The 2021 AFC Champions League East Asian group stage has all ended. Four Korean clubs, three Japanese clubs and one Thai club have won the right to qualify. Together with the top 8 in West Asia, they will start from September 1/8. finals. For the Chinese Super League team, the shameful record of 12 games with 1 draw and 11 losses, 4 goals and 40 conceded goals made the two clubs only choose to remain silent after the teams were eliminated, and they dare not even mention the so-called young players. Got exercise. To a certain extent, this year’s AFC Champions League has a more realistic meaning for Chinese football, that is:It completely pierced the “cowhide” of “our youth training is doing well” that the Chinese Super League club has repeatedly advocated in recent years! All the problems of Chinese youth football training are once again fully and clearly presented to the people through the platform of the AFC. Where is the future of Chinese football?
As the ESPN Asian football website commented in an article titled “The Guangzhou-Beijing AFC defeat magnifies the elusive problem of Chinese football youth (widely existing)”, “Guangzhou and Beijing are in the AFC Champions League. His performance should give Chinese football enough worries and worries. This is not to attack young and energetic players. They have been thrown into the mouth of the tiger. They have not found what they want through hard work on the pitch. However, it is based on quality. In other words, there is a clear gap between them and their opponents, and this should really worry this population of 1.4 billion, because their national team is still considered one of the strong teams in Asia. Moreover, it must One hypothesis to admit is that it’s hard for you to imagine that if Japanese or South Korean youths participated in the competition, would they encounter such disappointing results in the same situation?”
With the title of “The Strategic Failure of Chinese Football”, the author conducted an in-depth analysis of the AFC Champions League, which attracted a lot of controversy. One of the most important reasons is:The People’s Club said from the beginning, it is to “create opportunities for young players” and “let young players get exercise.”In name, it seems to train young players, but in essence, it is more appropriate to describe or describe it as “destructive”.
When a group of young people in their 20s and their 20s failed miserably by 0 to 3, 0 to 4, 0 to 5, and 0 to 7 for half a month,As the person concerned, do I prefer to end this torture as soon as possible, or even forget it completely, or is it more willing to continue to remember?
They are also training young players. When the Shanghai Shenhua team played in the AFC Champions League last year, players in the 99 and 01 age groups such as Zhu Yue, Jiang Shenglong, Zhou Junchen, etc. were all given the opportunity to play, but they were “bringing the new with the old.” In the case of “, the veteran team members will lead the battle. Although it was also a loss, when Zhu Yue returned to the 01-year-old National Youth Team and played in this year’s China League Two, he obviously felt “long ball”. He also felt that he played in the AFC Champions League with Shenhua at the end of last year. Although he only played three games in total, his knowledge of football and the improvement of the game helped him a lot! This is the real training of young players.
I remember that with Guoan leading 2-0, after the three goals were reversed by Philippine Union City 3-2 in the second half, head coach Zoran Jankovic said with emotion at the post-match press conference: “This is no experience. The result of this is what we expected beforehand, especially when young players are under pressure. So why do I hope to bring a few more players from the first team before I came here (Uzbekistan) To support us, if there is one more adult team’s central defender, the situation may be completely different. Moreover, I can be sure that if we have a few veteran players in line, we will be able to perform better, not in 2 We were reversed when we were ahead of 0. Faced with this situation, we can’t do anything.”
What is to create training opportunities for young players and accelerate the growth of young players? Jankovic’s comment has it all. Moreover, from the perspective of the player’s growth process, a young player grows up slowly following the veteran players’ continuous experience of victory. Compared with this kind of player who has experienced continuous miserable defeats and has even lost to a numb atmosphere, he has grown up. Which type of player has a better chance of becoming a talent?This is essentially the inevitable evil produced by the “ignorant and fearless” of Chinese club management, and the result of “outsiders commanding insiders”.
Someone once said: “A player who has been growing up in failure will never grow up.” Young players like Guangzhou and Guoan can grow up faster through this AFC Champions League? In the next period of time, how many of the two youth teams that have participated in the AFC Champions League will eventually be able to enter their respective first teams and become the team’s main or even core players? We can wait and see and let time make the best answer.
②Youth training, do you remember the “bull” you used to blow?
It is said that the reason why Guoan and Guangzhou dared to send youth troops to play this time is not only affected by a series of objective factors such as the domestic league, the national team’s top 40 matches, and the requirements of the epidemic prevention policy, etc., a very important reason is that :The performance and results of these two youth teams in domestic competitions are quite good, giving the club the courage to send youth teams to play.There are even such anecdotes:Because the club is a temporary group to participate in the competition, many staff members are only signed short-term temporary contracts. So someone has asked this question:What happens to the contract if I qualify for the group stage?This made the club unable to give an answer and could only reply: “Let’s watch it again.”
Although this is just a small episode, it reflects to some extent that they are confident of playing the AFC before the expedition, but the final result is “the ideal is very full, the reality is very skinny.” It can only be said that one’s own cognition and positioning , The level of the AFC still lacks a correct judgment. But, in turn,This time the AFC Champions League has not allowed domestic clubs to have a deeper understanding and reflection on their youth echelon?
Every time the adult first team of Chinese football encounters a failure, the training of young people is repeatedly mentioned. There is nothing wrong with attaching importance to young people and forming echelons. However, if you just treat it as a “show ground” or just a “tool” for club promotion, the youth training is destined to be just a form. Therefore, in recent years, there has been such a “strange phenomenon” in Chinese youth football:On the one hand, the performance of the Chinese national youth team in the Intercontinental Youth Competition is deteriorating, and the results are worse than every year; on the other hand, many domestic clubs are keen to promote the so-called “positive energy”, and the youth training of this club is done. How outstanding, “We are serious about doing youth training!”
Pay attention to it a little bit. Those clubs or units that say that the “academic training” is doing well are nothing more than some utilitarian terms or rhetoric:In terms of youth team building, we have invested 2 to 3 billion in 10 years; how many championships have been won in these years, including the number of national championships sponsored by the Chinese Football Association；It has sent dozens, hundreds or even more than 200 small international players to the national youth teams at all levels in China.
When everyone is saying that Chinese football should pay attention to youth training, naturally some people must keep up with the situation, not only paying attention to it but also having “excellent results.” The leader was of course happy to hear it. As for the next thing, in fact, everyone understands it. But the leader may not know or understand what the real “youth training” is, and what is the real “youth training is doing well.”
One of the simplest or most basic logic:If these local clubs really pay attention to and do a good job in youth training, why is it more and more difficult for Chinese national youth teams at all levels to qualify in Asian youth qualifiers at all levels and to enter the top 16 in Asia?In the past, entering the top four in Asia and getting tickets to the World Youth Championships and World Junior Championships would give people a brief moment of joy. Today, to qualify from the qualifiers and get tickets for the final stage of the Asian Youth Event, the competent department or unit is like “New Year”, and even can’t wait to “invite credit”. This is the concrete manifestation of our “doing well in youth training”? Furthermore, what face do local clubs and local units have to stand up and “bragger” and say that they “do a good job in youth training”?
Faced with the performance of the Chinese Super League youth team in this year’s AFC Champions League, can we further raise this question:What are the performance, abilities and standards of these players, and how did they enter the national team of Chinese youths at all levels? Isn’t there anything tricky?So, are these so-called “doing well in youth training” clubs or units really cultivating young players?
③The standards of “academic training” need to be re-understood
The author does not mean to deny it completely. It is better to spend money to build echelon than not willing to spend money to build echelon. Otherwise, the development of professional football in various countries in the world does not need to require clubs to have their own echelon, and the Chinese Football Association does not need to be in the access standards. China has put forward specific requirements for the echelon. What the author really wants to say is that the quality of youth training is not measured by how many championships and how much money is spent, but how many players the echelon sends to the first team each year.
In fact, everyone who is engaged in the training of young players knows that it has always been a “drought job”. It requires a down-to-earth and obscured work. It requires the spirit of “a sword for ten years” and can stand loneliness. but,Looking at the current domestic youth player training, the youth training is not based on how many people are sent upwards and how many people are trained as a basic measure. Instead, it is based on how many championships are won and how many people enter the youth national team. They are spending more money than anyone else.Obviously, this is the evil result planted by “Golden Dollar Football”, which has completely swallowed China’s youth football. Moreover, there are more “boasting” than “doing practical things”. In youth training, more is not about sending talents up, but about being able to sell them for a good price. With such training of young people, how can they cultivate real football seedlings and players?
From another perspective, at the low-level competition level of Chinese youth, how about a team that has won hundreds of championships? As for the Guozihao team, there have been many rumors surrounding the various “cats” in the selection process and the use of Guozihao as a “private transaction platform” in the past few years. Are there still few rumors? So, how can it prove that the youth training work is doing well?
If it’s really “a good job in youth training”, why do these clubs not directly promote from the echelon of their club when implementing the “U23 policy”, but rather spend a lot of money to introduce them from outside? To answer “whether the youth training is done well or not” is actually enough, “In the first team, how many players come from the echelon of this club?”
There are indeed many giant clubs in the world of football. Their echelon building work is quite good, but they rarely can be transferred to the first team. Most of them are trained and used by themselves, and then put into the transfer market to strive for recovery. Cost, and strive to form a virtuous circle. This is the basic law and principle. Professional football in China is in its infancy, but in the crazy “Golden Dollar Football Era”, “buy, buy, buy” replaces everything.Not only the first-team players “buy” everywhere, even the 13 or 14-year-old young players are “buy”.As for whether they can cultivate talents and transfer them to the first team after the purchase, it is not what they care about, because the boss gave the money and asked me to spend the money to form an echelon. After the money is spent, the team is built, and the task is completed. . This is the so-called youth training of the current Chinese professional club echelon!
As a result, this year’s AFC Champions League, under the influence and impact of various objective situations, finally allowed these wealthy clubs accustomed to “boasting” to show the results of their youth training. 1 draw, 11 losses, 4 goals and conceded 40 goals, this is the answer they handed over.
The reason why the author said that the youth training road of Chinese football has been completely “wrong” over the years is that:The “door” between the first team and the echelon was completely “blocked” in the Jin and Yuan era.Before the Jin Yuan era, whether it was Dalian, Shandong Luneng, Shanghai Shenhua, etc., they were all promoted from their own youth team to create a world. But now? Take Shanghai Shenhua as an example. Xu Genbao’s 99-year-old players are the culmination of his hard work. At most, 9 people were selected for the U19 National Youth Team. Even the current U23 National Football Team has six or seven players and seven or eight players. After the Shenhua club spent money to bring in all from Genbao, few players of this age can make an appearance in the first team of Shenhua, and not many even have signed up for the first team.
④The technical and tactical content is almost “desperate”
The youth army played in the AFC Champions League, and the author agrees with the opinion and statement that “the results are no longer the first. However, the whole process of the game and the content displayed, as long as you look at the data provided by the AFC official, you can directly describe it as “near despair”. It is difficult for people to see the hope of Chinese football in the future. Please see the statistical comparison table of several core data of football matches compiled by the author.
As young players, facing the opposing adult first-team players, we can understand that we are at a disadvantage in terms of overall strength and confrontation, and do not have an advantage in ball control, but in terms of the most basic passing, whether it is Guoan or the Guangzhou team, It’s not like a professional player who has been engaged for a long time.
According to the official data of the AFC, this year’s AFC Champions League group stage 10 teams played a total of 120 games, with a total of 105,746 passes, an average of 881.2 times per game. The Guoan team has a total of 1749 passes in 6 games, 291.5 times per game; the Guangzhou team has a total of 1,854 passes in 6 games, 309 times per game. The average pass of the two Chinese Super League youth teams is almost exactly 300. Therefore, comparing the average of 881.2 passes per game, it is not difficult to imagine the situation of the two teams. More importantly, with such a small number of passes, the pass success rate is only about 73%. How many really effective passes can be? Needless to say. Compare the situation of the opponents of the two teams in the same group, and there is no need to talk about the difference. Moreover, there are no specific statistics on the number of backcourt passes, the number of midfield passes, and the number of passes into the three areas of the frontcourt attack. The latter is almost negligible. This is from the statistics of the number of shots and corner kicks. It can be seen.
Due to the limited overall strength and level, it is understandable to adopt the strategy of firm defense first. However, the truly desperate data is: one-to-one, especially one-to-one competition in the air. If it can be said that because of their young age, the two Chinese Super League youth teams “suffered” in a one-on-one confrontation with excuses. However, regardless of Guoan or Guangzhou, the players are generally taller than the players from Korea, Japan, the Philippines, and Thailand. However, when fighting for a header, our players can’t get the first point. When facing the opposing high center forward, our players are even more at a loss.
I remember that after Guoan defeated the Kawasaki forward by a big score, in the third round of the game against South Korea’s Daegu team, it was once again defeated 0-5. Guoan coach Jankovic said with helpless emotion at the press conference after the game: ” We can’t do anything about opposing Silva. We can’t compete against a team that has a high center forward like Silva. The players simply don’t listen to my guidance. I told them how to mark such a high. Center, but they did not follow my instructions at all. I asked my players to jump up and fight for the first point and prevent Silva from fighting for the first point, but we simply couldn’t fight for the first point. Point, so we lost two goals easily at the start, so we can only lose this game. That’s why we lost.”
In this game, the central defender of the Guoan team is Liang Shaowen and Ruan Qilong. The former is 1.87 meters and the latter is 1.83 meters. As a central defender, such a height is not short, but facing 1.91 meters of center Silva, it is Can’t grab the first point.
Once upon a time, the Chinese team was dubbed the “head team” by the outside world. There was no other need to deal with Southeast Asian teams, which was to arrange for high center forwards like Li Bing, Su Maozhen, Xie Hui, Zhang Yuning (big) to play headers. You can solve the problem. But now, Chinese players have better physical conditions and figures than before. However, looking at the current Chinese football, the national team cannot find a center with a better header. Looking at the youth, with a height, it is also impossible to find a player with a better header. With technology unable to compete with opponents, even the physical advantage is now useless. In the AFC Champions League, according to incomplete statistics, more than 1/3 of the 40 goals lost by the Guoan and Guangzhou teams were scored by the opponent’s header. Even Japanese and Thai players can easily header. Is it ridiculous? sad! But this is the reality. What is the future of Chinese football? What is the hope of these youth troops?
Here, I have no intention of criticizing or accusing young players, nor do I want to criticize or accuse the two coaches Jankovic and Liu Zhiyu, who led the team temporarily. The lack of skills and tactics, abilities, and levels of young players certainly has their own reasons, but more should be found from the aspects of training their coaches and management from an early age. When we are all saying “there are no students who can’t teach well, only teachers who can’t teach”, “there are no teachers who can’t teach, there are only principals who can’t manage”, cultivating young players is an educational project, not an ” Bragging engineering”. but,In the process of training young players, how much time and energy are spent on football skills, tactics, and especially polishing various personal skills?
I invite this foreign teacher today, another one tomorrow, and another one the day after tomorrow, with all kinds of so-called “championship auras”; today I call this “advanced concept”, and tomorrow I call that “better concept”. All kinds of propaganda, all kinds of flicker, just in line with the appetite of the relevant propaganda department. However, over the years, the characteristics and traditions of Chinese football have all been abandoned, creating the embarrassment of today’s Chinese youth football. It is said that only when Marxism is combined with the practice of the Chinese revolution can China have the glory of today. Why does Chinese football have to go to this step?
The training of young people in Chinese football can no longer “fudge”!
Ma DexingReturn to Sohu to see more
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