The Henan team started the second phase of winter training: He Chao and other new signings appeared, and the foreign aid central defenders were about to be in place

Reporter Lu Mi reports Henan team is the Chinese Super League team that closed the holiday earlier. In the first phase of winter training from November 28 to December 15, 2024, they mainly recovered at the Zhongmu base, and then took a longer vacation, took a vacation on January 2, 2025, and arrived in Kunming the next day to start the second phase of winter training.

The second stage of intensive training focused on technical and tactical drills, so the neatness of personnel was required. Judging from the personnel changes after the holiday, some players whose contracts have expired have left the team, and new recruits He Chao, Zheng Dalun, and Yin Hongbo have begun to train with the team.

After the Henan team arrived in Kunming on January 3, the second phase of winter training began, and the task of head coach Nan Jiyi in this stage is to further hone his tactics, so the personnel formation of the new season is also a very important task in this period.

In last season's personnel framework, there were some players who did not participate in this training camp with the team, including Feng Boyuan, Li Songyi, Gu Cao, Ke Zhao, Li Tenglong, whose contracts expired, and Xu Haofeng, whose contracts had not expired, did not accompany the team this time. The situation of these people is different, Feng Boyuan, Li Songyi, Li Tenglong all belong to the expiration of the contract, both parties have no intention of renewing the contract and voluntarily leave the team, among which Li Songyi has been determined to join Yunnan Yukun, and is currently following the promotion horse to start training.

Veterans Gu Cao and Ke Zhao worked in the first team as assistant coaches and players last year, and both of them also won the opportunity to play, but considering the age factor, they both have the idea of completely transforming into coaches this year. The club suggested to them to start from the echelon coach, after all, Song Kai, chairman of the Chinese Football Association, proposed at the China Football Development Seminar that the future Football Association advocates retired players to start as youth coaches. There are still several echelons in the Henan club that have vacancies for coaches for two veterans to choose from, however, Ke Zhao intends to return to his hometown in Wuhan for family reasons, and the club also said that on the basis of respecting his wishes, he is welcome to return to the Henan club as a coach at any time. Regardless of the final choice of the two veterans, Henan FC will hold a grand retirement ceremony for them at the start of the new season to thank them for their contributions to the club during their playing days.

Fullback Xu Haofeng originally had a contract with the club, but because his performance in the Henan team last year did not meet expectations, and there were many red cards, it caused a lot of controversy. In this winter training period, the club has reached an agreement with Xu Haofeng that he will be looking for loan opportunities and is currently negotiating loan terms with other clubs. In addition to Xu Haofeng, Zhong Yihao, who still has a contract with the club this year, is also likely to be on loan. The reason why Zhong Yihao is willing to go out on loan is mainly because of Nan Jiyi's technical and tactical characteristics, which makes the club consider conditionally loaning him to other teams, and the best plan is to be able to exchange for one or two young players.

The Henan team went to Kunming for training this time to recall the players who were on loan last season, and also transferred a number of young players from the echelon for inspection. There are players leaving, there are new players coming, the first batch of new signings to the team, from the position point of view, are just needed by the Henan team, they are midfielder He Chao, Yin Hongbo and fullback Zheng Dalun.

With the introduction of two new players in the midfield position, plus the original international player Wang Shangyuan and Huang Ruifeng, who performed well last season, the Henan team has hoarded more personnel in this position this year, and the personnel rotation space has increased. The main reason for the change in midfield personnel is the need for tactical adjustments. After the departure of foreign player Denich at the expiration of his contract, Nan Jiyi does not plan to continue to use the midfield combination of foreign aid and domestic players, but is ready to use the all-Chinese midfield configuration. One of the two foreign players vacated after the departure of Denic and Kovic is intended to remain in the forward line, while the other is planned to be used at centre-back to form a double centre-back with Maidana.

During the preparation period last season, Nan Jiyi originally adopted a four-back formation, but after entering the league, the effect was not ideal, and he tried a variety of combinations, and finally changed to three central defenders, completely subverting the tactical preset of the preparation period. The purpose of this year's combination of two foreign players is to improve the personal standard of the defenders on the basis of returning to the back four. Nankiichi went to Brazil to hand-pick foreign central defenders during the holidays, and has already finalized Lucas Maia. Maia), the 31-year-old centre-back from Paisandu is 1.92m tall and has scored two goals in 29 appearances last season. The Henan club will soon make an official announcement of this signing, and Maia will soon join the team.

In the forward position, after Kovic left, there were some scandalous foreign strikers in the Henan team, but so far, the club is still comparing the alternatives, and there is no final confirmation. The internal players on the front line, since Feng Boyuan left the team, the club originally planned to introduce Nantong Zhiyun striker Zheng Haoqian, and started negotiations very early, but Zheng Haoqian finally chose to go to Wuhan Three Towns, so the club is still continuing to compare and screen among several forward target candidates.