Shenhua climbed to the second place in the table after overtaking Dalian People by three points in the Suzhou match, ending the haze of three consecutive defeats. However, head coach Choi Kang-hee did not revel in the joy at the post-match press conference, instead lamenting, "In my coaching career, I would not like to encounter such a fierce competition again."
The game was reversed from 2:0 to 2:2, with Huang Jiahui's goal in the 86th minute causing Shenhua players to lose their heads. Fortunately, in injury time, Shenhua beat Dalian Ren with a lucky strike, a hard-earned victory.
Choi Kang-hee analyzed: "In the first half, the team exposed many bad habits, whether it was the compactness of the formation or effective pressing, but failed to do so. In the second half, the players made some adjustments and performed moderately well, which was also translated into two goals, but then two goals were recovered and we nearly conceded another goal. 2:0 score is a danger signal for us, the players were too relaxed and the overall performance had a big problem. I believe everyone can learn something from this game and try to improve."
This game really deserves Shenhua's deep reflection and summarization. Why did the team lose their rhythm when they were leading by two goals? After Dalian equalized, Choi Kang-hee made a decisive substitution, replacing Adrian with Kim Shin-wook.
Kim Shin-wook, a returning player from the end of the World Preliminary 40, underwent 14+7 days of isolated medical observation and community health management upon his return to China. During this period, Jin Xinyu was unable to train in the normal system and could only do simple physical exercises in the isolation room. Last Monday, Jin Xinyu returned to the team, training with the team for only one week, obviously the physical state has not recovered to the best. From Jin Xin Yu's performance, he did not have a significant impact on the team, and did not put pressure on the opponent's back line.
Before Kim Shin-wook came on, Shenhua already had four foreigners on the field. Therefore, in order to replace Kim Shin-wook, Choi Kang-hee had to remove one of the foreigners. In the end, he chose to remove Adrian, the centerpiece of the midfield. Despite Adrian's poor performance, with many mistakes in the first half, he improved in the second half and successfully linked up the team's midfield. Under his organization, Shenhua played a smooth attack in the second half, and the team's first goal was initiated by Adrian.
