Chinese Super League (CSL) juggernaut Guangzhou announced its 35-man first team squad and 30-man reserve team list for the new season today, Xinhua News Agency's Wang Haoming newly disclosed. What is striking is that Guangzhou did not reserve a place for Paulinho and Talisca in the first phase of the Chinese Super League, and the team will have a full Chinese squad for the 2021 season of the Chinese Super League and the AFC Champions League.
In this 35-man first-team list, 11 players are from the Evergrande Football Academy:
Front line: Tan Kai Yuan, Chen Zheng Feng, Wu Jun Hao
Midfield: Yang Dejiang, Li Xingxian, Hou Yu
Defenders: Wang Shilong, Zhang Zhihao, Chen Guanxuan, Luo Junhan
Goalkeeper: Guo Jiayu
Among them, striker Tan Kaiyuan and defender Wang Shilong had played with Guangzhou Evergrande in the Chinese Super League, the AFC Cup or the AFC Champions League last season, accumulating a wealth of experience, while the rest of the nine new upwardly mobile players are all first-time first-teamers.
Guangzhou's off-season has seen a lot of departures, including Xu Xin and Liu Yiming, but no internal or external reinforcements have been brought in. Xu Jiayin's concept of "all Chinese class" and the development promise of "youth training is the king" will be realized in a peculiar way in the 2021 season of the Chinese Super League and the Asian Championship.
However, vision is vision, commitment is commitment, Guangzhou team is also clear, its ten years of eight championships is the main factor in the first-class foreign aid configuration and outstanding local players. This time, although Guangzhou's "all Chinese class" still looks luxurious, but in terms of offensive and defensive balance and characteristics, I'm afraid it will be difficult to regain the status of the Chinese Super League champions, and even difficult to enter the top three.
At that time, Guangzhou team had 6 naturalized players, Jiang Guangtai, Ekerson, Alan, Gaolat, Fernando and Luo Guofu (TBD), of which Jiang Guangtai and Ekerson were already domestic players, and the remaining 4 were still foreign aiders. Theoretically, the Guangzhou team with 6 foreign aiders may be stronger than Shanghai Harbor, Beijing Guoan, Shanghai Shenhua and Shandong Taishan, but the actual strength is not 1+6=6, even less than 5.
First of all, of the five players other than Jiang Guangtai, there are four forwards and a No. 10 position. Wei Shihao, if he stays healthy, will define a winger position; Gaolat should define the core of the offense; the center forward position will be rotated by Ekerson and Allan; and the right side will be rotated by Fernando and Lok Kwok Fu.
This lineup is luxurious, but in addition to Gallagher, the trio of Aixon, Fernando, and Luo Guofu have seen their form decline by at least 40% since they were naturalized; Allan's performance in last season's Guanan was fair, but there is still a considerable gap between him and his peak.
Secondly, the front line is overstocked with attackers, leading to a large deficit in the midfield of the Guangzhou team. In the view of 99% of the fans, the Guangzhou team missing anyone can not be missing Paulinho, because the Guangzhou team of local players can not support the operation of the midfield (not to mention that Paulinho also want to pick up the attack beam, the equivalent of 1 person to do the work of 3 people).
Looking around, Zheng Zhi is about to enter the 41-year-old, can play half a high level will thank God; Huang Bowen experience, technology, awareness is still there, but physical strength is also a big problem; Zhang Xiuwei has good potential, but a bit of a nerve knife; Liao Lixiang situation is difficult to judge; He Chao, Yan Dinghao, remember watching the game of the Hengda last season, did not feel that the two of these two people's excellence and potential.
In short, this group of young players is the epitome of the lack of talent in Chinese soccer. They can play on the main force, not like the initial Zhou Haibin, Zhao Xu Ri, Cui Peng, Huang Bowen, Wang Dong, Du Zhenyu and so on that outstanding, but because of dragging out the bull as a horse ride - can only be will be.
Apart from the hidden problems in the midfield, Guangzhou's backline defense can't be reassuring either. It's doubtful that Jiang Guangtai and Zhang Linpeng can stay healthy, and Gao Zhunyi will likely have to play as a wingback, so the starting center backs at the beginning of the season could see the faces of newcomers, possibly Wang Shilong or a newly promoted youngster.
No matter how you analyze it, the Guangzhou team that lacks Paulinho is really not enough to fight against several other giants in terms of paper strength and staffing. Therefore, I boldly predict that if Paulinho can't return in the second or third stage, Guangzhou will be difficult to kill the top four at the end of this season's Chinese Super League!
