics qualifiers on behalf of the 93rd National Olympic Team, two of which came from direct free kicks. It will be more difficult for the national football team to tear through the defense of Saudi Arabia and Oman through sports games in the coming 12 matches. In this context, the national football team in training to strengthen the defense to attack, counterattack efforts, positioning ball has become an important means of scoring. Liao Lisheng if playing, will increase this possibility for the national football team. Of course, the final result will have to look at the next period of training and warm-up matches.
For the national football team, Wu Xi will miss the match against Saudi Arabia after accumulating two yellow cards. The red and yellow card issue will also need to be watched out for in future encounters with the Saudis. The team also has eight players with yellow cards, including Stanley Wang, Wang Gang, Wei Shihao, Zhang Linpeng, Zhang Yuning, Wu Lei, Xu Xin and Luo Guofu. Apart from Wang Gang, who is out of the squad due to injury, and Wu Lei and Luo Guofu, whose status is uncertain, the other five are basically starters. They will have to miss the final match against Oman if they are yellow-carded again in the match against Saudi Arabia. If another yellow card is received against Oman, the automatic suspension will be extended to the first match of the group stage of the 2023 Asian Cup as the national football team has finished all official competitions. Therefore, the internationals need to try to avoid unnecessary red and yellow cards in the next two matches of the 12-team tournament to ensure their appearance in the Asian Cup.
