Reporter Chen Yong reports The Qingdao derby is actually a local derby, and it is gratifying that although it ended in a draw, this game largely showed the coaching ability of the two local coaches. In fact, in the first round of the 2025 Chinese Super League, the answers handed over by the five local coaches were good.

In this season's Chinese Super League, the proportion of local coaches is not high, less than a third: the top five in the Chinese Super League are all foreign coaches. More than half of the other 11 teams are also coached by foreign coaches: Kaneda (Spain) for Zhejiang, Nan Kiyi (South Korea) for Henan, Martins (Portugal) for Wuhan Three Towns, Lattanzio (Italy) for Shenzhen Xinpeng City, Anderson (Norway) for Yunnan Yukun, and Milan (Serbia) for Meizhou Hakka.

The current five local coaches of the Chinese Super League this season are Yu Genwei (51 years old) of Tianjin Jinmen Tigers, Li Xiaopeng (50 years old) of Qingdao Manatee, Xie Hui (50 years old) of Changchun Yatai, Shao Jiayi (45 years old) of Qingdao West Coast, and Li Guoxu (47 years old) of Dalian InBev Haifa.

Yu Genwei has coached Tianjin Jinmen Tigers since the 2021 season; Shao Jiayi once served as an assistant coach of the national youth team and the national team, and achieved good results in the middle of last year when he transformed into the coach of the Chinese Super League; Xie Hui has coached a number of Chinese Super League clubs since the 2020 season, including Nantong Zhiyun during the Chinese League and Dalian Ren and Changchun Yatai in the Chinese Super League; Li Xiaopeng has previously coached the Chinese women's football team and Qingdao Manatee, and has coached Shandong Taishan, the Chinese national team, Cangzhou Lions and Qingdao Manatee since the 2018 season. Li Guoxu is a coach who grew up in Dalian and is a meritorious coach of Dalian InBev.

Objectively, at present, there is not much room for local coaches to survive, and national teams at all levels fully employ foreign coaches, and the mainstream of the Chinese Super League is also foreign coaches. It is important to note that local coaches are under greater pressure from public opinion, and there are not many Chinese Super League clubs that can provide opportunities for local coaches. Comparatively, there are more local coaches in the Chinese League A and the Central League B. In this case, local coaches should make full use of the rare coaching opportunities, and persistence is the greatest significance. In fact, as long as they can lead the team to relegation, they can most likely continue to coach.

In this Qingdao derby, the two sides played quite excitingly, Qingdao Manatee had a concise and clear passing cooperation, the tactical system of the three central defenders was also more skillful, and the control of Qingdao West Coast was stronger, and there was better data performance. Of course, the best part of the game was the ups and downs, with Qingdao West Coast falling behind twice and tying twice, while Qingdao Manatee still had a chance to kill the game in the final moments.

Shao Jiayi said before the game that Li Xiaopeng is his big brother, and he has been deeply taught by him from football business to life, and he also has a learning attitude in this derby. After the game, Li Xiaopeng said: "As a domestic coach, there are not many opportunities to experience the derby together, and I hope to be able to fight for such opportunities in the future." ”

In this round of the Chinese Super League, the local coach handed over the answer sheet is 4 draws and 1 loss, in addition to the draw in the Qingdao derby, Tianjin Jinmen Tiger drew Meizhou Hakka, Dalian Yingblogging vs Zhejiang Greentown got a draw. Xie Hui lost the game, but Changchun Yatai, who played away to Shanghai Shenhua, still showed enough tenacity to be commendable.