On October 23rd, the third round of the AFC Elite League reported that Seaport narrowly defeated Central Coast Mariners 3-2, winning the first victory of the new season. In the report of Sports Weekly, reporter Ma Dexing pointed out that Seaport's lineup adjustment was a wise move.
In the match against Central Coast Mariners, the Harbor Team boldly implemented a big rotation of the starting lineup. In addition to goalkeeper Yan Junling, center back Wei Zhen, midfielder Oscar and striker Gustavo four main players, plus the comeback of Wu Lei, the rest of the players are rotated. This has become the largest blood change in the Shanghai Port team in this season's AFC Champions League.
The reason behind the passive substitutions is that Ruiza was suspended for an additional match, forcing Harbor to adjust their lineup. The reason for the active substitutions is that key players such as Vargas and Chitardini were placed on the bench for this match.
At the beginning of the match, the rotation strategy of the harbor was effective, the high pressure pressing and fast counter-pressing in the midfield was even better than the main lineup. The opponent was not in good form, and there were six foreigners in the squad, while the remaining five players were all youngsters born after 01 year. In the face of such an opponent, the rotation of the seaport is particularly wise.
As the Super League title race enters the sprint stage, Harbour's failure to rotate in the match against Sungai City led to much talk after the loss. Why didn't Seaport rotate when they had a tight schedule? In fact, Seaport is not unwilling to rotate, but the situation of the championship is urgent, especially in the synchronization of the AFC Champions League, can only use the strongest lineup to deal with the key battle.
The AFC Champions League and Chinese Super League fixtures are currently out of sync, with the AFC Champions League just beginning and the domestic league nearing its end. Therefore, it is understandable that Harbour will focus on the domestic league for the time being. Similarly, it is reasonable for Shenhua to rotate their squad. Neither Harbour nor Shenhua should be accused of being "strong domestically and weak internationally" at this stage.
Taishan, on the other hand, played all their starters against Yokohama Marinos but fielded a rotation of players in last weekend's league match. This may have something to do with the fact that they have no hope of winning the Chinese Super League and even little hope of qualifying for next season's AFC Champions League. With the domestic league format unchanged, there's nothing wrong with Premier League teams making adjustments based on reality, and there's no need to be overly panicked by one or two wins or losses.
