Three consecutive matches, the national soccer team in the Asian Cup performance hit a record low. Wu Lei, who is the team's top player, only hit the target twice in three matches, and missed a "once-in-a-lifetime" opportunity in Lebanon, which triggered a lot of criticism.
There is even a platform blunt: "Qatar Asian Cup, Wu Lei debut. 171 minutes, zero goals, two shots on goal, his national team career should be drawn to a close?" Such skepticism is endless.
However, even if there are questions about Wu Lei's performance and role, discussing whether he should continue to be selected for the national team at this juncture is, at best, an attention grabber.
In fact, the vast majority of the Chinese team's players play in the Chinese Super League, with the exception of a few returnees. Therefore, an important criterion to measure whether a striker is worthy of a national team call-up is his or her performance in the league.
In the 2023 season, Wu Lei was honored as the Silver Boot of the Chinese Super League with 18 goals (including 1 penalty), while another local player, Tan Long, followed with 10 goals. Wang Ziming and Ackerson (with 2 penalties) scored 8 goals each, while Yu Hanchao, Lu Wenjun and Wang Qiuming all contributed 6 goals.
At the end of the season, there were only seven Chinese players with more than five goals. Among them, Wang Qiuming is a midfielder. As for Han Chao, who is 37 years old and above, he was put on the national team's "blacklist" for illegal license plate operation. Of the remaining five, in addition to Wu Lei, Tan Long has been accused of "waste" in the Asian Cup, Ekerson was questioned because of the change in size after naturalization, Lu Wenjun has never represented the national team in his career, and is older than Wu Lei. Although Prince Ming is suitable for his age, his goal distribution shows that his goals mainly come from weak teams and rotation tactics.
In addition, Wu Lei also contributed six assists in the 2023 season, ranking eighth on the Chinese Super League's assists list; among local players, only seven players had more assists than Wu Lei.
So, if some people think Wu Lei should not be selected for the national team, what player could take his place based on his performance in the 23rd season of the Chinese Super League? With a severe shortage of homegrown strikers, how can a coach not capitalize on a player who is the Silver Boot with 18 goals in a season, the MVP of the league, and the second-most assisted player on the list?
Of course, some would argue that Wu Lei scored thanks to Oscar's assist. However, many overlook the fact that Oscar returned to Brazil in the first phase of 2022 and did not return until the final round of the AFC Cup.
So, returning in the middle of the 2022 season, what did Wu Lei deliver without Oscar's support? He made a total of 12 appearances and scored 11 goals! And that was with the gradual liberalization of the epidemic policy and frequent attrition of teams (only the last four rounds of the year were sent to youth or forfeited due to the epidemic).
Of course, the 2022 season was also the season in which homegrown attackers got the most chances to perform. Local strikers with five or more goals that year included Zhang Yuning (19 goals), Lin Liangming (12 goals), Tan Long (10 goals), Yang Liyu (9 goals), Zhu Jianrong (8 goals), Lu Wenjun (8 goals), Chen Pu (8 goals), Xie Pengfei (8 goals). Barton (7 goals), Huang Zichang (7 goals), Zhong Yihao (7 goals), Shang Yin (7 goals), Xie Weijun (7 goals), Zhang Wei (6 goals), Wei Shihao (6 goals).
In short, in the 2022 season, Wu Lei, without Oscar's support, returned midway through the season to play 12 games and score even fewer goals than Lin Liangming and Zhang Yuning.
And, with only 22 rounds of the 21st season of the Chinese Super League, domestic players who scored more than 5 goals were Ackerson (11), Guo Tianyu (10), Zhang Yuning (7), Lu Wenjun (6), and Wei Shihao (6). In the same year, Tan Long was the only double-amputee to score in China A.
It's safe to say that since the tournament-based Chinese Super League, Zhang Yuning, Ackerson, Wu Lei, Lu Wenjun, Tan Long, and Wei Shihao have only had more than five domestic players (in at least two seasons at that standard) in the last four years.
Of these, only Lu was never recruited by Jankovic, and Ackerson was dropped, while the other four players have been fairly stable in the national team.
In this case, the Chinese Super League each year scored more than five goals of domestic players are few, the national football team's forward line selection space is extremely limited.
If Jankovic did start some perennial Chinese Super League striker with less than 5 goals instead of Wu Lei's spot on the roster, those who criticized Wu Lei would have by now begun to question why Jankovic didn't take him!
