The battle for redemption? Facing Saudi Arabia at home, the atmosphere of the team is heavy, and the national football team still has a chance to do these points
This Tuesday, the national football team will usher in the second match of the World Preliminary Round of 18, the Chinese men's football team will face the challenge of the Saudi Arabian team at the Dalian Barracuda Bay Football Stadium, after the humiliating defeat in the last round away to Japan, the current national football team is cloudy, the atmosphere seems very heavy, with the pressure of public opinion facing the loss, the players are obviously carrying heavy psychological baggage, if this round against Saudi Arabia can not get the performance it deserves, this national football team will once again face the criticism of hundreds of millions of fans across the country.
The opponent of the national football team in this round Saudi Arabia, is also our old opponent, although we are still winning less and losing more in the confrontation, but we do not have much gap with Saudi Arabia's strength, in the 2022 Qatar World Cup, China and Saudi Arabia are in the same group in the round of 12, the Chinese men's football team drew 1-1 at home to Saudi Arabia, away is in the case of the first goal conceded, stubbornly narrowed the score gap, and finally lost to Saudi Arabia with a score of 2-3, combined with these two games, the gap between the Chinese team and the Saudi team is not very large, Victory or defeat is actually a matter of a fraction of a second.
The last time the Chinese men's football team defeated Saudi Arabia, in fact, it was not far away, in the 2015 Australia Asian Cup, we met Saudi Arabia in the first round of the group stage, and the national football team under the leadership of Perrin performed well in the whole game, and the two sides played back and forth in the game, and the Chinese team relied on free kicks in the last moment of the game to directly score and kill the opponent, ushering in the opening of the Asian Cup. In that game, the Chinese men's football team defeated Saudi Arabia again after more than ten years, which once caused a boil among fans across the country.
With such a past record, it is a good psychological comfort for the Chinese men's football team, although there is still a gap between us and Saudi Arabia, but such a gap can completely rely on the fighting spirit of the players, as well as the arrangement of coaches, to narrow or even make up for the gap, as long as the team does a good job of defense while playing steadily, Saudi Arabia does not have a strong ability to blast and attack like Japan, so we still have a chance in the face of Saudi Arabia, of course, I don't know how Ivan will think about all this, in the eyes of many fans, There are three things that need to be changed, the first of which is to make changes in the formation of the team, and at the same time, there are also some personnel adjustments in individual positions, including the morale of the team, and it is also necessary to relieve some pressure and face the game in the best condition.
1. The formation must be adjusted, and there is no shame in defending and counterattacking
After the last heavy defeat to Japan, Ivan's most criticized is in the formation arrangement, the starting 442 formation, the forward line put two players Wu Lei and Zhang Yuning, in the attack did not have the opportunity to participate much, the defense of the two forwards did not retreat too deep to participate in more defense, so that we compared with the Japan team, the defensive personnel are at a disadvantage, can make the opponent very calmly start to shoot or pass. So in the face of such an opponent who is obviously stronger than himself, Ivan made a mistake in the arrangement of the formation, perhaps Ivan overestimated the ability of the players and underestimated the strength of the Japan team.
Therefore, in the face of Saudi Arabia, the 442 formation must be abandoned, in the face of Saudi Arabia, which is stronger than itself, perhaps the formation of the five defenders is more reliable, the national football team and Saudi Arabia in the recent confrontation game, the Chinese men's football team at that time was 541 formation, holding a draw. In addition, in the last round of the game, Indonesia away against Saudi Arabia is also the same 541 formation, and finally won a draw, in this difficult moment, we also need a thirst-quenching draw to relieve the pressure, not to mention that we also have speed forwards such as Fernando, Wu Lei, Alain, etc., while stabilizing the defense, they can also wait for the opportunity to counterattack.
2. If the state is not good, individual players need to be adjusted
In the last round of the game, all the defenders of the national football team were not online, especially in the fullback position, whether it was left or right, there was no good performance, although the opponent was Kaoru Mikasa, Kubo Kenei and other five major league players, but so let the opponent calmly kick up, it really shouldn't be. According to the latest news, fullback Liu Yang has left the national team due to a recurrence of an old injury. Facing Saudi Arabia in this campaign, fullbacks Li Lei and Gao Zhunyi may usher in a starting opportunity. If three central defenders are used, Jiang Shenglong will return to the central defender position, and Jiang Shenglong, who served as the back midfielder in the last round, did not complete the task well. In addition, on the forward line, Wu Lei, Fernando and Alan will all have the opportunity to start as a weapon in the frontcourt.
3. Unload the baggage and boost the team's morale
After the end of the fiasco, the team's morale fell to the bottom, the inner self-blame and the pressure of public opinion, so that the players carried a heavy psychological baggage, now the team coaching staff needs to do is to guide the players to forget about the loss, devote themselves to the preparation for the face of Saudi Arabia, failure is not terrible, as long as the next game, we play with spirit, but also usher in the love of the fans. Forget everything that happened and go all out to meet the game.
The disastrous defeat against Japan made many fans very sad, but in the face of the home game against Saudi Arabia, there are still many fans who choose to go to the scene to support, and also hope that the Chinese men's football team can play with spirit and go all out to play the game, so as not to make the beloved fans sad again.