Reporter Cheng Shan reported After New Year's Day 2025, last season's "double champion" Shanghai Port will regroup and then go to Abu Dhabi to start winter training. Two heavyweight foreign players left at the same time, domestic players are also facing the replacement of the old and the new, and the harbor will usher in an unprecedented "era of great change".

New foreign players: the coach favors the "Brazilian gang"

At the end of 2024, Shanghai Port, which won two championship trophies and won the league's Golden Boot Award and assist king, ushered in the club's 19th birthday. Although Samsung is in the chest, but the future of the harbor seems to be difficult, after Oscar, Vargas have left the team, the biggest problem that the harbor is currently facing, first of all, how to solve the huge gap after the departure of strong reinforcements.

According to the past habits of the harbor, if there is a need to change the position, especially the position of the main foreign aid, the direction and time of the selection will be finalized before the end of the league that year, but this time, because Oscar and Vargas, two important players, have not been determined to stay before the end of last season, and the club is still waiting to see the trend of the situation with the wish of "not changing", resulting in the process of filling the vacancy of the selection and reinforcement is also relatively delayed. At the end of last month, when the farewell of the two was a foregone conclusion, the club officially communicated with the coaching staff to re-select foreign players, and at this time, head coach Muscat had returned home for vacation.

Since the end of last month, around 11 p.m. Australian time, Muscat will receive job information from China, which is about 8 a.m. Beijing time. In the face of the upcoming winter training, neither side dared to relax. Muscat has been staying up late lately to compare the text and video materials of the new signings, hoping to seize the time to determine the new foreign signings. The senior management of the Harbour Club also handed over the initiative of the selection to Muscat this time, and the changes that the coach brought to the Harbour in terms of technique and tactics last year convinced the club, as early as the time of winning the championship, some senior management made it clear that they were grateful to the manager for sticking to his attacking style of play and bringing such a wonderful season to the Harbour.

Giving the right to select reinforcements to the head coach, the club hopes that he can choose players who can quickly integrate into the tactical system and have excellent strength, "The Chinese Super League has passed the era of only looking at fame and not being grounded, and now the players needed can seriously implement the manager's tactical thinking and have the ability to play fast attack." Harbor insiders revealed why Vargas was released after Oscar left, in addition to the salary problem on the surface, "The harbor also needs a series of demolition and reconstruction." ”

From the current personnel, Harbour need to strengthen in three positions, namely the playmaking midfield, the core of the midfield, and the speed winger, and the most important thing is the selection of the striker. It's hard to find an all-rounder like Oscar, and now the harbor is targeting the affordable, practical side. In Muscat's plan, he still prefers the familiar "Brazilian Gang".

At the beginning of 2025, there has been phased progress in the introduction of seaports. There is a specific direction for the selection of foreign players, but it is still too early for the final official announcement, which needs to wait for the details of the contract to be finalized and the players' physical examinations to be passed. Next, the Harbour squad will travel to Abu Dhabi for a three-week winter training session, during which some of the new signings will arrive in the UAE to join the team.

The target of the domestic reinforcement sinks to the secondary league

Unlike previous seasons, where the focus was on foreign reinforcements, the new season has more consideration for the Harbour in terms of domestic reinforcements. On the one hand, the club provided the target candidate suggestions and image data to the coach to facilitate his reference, on the other hand, at the beginning of last month, the Harbour Club had a special staff member to have substantive contact with several players within the scope of the inspection, and there are currently two players in their playing years who are infinitely close to the Harbour and are about to officially announce their joining.

In addition to players who have already shown their quality in the Chinese Super League, Harbour have also been in contact with some of the best performers in the second division, and in the coming years, young players will be the main development targets of this team, which is also recognized by the head coach. In addition, Muscat has also been selected in the Harbour Echelon, and several young players from the echelon have entered his field of vision, and may travel to the UAE with the team during this winter training period.

This trip to Abu Dhabi for winter training is also the first time in 4 years that the port has restarted overseas training since 2020. Before the pandemic, most of the winter training at the harbor was arranged overseas, such as Dubai and Sydney, not only taking into account the weather factors, but also making it easier to find suitable warm-up opponents for training in these places.

The Harbour will conduct a training camp in Abu Dhabi for about three weeks. According to the team's current plan, at least one high-quality warm-up game will be scheduled every week for three weeks. In the first stage of winter training, in addition to solving the run-in of new signings inside and outside, Muscat will also pull the physical fitness of the whole team.