Away from the country security! The start did not meet expectations, and Rongcheng strengthened the confrontation and prepared for a tough battle

Reporter Lu Mi reports Before the start of the 2025 Chinese Super League, in order to improve the defensive strength, Chengdu Rongcheng introduced a lot of midfielders on the basis of maintaining the stability of the overall framework. However, in the first two rounds of the league, Chengdu Rongcheng did not play the expected strong football.

In the first round, Rongcheng defeated Wuhan Three Towns, and Rongcheng once encountered a dilemma on the field. In the second round against Tianjin Jinmen Tigers, Zhou Dingyang's red card departure led to the early arrival of the first defeat of the season. For Rongcheng, the loss is not only 3 points, but more importantly, the first game after the break against the strong opponent Beijing Guoan, Zhou Dingyang will also be absent. The opponent's naturalized player Serginho will also make his debut for Guoan. The main forces of the two teams are in and out, which has already tilted the balance of victory and defeat. During the league break, Xu Zhengyuan tried a variety of midfield combinations, and he wanted to prepare the players to go to the away game through high-intensity confrontation.

In the first two rounds of the Chinese Super League, Chengdu Rongcheng accumulated 3 points with 1 win and 1 loss, temporarily ranking eighth in the Chinese Super League. This start is somewhat similar to last season, but also different. Last season, Chengdu Rongcheng, which aims to impact the AFC Champions League, introduced a large number of domestic players, such as Wei Shihao, Yan Dinghao, etc., and the position is also dominated by midfielders. At that time, the overall lineup of the team changed greatly, and although the team experienced high-intensity training in winter training, there was still a lack of run-in at the beginning of the season. The team mainly focuses on ground attack, but in the face of the iron bucket formation, it not only lacks offensive efficiency, but also lacks the means to parry the opponent's counterattack, so it was blocked by the Cangzhou Lions in the second round. However, under the personnel conditions of last season, Xu Zhengyuan also has a lot of room for adjustment.

This season, while the team has been stable in terms of personnel framework, it has had ups and downs in response to changes in the scene. In the first round against Wuhan Three Towns, the opponent's strength was not weak, and it was only due to large personnel changes and insufficient run-in that the details of the game were missing. On the contrary, Chengdu Rongcheng, which has the momentum of home stadium, failed to show the momentum of the third place in the league. In the second round, facing the Tianjin Jinmen Tigers with a gap in strength, because of Zhou Dingyang's unexpected red card, the response was insufficient after playing one less, which led to the early arrival of the first defeat.

The start of the two seasons is somewhat similar, the difference is that last season was more due to personnel and tactical run-in at the beginning of the season, while this season's problem is to deal with adversity. This response is mainly reflected in Xu Zhengyuan's tactical adjustment and the team's mentality.

In previous seasons, Rongcheng has also encountered the situation of playing one less person, and even when he played Guoan for the first time as a promoted horse, there was a situation where Guoan was suppressed on the field after being sent off by two people. The previous staffing was not even as abundant as in these two seasons. During the interval, through the warm-up match, Xu Zhengyuan also intended to regain the feeling of playing with one less player before, and at the same time further sought ways to deal with extreme situations under the existing personnel conditions.

During the interval, Rongcheng played a teaching match and a warm-up match, the teaching match was against the reserve team of Chengdu, the game was divided into three quarters, the result is not important, the important thing is to test the status of the personnel in each position. In the match between March 22 and Chongqing Tonglianglong in the Chinese League, Xu Zhengyuan did his best to send the main force of the remaining team to play, and while defeating the opponent 3-2, he also took the initiative to reduce one person at a certain stage of the game to practice the tactical effect of 10 to 11.

Throughout the interval, Xu Zhengyuan still used a large amount of training to improve the team's physical fitness. At the same time, Xu Zhengyuan also set up a lot of confrontation training and set-piece offensive and defensive drills. What he emphasises the most is the momentum of the players during training. As the third place last season and this year's AFC Champions League new team, whether it is the results that have improved year by year or the current personnel strength, Chengdu Rongcheng has undoubtedly become one of the strongest teams. The team's position in the eyes of their opponents in the Chinese Super League has also changed, but it has not changed to play strong football with a humble mentality.

The Chinese Super League resumes this weekend and Chengdu Rongcheng travel to face Beijing Guoan, which will be the biggest challenge for the team since the start of the game. Although the core Zhou Dingyang is suspended, Xu Zhengyuan still has a lot of available and capable players. Recently, the Chengdu Rongcheng coaching staff also watched the videos of Guoan's first two games and basically understood Setien's tactics in Guoan.

In fact, many international players have been called up on both sides of Rongcheng and Guoan. In terms of Guoan, Serginho, who has just been successfully naturalized, has not played for Guoan in the first two rounds, and what role he will play in Guoan's system after the league resumes will also affect Xu Zhengyuan's response to the trend of the game. In addition, who will replace the suspended Zhou Dingyang, Xu Zhengyuan also needs time to further determine.