Sports Weekly All-media reporter Ma Dexing reported from Haikou
On the morning of April 24, China’s U23 national football team in the 99-year-old team won a 2-0 victory over Changchun Yatai in a warm-up match before disbanding. Perhaps the most concerned about the game is that the U23 national football team has the support of five major international players, allowing the team to conduct drills with a complete lineup for the first time. The overall effect is good, not only makes the defense more solid, but also the offense is three-dimensional.
Zhu Chenjie makes the fence tighter
As we all know, it has been more than three years since Jankovic took over the U23 national football team, and he has already formed his own prototype, but it is a pity that a player like Zhu Chenjie of the right age has never participated in the training camp with this team. This time, I participated in the systematic training of the U23 national football team for the first time during the quarantine period when I returned to Haikou from the United Arab Emirates. As for Dai Weijun, he joined the U23 national football team this time because he was a player who changed membership. What will the joining of the two bring to the U23 national football team? This is obviously more concerned about the outside world.
In this warm-up match, it may be because the three overage players only participated in a few training sessions, and they are not too familiar with the overall technical and tactical. For protection purposes, the three overage players were not scheduled to start. The entire starting lineup is still U23-aged players. This also makes the performance of Zhu Chenjie and Dai Weijun particularly worthy of attention.
It has to be said that among the three lines of players of the U23 national football age, the central defender is the strongest configuration. Whether it is Jiang Shenglong, Wu Shaocong or Zhu Chenjie, they can all be said to be the best three central defenders in this age group. Therefore, Yan Kewei Qi has directly adopted the “343” formation from the beginning, instead of using the “442” or “433” formation as in the Dubai Cup, I am afraid that he hopes to be able to send all three of the best centre backs as much as possible. Moreover, in the arrangement of these three central defenders, Wu Shaocong and Zhu Chenjie are separated from the left and right sides, and Jiang Shenglong is behind. Because under normal circumstances, Zhu Chenjie has already played the main force in the national team. After the baptism of the top 12, it seems more suitable and competent to be delayed, but Yankovic arranged for him to be on the right side. I am afraid this has a lot to do with Zhu Chenjie’s rush. In the process of defending, domestic defenders blindly retreated instead of taking the initiative to meet them, allowing the opponent to further press their own goal. But Zhu Chenjie is very good at grabbing in actual combat. Even if he can’t grab the ball, he can get closer to the defensive distance with the opponent’s player holding the ball, which is more conducive to defense. And Wu Shaocong also has such characteristics. So, this is where this U23 team is different from other national teams in defense. The joining of Zhu Chenjie has undoubtedly made the defense of the U23 national football team stronger.
Dai Weijun’s Metronome
The role and characteristics of Dai Weijun’s transition from defense to attack are more clearly visible. In the Dubai Cup, when the U23 national football team changed from defense to offense or from offense to defense, it was always a rhythm, blindly seeking speed.
However, fast and slow are relative, and at the same time fast, sometimes slow is needed. The joining of Dai Weijun is precisely the change in the rhythm of this U23 team based on the original style and foundation of “blindly seeking speed”. The goal scored by Dai Weijun in the 23rd minute of the first half for the U23 national football team actually illustrates this well. After grabbing the ball, Dai Weijun did not immediately dispose of the ball, but first controlled the ball, attracted two opponents to come up to press, and then suddenly forwarded it to Fang Hao, who quickly distributed the ball to Tao Qianglong Then fast forward. At this time, Dai Weijun did not speed up, but kept a certain distance behind him. After his teammates brought the ball to the penalty area, he pushed forward to receive the ball. Choose a shot. In the first half of the game, Dai Weijun’s play and role in the midfield was significantly different from when he represented the national team. Perhaps, the current U23 national football players themselves are relatively young and lack experience, or perhaps the current U23 national football playing method is more suitable for Dai Weijun’s play.
Therefore, the joining of Dai Weijun and Zhu Chenjie has to some extent improved the overall performance of the U23 national football team by “half level”. This is undoubtedly what everyone wants to see. If after a longer run-in, perhaps the overall effect is more obvious.
Three-dimensional attack
In the second half, as Dai Weijun was injured and replaced by Wu Xi, and then Zhang Linpeng and Zhang Yuning came on the bench, a notable change was that the U23 national football team’s offensive end showed a three-dimensional effect. In particular, the cooperation of the U23 national football team in the attacking end of the midfield and frontcourt has been significantly diversified. In addition to the past crosses from the flank, Zhang Yuning, as a center forward, can dribble the ball by himself, and can be used as a fulcrum and knockback. Inserting a shot, or a rib player jumping forward to complete the shot, etc., all kinds of shots are constantly being taken. This proves from one side why Yankovic chooses Zhang Yuning at this stage. Of course, this has a lot to do with the fact that Zhang Yuning is still in a good state.
During the Dubai Cup, due to the injury of high center Shan Huanhuan and Guo Tianyu due to play in Europe, the forwards in the U23 national football team were relatively simple in type, so the whole attacking routine became simpler. This has a lot to do with staffing. But after Zhang Yuning joined, there was a foundation for change. And Wu Xi sits in the midfield, Zhang Linpeng is the center back on the right side of the three defenders, and he moves forward from time to time to participate in the attack launch. These make the U23 national football team appear more mature, so there are more changes. And this just shows the role of overage players.
Of course, a situation that has to be said is that after participating in four training sessions with the U23 national football team, several over-age players privately said: “It has been a long time since such a large number of training sessions have been held!” This precisely reflects the U23 national football team. training quality. Assuming that these over-age players can keep up with a large number of training sessions of the U23 national football team on the existing basis, and further strengthen their physical fitness, they may also play a greater role. In terms of personal skills, personal ability and game experience, these old players are definitely above the young U23 players, but because the overall training level and training quality of Chinese football in the past period of time were not high, so they performed well in competitions. It came out not ideal.
It is hoped that the U23 national football team will make breakthroughs in this regard and achieve results, so that the level of competition training in Chinese football can be improved to a higher level. This may be the reason why the outside world is now placing hopes on this U23 national football team.
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