If you want to continue to lead, Shenhua can't just rely on "bloody" support

Special correspondent Gan Hui reports On the evening of the 12th, after Shanghai Shenhua defeated the Zhejiang team 3-2 at home, many people joked that "in the future, you should prepare a quick-acting heart-saving pill to watch Shenhua's game". It seems to be a joke, but it reflects the current situation of Shenhua. Of the six Super League games so far this season and the Super Cup against Harbour, three of which have come in stoppage time, and two have been comeback wins. "Super sub" Yu Hanchao played a very important role in it, making 3 substitute appearances, all of which contributed key goals. Last season's "lore miracle" continues to this day, and Yu Hanchao and lore are still the keywords of Shenhua this season.

"A lot of people have asked me before, we always concede the goal first and fall into passivity and finally win, today we went from leading to falling behind and then equalising at the end, I want to thank my players, they showed a lot of blood on the pitch today, the game was really hard, but without the support of blood we could not have won the final victory." After another stoppage-time stunner, Slutsky interpreted the game this way. But for him, if he wants to lead the team to the championship season alone, it may not be enough to rely on the blood of the players......

In fact, the first 60 minutes of last night's game were uneventful. Affected by injuries and other problems, the Zhejiang team has an incomplete lineup, starting only two foreign aids, Bupenza and Lucas, this team has always advocated attack, and after the opening more personnel and energy to defend.

However, Shenhua still scored first in the 21st minute to take the lead in the score. Teixeira's long-range shot from outside the box scored the world's wave, which was also his first goal in the new Chinese Super League season.

After taking the lead, the game process was uneventful, Shenhua played a little slack, especially after the opening of the second half, the whole team was unhurried, not only did not give the opponent enough intensity and pressure, but also made frequent mistakes.

It was also his own two mistakes that caused the opponent to score two goals in three minutes from the 68th minute and achieve a 2-1 lead. Bao Yaxiong, who conceded the second goal due to a mistake, wrote on social platforms after the game, "The performance has not been very good recently, and there have been many problems that should not have been, thank you brothers for saving the home victory today!" Brother Monkey NB Jin Yi NB! I hope I can adjust as soon as possible and perform well. ”

After Wang Yudong and Tong Lei successively took advantage of Shenhua's player mistakes to rewrite the score, Shenhua head coach Slutsky played the "trump card" Yu Hanchao. In the 75th minute, Yu Hanchao came on the court and replaced Li Ke. In the 77th minute, Chen Jinyi crossed from the left side, the opponent's goalkeeper knocked the ball out, but did not clear the siege, Yu Hanchao shot at the top of the arc of the penalty area, and the ball drew an arc and flew into the goal to help Shenhua equalize.

Yu Hanchao's goal also stabilized the mentality of the whole team. In stoppage time, Chen Jinyi scored a stunning goal, and Shenhua finally won 3-2 and won this thrilling game.

After coming off the bench to help the team score goals at the end of the 2024 season, and making three substitute appearances in the 2025 season in the Chinese Super League and Super Cup, all of which scored key goals, Yu Hanchao has become an "alien" general existence, and seems to have a superpower to turn the tide again and again.

'Judging from the reaction of the whole team back to the lounge today, we were not very happy with our performance. In fact, a game that can be completely controlled, it has created some difficulties by itself, and it needs to be summarized. In the post-game interview, Yu Hanchao pointed out the team's problems.

The bloodiness mentioned by Slutsky in his summary after the game is certainly a portrayal of Shenhua's spirit, but the question in front of the team is, how long can they win in the league in this way?

Last season, Shenhua fully showed her tenacity and blood. In the face of a desperate situation, the team never gave up. In this game, Shenhua once again showed this trait, but with the personnel situation and performance of the Zhejiang team that night, Shenhua should not have played so hard and had such ups and downs. Killing or drawing opponents in stoppage time, although it is exciting, but after all, the Chinese Super League is a long season, and the game is so exciting, it is a lot of consumption for the team, and it is not good for the next games. Moreover, Yu Hanchao is not a "god" after all, and it is impossible to expect him to have such an effect every time he appears.

After defeating the Zhejiang team, Shenhua accumulated 14 points with 4 wins and 2 draws, surpassing Shanghai Port, which was postponed due to weather conditions in this round, and temporarily ranked first in the league standings. Last season, also due to weather conditions, the match between Harbour and Meizhou Hakka was postponed, when Shenhua, who won 6 and drew 1, occupied the top position in the standings and led until June, but was overtaken in the final standings after the match with Tianjin Jinmen Tigers and Chengdu Rongcheng was overtaken in the final standings after Harbour completed the make-up match with Meizhou Hakka. This year, when the race at the harbor was postponed and Shenhua once again led the standings, how to maintain the advantage as much as possible also became a problem for Slutsky.

After last night's game, Slutsky spoke about breaking down the dense defence. "Compared to last year, the situation has changed. Last year we weren't familiar with our style of play, most opponents were willing to press us, and we had a lot of opportunities to play behind us. This year we faced a dense defence from our opponents, including our derby rivals Harbour. The opponent uses nine or ten men to stay at the back for intensive defense, even if it is a world powerhouse such as Barcelona and Manchester City, it is nerve-wracking to break the dense defense. Our current problem is to find a solution to this problem. Looking back at the game against Guoan, the opponent also discharged three central defenders, and also played a counterattack with intensive defense, which is something we need to seriously consider and solve in the future. ”

Therefore, from the perspective of coping with the season spanning up to 9 months, Shenhua needs more trump cards, especially to improve in breaking dense defense.