Stablility leads to success? Jiangsu Suning’s 2019 preview
Winter is end, another year of the Chinese Super League is at the door. This is going to be the Jiangsu team’s 11th year in China’s top-flight, and Suning’s 4th since the acquisition. Might it be a significant year in the blue team’s history, or just yet another season?
Recapping 2018
2018 was a relatively successful year for Jiangsu Suning. Recovered from a terrific 2017, and Fabio Capello’s resignation early in 2018, Suning signed Romanian coach Cosmin Olariou in April, three rounds into 2018, and eventually ranked 5th, for the most lonely position on table: 9 points ahead of 6th Hebei CFFC and 5 away from 4th Beijing Guoan. The 48 points gained from 13w, 9d and 8l was the third best (after 2012, 2016) year since promoted into top-flight.
The defence, leading by former AC Milan defender Palleta, was highlighted. Conceded only 33 goals, Jiangsu was one of the bests in term of defence, especially when 6 of those was during Capello’s first three rounds. Olaroiu’s balanced tactic made the difference.
CFA’s U23 policies pushed the team to offer more chances to young players. Zhang Lingfeng, Abduhamit and Gao Tianyi made up Suning’s U23 squad. However, the most shining star was Huang Zichang, who was promoted to first team in early 2018 and scored first goal just 13 minutes into his professional career. During the summer, Huang was called up by China U21, U23 and national team at the same time then had his international debut for Lippi’s team. Although being injury for the second half of year, Huang Zichang still awarded CSL’s best young player and CFA’s best golden young star. He is no doubt Jiangsu’s most important gain in 2018.
What’s new in 2019
Early this year, Suning signed a 3-year sponsorship contract with Korean customer-electronic giant, Samsung. It’s said the new contract will bring Suning 300 million RMB ($47m). However, on the other side, it has been a cold winter for most Chinese internet companies. The trade dispute between China and US seriously affect the venture market. Unconfirmed rumour says Suning laid off 10% of its employers recently and the budget for Suning FC was cut off for 30%.
As a result, we only signed three players Feng Boyuan, Luo Jing and Ye Chongqiu from Chinese League 1 sides. Two of them were free-agent. Suning didn’t bring in any players from Guangzhou Evergrand, Tianjin Tianhai or Hebei CFFC, who sold a lot of players this winter. The section for new player introduction was even skipped in this year’s kick-off conference.
Suning didn’t naturalize any player neither.
Zhang Xiaobin, the defensive midfielder and captain of China U25, joined Tianjin Tianhai on loan following the U25 head coach Shen Xiangfu. A few comments say the transfer was interfered by National Administration of Sports, who was pushing hard to form a few “national” team to play each tier of professional leagues. Many players includes Ge Wei, Liu Jianye, Zhang Xinlin were leaving for lower level league sides. Erpan, the Xinjiang player back from education camp, may join CL1 Shaanxi Changan.
Ramires, who were mysteriously disappeared from the first team is officially back for his last contract year. Together with Palleta, Teixeira and Eder, even with no new sign, I can’t say Suning’s foreign player line-up is bad.
So generally speaking there were little change for this winter. The squad maintained stable. The weakness at some positions remains unimproved. But we will have to see if Olaroiu could fix it in his first winter camp.
Policy changes in CSL 2019
U23 policy in CSL has been changing every year. This year, the usage of U23 players is no longer associated with foreign players. You will have use (start or substitute) 3 U23 players in each match, with at least 1 starts. For each player called up to national team, the U23 requirement is reduced for 1. Unfortunately, no Suning player was called up by Hiddink’s Olympic team, so Suning will have to send 3 U23 at least for the beginning of 2019.
Because of the goal to qualify to 2022 World Cup, there will be more breaks for national team training camp. A few of our players like Wu Xi, Huang Zichang may be called up to support national team. More military drill and trainng camps is highly like to happen in 2019. The club should be prepared to lose any key player at any time. That’s sad but true.
Top Expectations
Last year we had superb defence but as Olariou told in press conference, the offence is to be improved. We have positive news. Eder, the former Inter striker joined full winter camp with team, may do even better than last year. The chemical between him and Alex Teixeira is of very importance.
Additionally, we signed 23yo Chinese central forward Feng Boyuan to bring in more diversity on offence. Jiangsu wasn’t very good at using up-front central forward before. The Romanian striker Cristian Danalache wasn’t a traditional central forward, and Jo wasn’t very successful in Jiangsu. We will have to see if Feng Boyuan could make the difference.
Stable can be good for a matured squad. We had similar situation in 2012: After a historical successful 2011 (ranked 4th), we didn’t bring in any significant player. But in 2012 Okuka Dragan’s team still reached runner-up and Romanian striker Danalache took the golden boot.
Wu Xi and Ji Xiang just turned 30 and 29 this year. Some key players were at their best but last golden age. It’s time to convert their techniques and experience into goals and points. At some positions, we are still waiting for younger players to take over. Olaroiu has extended his contract with Suning for 3 years. From a long-term perspective, we should be able to see more and more Huang Zichangs having breakthrough this year and given more play time.
The goal of the club, as announced in press conference, is to enter Asia Championship League again. My personal predication for 2019 is 4th-8th. We will host Tianjin TEDA this Sunday, 19:35 CST. Forza Suning!
