The difficulties are temporary, and Xie Hui is waiting for the home turf to return to green

Special correspondent Liu Zhun reports April 20 was a special day for Xie Hui – last year, he made his debut in Wuhan at Changchun Yatai, where he managed to draw a draw but halted a four-game losing streak. A year later, on April 20, Xie Hui ushered in his 32nd game in charge of Yatai in Changchun. As the beginning of a new reincarnation, it still started with a draw, and his Yatai drew 0-0 at home against promoted Ma Yunnan Yukun.

In the first 6 rounds of the 2024 season, Yatai is at the bottom with 1 win and 5 losses. At that time, Chen Yang got out of class, and Xie Hui took over, starting the trend of opening low and going high in Yatai. In the subsequent 24 rounds, Yatai won 7, drew 8 and lost 9, scoring 29 points. In the first 7 rounds of the 2025 season, Yatai still started low, with 1 win, 1 draw and 5 losses. However, Xie Hui said that the team has encountered difficulties temporarily, and he has a mode of chasing points, "Last year, after we got the turf at home, we got a lot of points. Hopefully we can be on the same starting line this year (and get more points). Before the Yukun game, Xie Hui expressed his expectations for the warmer weather in Changchun and the return of turf.

On March 29, Yatai entered the devil's period of 23 days and 6 battles, including an extremely difficult "Meizhou + Shenzhen" two-consecutive passenger journey. Fitness and injuries have tested them again. With a home draw against three towns and a loss to Taishan, and an away win over Meizhou, a loss to Yingbo and Xinpeng City, Yatai did not complete the goal of stealing points from their relegation opponents in the first five games, which also put them in a similar situation as the same period last season. "After two tough away games in Guangdong, we got our first win of the season, but it also exposed some problems. Yukun is a team with a lot of character and hopefully we can get our first home win when we return home. After returning to Changchun, Xie Hui was eager to take advantage of the home advantage to steal points from the promoted horses.

In this game, Xie Hui did his homework, he once again adjusted the formation from 442 to 433, which is Yatai's way of playing when he defeated Meizhou away, Tan Long + Oy + Beric formed an offensive trident, Zhang Huachen + Park Taoyu + Zhao Yingjie formed a midfield engine, and Su Zu + Rosić + Hemiti + Xuan Zhijian formed a defensive line.

In the 30th minute, Beric rode alone to form a one-handed momentum, but unfortunately his shot was saved sideways by Ma Zhen. In the 49th minute, it was Berridge who had a great chance to open the scoring in the box, but unfortunately the ball hit the post and bounced off. Two dangerous shots were unsuccessful, and luck slowly drifted away from Yatai. Fortunately, Yukun's attack was also thunderous and rainy. In the whole game, both sides had 9 chances each, of which Yatai had 3 shots on target, 1 more than the visitors. It is worth mentioning that in this game, Yatai's defense line was very solid, and Tiezha Suzu personally contributed 16 excellent data of clearances, setting a new high for the number of clearances in the Chinese Super League.

'It's a shame we didn't get our first home win of the season today. The players worked very hard and they created a lot of good chances in the first half, with Beric hitting the post once. After the game, Xie Hui apologized for the result of the draw, "The rhythm of the game in three days and one game is a big physical test for us, and we have done our best in the rotation of midfield players. At the moment, we don't have any players on the bench who can be replaced. Fortunately, the next round of matches will be played on the 26th, which is a little more generous. At the end of the 70 or 80 minutes, I felt that the fitness of the players had dropped, but it was difficult to solve this problem with substitutions, we tried very hard, but the result was very disappointing, I want to say sorry to the fans and hope to get the first win at home next time. ”

Last weekend, it was still snowing in Changchun. This weekend, Changchun is heating up quickly, but the turf is not so fast to turn green, and it will need to wait until mid-May. Compared with previous seasons, Yatai has made efforts to get out of the predicament, and it is basically this rhythm. However, Yatai needs to overcome it at the moment, "The turf of 'Nanling' is coming back to green, which limits our ground play, but the opponent is also experiencing this problem. I hope that the temperature in Changchun will be higher and the lawn will grow better. Xie Hui said.