Shandong Taishan: After the stumbling 2024, 2025 needs to show a clear development direction

Reporter Chen Yong reports On December 4, the AFC Champions League elite league match against Kawasaki Frontale away is the last game of Shandong Taishan in 2024. After this battle, the Taishan team entered a period of recuperation.

In the 2024 season, the Taishan team played in a number of competitions: the 2023/24 AFC Champions League reached the quarterfinals; The FA Cup reached the final but failed to win the title; The 2024/25 AFC Champions League Elite League group stage has been played in six rounds, with 2 wins, 1 draw and 3 losses, and the qualifying situation is grim; The Chinese Super League did not perform well and ended up in fifth place.

Looking back on the whole season, the Taishan team started quite well, but with the tax turmoil, the team's morale plummeted, and the results took a sharp turn. Although the situation was stabilized in the later period, Choi Kang-hee's crisis of confidence still exists. In addition, at the end of the season, there was a change in the management of Shandong Taishan Football Club, and Zhou Peijian became the general manager of the club, which also entered a new stage in the development of the club.

After the stumbling and anticlimactic 2024 season, how should the Taishan team take the road to the future?

The long-term planning of the club and the team's plan for the new season is very important to determine the head coach first, which is precisely the most confusing thing for Taishan fans this winter.

Cui Kangxi led Shandong Taishan to perform well in Asian competitions in the 2024 season, which is related to his rich experience and accurate judgment in the competition. However, in terms of domestic competitions, Taishan's results are mediocre, there are objective reasons, as well as factors such as Cui Kangxi's introduction and system construction:First, there is a problem with the allocation of foreign aid, and the lack of foreign aid in the midfield has led to defects in the team's offensive and defensive conversion, which is especially obvious in the FA Cup; Second, Choi Kang-hee's tactics show some drawbacks, which will be more prominent when facing individual teams; Third, there are cracks in the relationship between Choi Kang-hee and the players; Fourth, some of the practices of Cui Kangxi's reinforcements are not in the interests of the Taishan team.

At present, the preliminary preparation plan for the 2025 season of the Taishan team has come out - the team will gather on January 6 next year, and then start winter training to prepare for the last two rounds of the AFC Champions League elite league in February and the Chinese Super League in the 2025 season. This training camp plan was developed by Choi Kang-hee's coaching team.

Although there is more and more controversy about Choi Kang-hee, there is no news that the Taishan team will change coaches.It must be noted that although the 2024 season has just ended, the time left for Taishan to change the coach is actually very tight, because the start time of the Chinese Super League next season will be earlier, less than a month before the team regroups, and the 7th round of the AFC Champions League Elite League will be played on February 11.

Whether to change the coach or not is the variable of the Taishan team, and it will inevitably affect the strategy of the Taishan team. For example, there is no need for the Taishan team to introduce ordinary domestic aid, but Cui Kangxi may put forward relevant requirements; For example, the Taishan team should strengthen the midfield and midfield foreign aid, but Cui Kangxi may not approve of it; There is also the problem of youth, although Cui Kangxi is also willing to give young people opportunities, but there seems to be no idea of systematic training.

In the 2025 season, the Tarzan team is also advantageous. One is the overall expenditure level, with the gradual end of the historical high-salary contract, the total salary of the Taishan team has been decreasing, which is very important for the stability of the club; Second, in the 2025 season, in addition to continuing to compete in the AFC Champions League elite league at the beginning of the year, the Taishan team only needs to deal with domestic competitions in the following season, leaving a lot of room for club and team adjustments.

2025 is the last year of the first phase of the Taishan team's equity reform, which plays a role in connecting the previous and the next, in this season, the Taishan team must take a stable and feasible path in the overall development of the club, and also need to show a clear development direction in the team building, so as to lay the foundation for the future equity reform.

For the strategy of Shandong Taishan Football Club, its core is to grasp the two essences of "Taishan": the first essence, Taishan team is the top team in China, and has become the spiritual symbol of Shandong Province and Jinan City; The second essence, Taishan has always adhered to youth training, and its youth training has played a mainstay role in the development of Chinese football, and has sent a large number of talents to professional leagues and national brands.

Shandong Taishan Football Club is currently in a period of adjustment, including a new management team facing an important task to gradually reduce and optimize the total amount of investment of the club. But there is no conflict between this main task and the two essences of the Taishan team.

The total salary of the Taishan team has been high, with a profound historical background: for a long time, the Taishan team is known for its stability, when the crazy Jinyuan football opened, the Taishan team obviously could not keep up with the rhythm, and the investment could only be increased in an orderly manner.

After nearly five years of adjustment, the investment in the entire Chinese Super League has been comprehensively reduced, such as Shanghai Shenhua, Chengdu Rongcheng and Beijing Guoan's investment is not high. After gradually solving the historical salary burden, the Taishan team returned to a rational level. The investment of the two central enterprise clubs is decreasing, and more importantly, the largest shareholder, Jinan Cultural Tourism Group, and the Jinan City behind it, have also compressed their investment to a relatively acceptable level. As for the problems left over from history, that is, the arrears of the major shareholders, if all parties fully communicate, they can be resolved through the right to operate the venue and other means.

The future strategic goal of the Taishan team is to ensure the status of the top club: in today's world football, clubs in big cities are the mainstream, and Shandong Province and Jinan City can fully demonstrate the influence of Shandong Province and Jinan City through the brand "Taishan", and create a world outside the framework of Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.

Another major essence of the Taishan team is youth training. In the 2024 Three Ball Games, the Shandong men's football team finally won the championship, which is following the 1979 Fourth Games, 1997 Eighth Games, 2005 10th Games, 2009 11th Games, Shandong men's football team won the national championship again, during which the Taishan team contributed greatly. In 2025, Shandong Taishan U20, U18 and U16 teams will also attack the gold medal of the National Games. At the national level: the 2001 age group National Olympic team, the 2003 age group Asian Games team, the 2005 age group national youth team, and the 2008 age group national youth team, there are many Taishan youth players. As for the champions of Taishan's youth training system itself, there are already countless champions.

At present, the club's requirements for Luneng Football School are to improve its management ability, and the ideal is to be self-financing. But from a realistic point of view, the club should at least distinguish the elite echelon and football school management, taking 2025 as an example, Shandong Taishan B team, Shandong Taishan U18 team (2007 age group), Shandong Taishan U16 team (2009 age group) because of the National Games task, needless to say, but the 2010 age echelon, 2011 age group echelon, 2012 age group echelon, 2013 age group echelon must also ensure high-quality development, and the selection of young age echelons also needs to be strengthened.

At the peak, the echelon of the Taishan team was close to twenty, considering the financial pressure, "slimming" is inevitable, but at least seven or eight elite echelons must be strengthened, their financial support can be independently calculated, and then on this basis, the corresponding assessment tasks will be formulated for Luneng Football School, so that the elite training is not delayed, and the business assessment can also be comprehensively attempted.

The record of the first team has been repeated, and it can be rebuilt and rebounded at any time, but there is a problem in the construction of the echelon, and it will take many years to rebuild, and this foundation must be given the highest attention and cannot be destroyed.

Due to the mature and systematic youth training, it has produced a lot of players, and for the 2025 season of the Taishan team, a basic principle needs to be determined:The introduction of domestic aid, unless it is the main level of the national team players, can significantly improve the strength of the Taishan team, or very good young players, otherwise there is no need for the Taishan team to introduce general domestic aid, but also to put an end to the introduction of old players.

If Choi Kang-hee continues as manager, his approach to bringing in reinforcements for the 2024 season is a bit worrying, and if the new season tries to repeat similar behavior, the club must forcefully reject or correct it; If it is a change of coach, it must be in line with the club's overall strategy in the past two years, and clarify the responsibilities and rights between each other.

In the past two years, the Taishan team needs to optimize or rejuvenate the team on the basis of maintaining the team's combat effectiveness and performance:On the one hand, the veteran players and Mesozoic players can be further optimized, and of course, the basic framework must be maintained, which is an important guarantee for the team's combat effectiveness; On the other hand, it is necessary to open a moderate youth, although the Taishan B team has to undertake the task of the National Games, but individual outstanding players can enter the first team, and with excellent foreign aid, they can take on more responsibilities.Of course, from a realistic point of view, 2026 may be the year when the 2005 generation of players of Taishan really makes a difference.

At the foreign level, the coexistence of Cressan and Kazaishvili has not been resolved this season, and the two are still under contract, so it is not necessary to give up, which can be improved through reasonable technical and tactical settings, so that the two can form a synergy. In terms of the introduction of foreign aid, although the performance of central defender Marcel actually exceeded expectations, if you are ready to cultivate young central defenders such as Shi Songchen and Peng Xiao, you need to allocate more capable foreign central defenders. Another foreign player is the best to bring in a midfielder in the middle, which can improve the control of the Tarzan midfield.