U23 players’ CSL game time falls
Print Edition
DESPITE new rules, the average playing time for under-23 players in the second round of the 2017 Chinese Super League decreased compared to the first round.
The Chinese Football Association’s new regulation ordered each team to include at least two U23 players in their 18-member list, and at least one should start each match. In the second round of CSL matches at the weekend, the 16 teams gave a chance to a total of 22 U23 players. Among them, 17 were in the starting line-up — one less than in the first round.
However, the average playing time for each U23 player decreased to 48 minutes compared to last week’s 54 minutes. Two players — Guangzhou R&F’s Huang Zhengyu and Guizhou Hengfeng Zhicheng’s Min Junlin — played full time compared to last week’s five.
Hebei China Fortune’s 20-year-old midfielder Che Shiwei scored the league’s first goal for an U23 player this year just six minutes into its match against Chongqing Lifan. He was substituted in the 56th minute.
Both Shanghai teams cut the playing time for their U23 players. Shanghai SIPG’s 18-year-old defender Zhang Huachen, who played 30 minutes in the first-round match against Changchun Yatai, was substituted 16 minutes after kick-off in SIPG’s match against Yanbian Funde.
Greenland Shenhua also made an early substitution during its Saturday match against Tianjin Quanjian, replacing 22-year-old Xu Junmin in the 18th with 28-year-old Sun Shilin. Xu played 52 minutes in Shenhua’s first match against Jiangsu Suning.
Shenhua’s second team coach Fan Zhiyi suggested on his personal social media account that head coach Gus Poyet had made the first substitution too early.
“It was part of the team’s strategy to replace Xu with Sun in the match. However, taking Xu off after just 16 minutes appeared to be a bit early,” said Fan, a former Shenhua and national team captain. “In a match, a team is like a machine which needs more time to warm up. The match was still under Shenhua’s control after the first 16 minutes.”
Henan Jianye and CSL newcomers Tianjin and Guizhou were among the teams that responded well to the CFA’s new rule in the first two rounds.
Guizhou’s 23-year-old midfielder Min played two full matches, while 21-year-old striker Liang Xueming was given 77 and 52 minutes of playing time, respectively, in the two games. Tianjin used three U23 players in both its matches.
“I think some clubs substituted their young players early for strategic reasons, not with the intention of acting against the CFA’s rule,” Li Lipeng, a CFA official who is in charge of professional league management, said in an earlier interview. According to Li, the average playing time for the 18 players who started in the first round was 64 minutes, which he deemed “a good operation of the new rule”.
“The CFA and the clubs share the common hope (of cultivating more young talents). The clubs have different foundations regarding young players. We don’t expect our policy to bring about good results immediately. It should be a preface for the establishment of China and all its clubs’ youth training system,” said Li.
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