At the pre-match press briefing on May 9, Beijing Guoan's head coach Bilic bluntly pointed out that the team will face many practical challenges and that numerous core players will be left out of the starting lineup ......
Bilic was stone-faced at the meeting
Guoan collected their first win of the new season by defeating Dalian Ren 2-0 in the last round of matches. However, the core of the midfield, Bieira, was unfortunately injured in a confrontation and suffered damage to the medial collateral ligament and meniscus of his right knee, and has now left the Suzhou tournament and returned to Beijing to receive professional treatment.
The problem of personnel shortage does not only appear in the offensive line. In the back line, center back Yu Yang needs to take a break due to rib fracture; South Korean foreign aid Kim Min Jae has returned to South Korea to visit his family on the 8th due to their illness; in addition, the injury of side back Wang Gang is still recovering. Faced with such a predicament, Bilic can only face Wuhan with a broken team.
In the face of adversity, Bilic appeared unusually calm at the briefing, "Although we won our last match, including the match against Shanghai Seaport, we also showed a positive side, so the whole team is looking forward to tomorrow's match. Of course, we also have to face many practical difficulties, such as injuries that have prevented many of our star players from being in the starting lineup."
Bilic admitted that the team's luck was not too good as the players suffered from different kinds of injuries at the beginning of the new season. Against this background, he and the coaching team had to trust the other players and ask them to show courage and responsibility to contribute to a better performance for the team. The absence of the main players also forced the team to adjust the original ball-control tactics.
On how to deal with this predicament, Bilic said, "We have a well-stocked midfield lineup, and although some players are currently unavailable, I don't think it's the right time to complain. On the contrary, we saw in the last game how local player Zhang Xizhe conquered the opponent with his performance. Ji Zhongguo, Gao Tianyi and Li Ke are also very good local players."
He expects these local players to carry the weight of the team and come together as one in the game, putting in patience and hard work to get back-to-back wins.
