During the interval of large-scale recruitment + injury impact, Shenhua is about to usher in the most difficult schedule

Special correspondent Gan Hui reports This weekend, the Chinese Super League, which has been suspended for about a month, will be re-ignited. Shanghai Shenhua will usher in the first away game of the 2025 Chinese Super League season against Henan in this round. It is understood that Shenhua will go to Zhengzhou on the afternoon of March 27 to prepare for the game on the 29th.

After the 1/8 final of the AFC Champions League against Japan's Kawasaki Frontale on March 12, Shenhua coach Slutsky gave the players who had been playing for more than a month a short break, and the team regrouped on March 19 to prepare for the next stage of the league at the Kushi Kangqiao Sports Base. However, under the dual influence of personnel transfer and injuries, Shenhua's personnel are extremely uneven at present.

In this issue of the national football team, Shenhua has a total of 5 players including Jiang Shenglong, Yang Zexiang, Xu Haoyang, Wang Haijian, and Liu Chengyu. Although Liu Chengyu did not enter the 23-man squad in the match with Saudi Arabia, he has been preparing for the national football team.

In addition, Yang Haoyu, who stood out this season, was selected for the U22 national football training list and played in the Yancheng International Football Invitational Tournament. There is also the main left wing-back Chan Jinyi, who received a call-up from Hong Kong, China, to participate in the international break of the flight training camp and competition. A few days ago, the Hong Kong, China team and the Macao team played a warm-up match, and Chen Jinyi started the game. On March 25, Hong Kong, China will play Singapore in the first round of the group stage of the Asian Cup.

In addition to the large-scale recruitment, Shenhua is also facing more serious injuries, Andre, Zhu Chenjie, Amadou and Dai Weijun all have varying degrees of injuries and cannot participate in team training. As a major transporter of the national team, Slutsky has become accustomed to the unorganized personnel during the interval, but this time the absence of as many as 11 people still has a certain impact on the team's training.

In the warm-up match with Suzhou Soochow on March 22, in response to Amadou's injury, Slutsky made some attempts in personnel arrangement, but after all, the team was seriously unorganized, and the warm-up effect was greatly discounted.

In the previous stage of the competition, there was a lot of discussion about Slutsky's employment. In the closed warm-up match with Suzhou Dongwu, almost all the players who are currently training with the team have the opportunity to play, especially Xie Pengfei and Jin Shunkai, who rarely have the opportunity to play this season, started the game and played the whole game, which is one of the few players who played the whole game. Apparently, Slutsky also took the opportunity to observe the state of the substitutes.

According to the arrangement, Jiang Shenglong, Yang Zexiang, Xu Haoyang, Wang Haijian, Liu Chengyu, Yang Haoyu and Chen Jinyi will return to the team on March 26 and go to Zhengzhou with the team on the 27th. Before the away game against Henan, there were only two training sessions left for Shenhua.

Whether Andre can catch up with the game against the Henan team depends on the recovery in the next few days. In the warm-up match with Suzhou Dongwu, Shenhua only sent three foreign aids, Teixeira, Manafa and Mineiro, and Andre still carried out rehabilitation training alone. As for Zhu Chenjie, who has a facial fracture, the progress of his return from injury is a little slower, and he can only carry out simple training with a low load.

With the two-legged defeat to Kawasaki Frontale, Shenhua ended the 2024/25 AFC Champions League elite league journey and can transfer all their energy to the domestic arena, but, judging from the schedule and injury situation, the next stage may be the most difficult period of the season for Shenhua. On the one hand, there are injuries in the team, especially Amadou, who is sure to miss all the games at this stage, and on the other hand, the team will play away against Harbour, Shandong Taishan and Chengdu Rongcheng, and every game will be a tough game.

According to the schedule, Shenhua's next stage of the league will start on March 29 and last until May 17, with 11 consecutive rounds. During this period, there were a number of highlights: away to Harbour on April 6; On April 12, he played Zhejiang team at home; On April 26, he played away against Shandong Taishan; On May 2, he was a guest in Chengdu. It is worth noting that in this stage of the games against Haigang, Shandong Taishan, and Chengdu Rongcheng, which have the strength to compete for the championship, Shenhua is all away from home. In addition, from April 26 to May 6, Shenhua will face a wave of three consecutive visitors, moving to Jinan, Chengdu and Meizhou.

However, Amadou, who plays an important role in Slutsky's tactical system, is determined to miss all of the matches at this stage. According to the official injury report of the Shenhua club, the rehabilitation period of Amadou, who has suffered a grade 2 injury to the medial collateral ligament of the left knee and a grade 3 injury to the posterior cruciate ligament, is expected to be 3 to 4 months, and Amadou has returned to France for rehabilitation.

Since taking over Shenhua, Slutsky has mainly played the 442 formation and the diamond-shaped position in the midfield, which is very demanding for the players in the No. 6 position, and they need to have strong defensive ability and defensive coverage. Now, with Amadou out injured for a long time, whether Slutsky continues to stick to the 442 diamond midfield or change the formation may affect the team's next stage of performance to a certain extent.