As night falls in Beijing on November 27th, the East Asian Champions League is in full swing, with Chinese Super League runners-up Shanghai Shenhua traveling to South Korea to take on the K-League's Gwangju Powerhouse. After the fierce competition, Shenhua suffered their first defeat in this season's AFC Champions League on the road, and slipped to the sixth place in the East Asia Region on the table, making the road to promotion more and more difficult.
In this game, Shanghai Shenhua's technical and tactical play was greatly tested, but also exposed the team's accumulated problems in the battlefield. After the match, Shenhua's manager Slutsky frankly analyzed the crux of the team's defeat in the press conference.
Slutsky bluntly said that Shenhua lagged behind their opponents in terms of the speed of conversion between offense and defense as well as the overall speed in the game against Gwangju. He lamented: "Observing the whole game, we were slow in both offense and defense, and it was difficult to synchronize with our opponents. Gwangju showed a faster pace and excellent teamwork, making us look out of our depth on the field."
Slutsky's words revealed a deep reflection on the current state of the team. In his opinion, Shanghai Shenhua's long absence from official matches has led to a decline in form. The players' sense of rhythm on the pitch is obviously not as good as their opponents', and both the starters and the substitutes have difficulties in adapting to the rhythm of the game quickly, and the offense and defense are not smooth enough, failing to play to the level they should be. Slutsky's opinion is undoubtedly the key to Shanghai Shenhua's defeat to Gwangju.
Talking about the team's performance, Slutsky noted, "Our players looked a bit slow in the game, with a gap between their reaction speed and frequency of movement and the opponent. This put us at a disadvantage in fighting for the ball, defending against opponents' attacks and counterattacks. In addition, inaccurate pass reception further exacerbated our passivity."
Despite the defeat, Slutsky did not lose confidence in his team. He emphasized that after this loss, the players will have a clearer understanding of their shortcomings and what they need to improve. Next week, Shanghai Shenhua will return home to face Ulsan HD, who is at the bottom of the East Asia region, and as long as the team plays at their normal level, they have a very good chance of defeating Ulsan HD. We hope Shanghai Shenhua can revitalize their team and not disappoint the Chinese fans again.
