SENAYAN Special Coverage

Club Preview: Shandong Luneng

Courtesy of Firstxi.com

Overview

Shandong Luneng Taishan have finally come into their own in the Pepsi Cola League in China. The traditional bigwig in Chinese football has been Dalian Wanda, but Shandong broke through with their league and cup double in the 1998-99 season. Coach Slobodan Santrac, who guided Yugoslavia to France 98, has brought an obvious winning mentality to the club.

Shandong play their football at the Provincial Sports Center (Jinan), which has a capacity crowd of about 50 000 seats. Unlike the Shandong that we may know from the recent past, they have now appeared to adopt a new strategy, which allows them to be a little more attack-minded.

The double-winning team played a defensive game grinding out those famed 1-0 wins, and relied on a very sturdy defensive matrix at the back to launch their offensives. Nowadays, Shandong rely on a more inventive midfield. So although they have been scoring more goals of late so far (Paraguayan international Casiano already has 15 goals), they have also been leaking quite a few at the back.

Tactics

Shandong continue to play their brand of 4-4-2 football. In goal they have the very dependable Sasa Petrovic. The Yugoslav has a safe pair of hands, exemplified by his conceding the least number of goals in their title-winning year. In defense, relatively unknown players like Shu Chang, Deng Cheng and Wang Chao form three quarters of the defensive unit.

The Shandong midfield introduces a new face this season in the form of Ghanian player Charles Wittl. Little is known of the player from Swiss club Neuchâtel Xamax. Together with the hardworking Shao Yanjie and Song Yuming, the final piece in the midfield belongs to Li Xiao Peng. He has come into his own this season as a goalscoring midfielder with 5 goals so far. There is also the experienced utility player Denis Prtenjaca.

Shandong's main star attraction remains upfront. Other than the aforementioned Casiano, the club has in their ranks the nation's most popular footballer in skipper Su Maozhen. Although Su plays more as an orthodox center forward for the national team, domestically he plays the role of the minder and plays off Casiano instead. This tactic has proven effective on many occassions and the club will have all the confidence going into battle with Asia's best.

Player to Watch:

Su Maozhen

Physically tall and big, Su Maozhen is a real danger in the air but his effectiveness extends beyond his head.

He is always aware of where his teammates are and usually creates chances for others through his lay-offs and off-the-ball running. Shandong's most deadly weapon in attack.