Starting with playing defensive midfield for Evergrande

Chapter 46 Lippi: Suarez can definitely start for an Italian team!
Because of Wang Yongpo's tackle, Su Hao's left foot bruise hadn't fully healed, and after Zheng Zhi made that phone call, Su Hao simply went to the team's medical center again that afternoon.

Su Hao's arrival naturally startled Lippi.

At that time, the old man was still unaware of the dirty dealings within the national team; he thought that Su Hao's injury had truly gone undetected.

Worried, the old man insisted on going to the clinic himself.

Faced with the old man's concerned gaze, Su Hao was momentarily at a loss as to how to explain the matter to Lippi.

Fortunately, Madaloni was as considerate as ever, telling the old man that, just to be on the safe side, Su Hao shouldn't participate in the second round of the league or that meaningless friendly match.

Therefore, at 4 pm that day, Evergrande directly submitted Su Hao's injury certificate to the Football Association in a formal manner.

At 8 p.m., Evergrande and the Chinese Football Association simultaneously announced on their official websites that Su Hao would miss the international friendly match due to injury.

This announcement naturally angered the fans once again.

They were hoping to see Su Hao break the national team appearance record on the 15th!
However, after all, the Chinese national team's opponent was only Thailand's U23 team. In the fans' minds, even without Su Hao, they could easily crush such a team at home.

2013 3 Month 12 Day.

Because the weekend is an international match day, the second round of the Chinese Super League was brought forward by two days.

Guangzhou Evergrande also welcomed their second opponent in the league at their home stadium.

Shanghai Shenxin!

The predecessor of this newly promoted team was actually Nanchang Bayi Hengyuan.

Due to the special nature of the Bayi team, which is unable to use foreign players, they can only return to the professional league by changing their name and reorganizing.

Su Hao's absence due to injury, coupled with Zheng Zhi's upcoming national team friendly match in three days, will be a significant factor.

Therefore, in order to reduce the risk of more serious injuries to the team, Lippi fielded a new defensive midfield pairing of Zhao Xuri and Qin Sheng in this match.

The absence of two key midfielders seems to have given Shanghai Shenxin a chance to secure points at Tianhe Stadium.

However, even though they spent a lot of money to buy three super-value foreign players, and Evergrande also took the initiative to reduce the intensity of their starting lineup, they still couldn't last even ten minutes against the currently dominant Guangzhou Evergrande before Elkeson's poking shot broke through their goal.

Conca's through ball found Elkeson in the penalty area, who controlled the ball with his left foot and then poked it in with his right!
The entire goal was scored in one smooth motion. Shanghai Shenxin's defenders didn't even have time to make a proper interception before they could just watch helplessly as their goal was breached!

With a goal scored less than ten minutes into the game, it was no surprise that the match had completely entered Evergrande mode.

15th minute of the match!

Conca, who had been setting up his teammates, also tried his hand at a long-range shot from outside the penalty area.

Because the focus was on Elkeson, who was at the very front, Shanghai Shenxin goalkeeper Liu Dianzuo, who did not notice Conca's shooting intention, could only watch helplessly as his goal was breached by Evergrande for the second time.

2: 0!

The 31th minute of the game.

This time, it was the cheetah that scored the goal.

As always, it was Evergrande's style of defensive counter-attack.

During Shanghai Shenxin's attacking opportunity, Muriqui received a long pass from Conca, successfully beat the offside trap, and easily evaded the onrushing Liu Dianzuo, sending the ball into Shanghai Shenxin's goal for the third time.

3: 0!

Before halftime, even without Su Hao and Zheng Zhi, Guangzhou Evergrande still held a terrifying 3-goal lead over Shanghai Shenxin.

Such an exaggerated goal-scoring efficiency naturally plunged the entire Tianhe Stadium into a frenzy of celebration early on.

5:1! That was the final score of the match.

If it weren't for Lippi making three substitutions in the second half to allow all players to make their debut in the new season,

I reckon Shanghai Shenxin will get thrashed by Evergrande a few more times.

Post-match press conference!
Lippi, who had secured another resounding victory and all three points, naturally answered reporters' most pressing questions about Su Hao's injury with a broad smile.

"The recovery is going well, but just to be on the safe side, we should observe for another week!"

"Su will definitely miss the national team's warm-up matches, but he should be fine for the World Cup qualifiers at the end of the month!"

Will he be in the starting lineup for the national team?

"Well, I don't know, since I'm not the head coach of the national team. But in my team, Su will always be the first choice for starting defensive midfielder!"

"Given Esu's current abilities... I'm not sure what you're asking! Are you asking if he has the potential to play in one of the top five European leagues?"

"The top five leagues. I don't know about the other leagues, but if it's Serie A, I think Suarez could definitely be in the starting lineup of some Serie A teams!"

The old man finished his answer.

However, the old man's speech caused an uproar at the press conference.

Starting lineups for Serie A teams?

Starting lineups for some Serie A teams?
this.
If a domestic coach or some second- or third-rate foreign coach were to say that Su Hao, a 16-year-old, could start for an Italian Serie A team, then conservatively speaking, 50% of the reporters present would burst out laughing.

But
But these are Lippi's words!

This was said by Marcello Lippi, the World Cup-winning coach, the Champions League-winning coach, and a world-class coach!

At 16 years old, he's perfectly capable of starting for an Italian Serie A team.
What an insane statement!

Marcello Lippi: Suarez has the ability to start for a Serie A team!

Is he the strongest midfielder in Chinese history? He was already a Serie A starter at just 16!

World champion coach personally confirms that Su Hao is already China's strongest player!

The national team may be receiving its strongest reinforcement in a century; will the Asian Cup qualifiers be the debut of this strongest national team?

The press area was in an uproar, and naturally, the entire internet started buzzing about it.

The top banner on Sina Sports' homepage features a huge photo of Lippi at the press conference, and the website even thoughtfully photoshopped in the corners of the photo to show Su Hao making a long pass!
CCTV5 even dedicated a full five minutes to reporting on Lippi's important speech, which caused a frenzy across the entire Chinese internet, in its sports news segment at noon the following day!

It's gone viral again!

This also caused Su Hao's father, Su Bai, to be bombarded with phone calls.

The reason why the phone lines were ringing off the hook was naturally due to Su Hao's explosive popularity, which made countless domestic manufacturers want to be the first to break into Su Hao's advertising network.

Su Bai was stunned!

Especially after hearing those manufacturers quote prices of five million or six million at a time.

Having only ever run small businesses, how could he dare agree to such a thing?

After Su Bai and Su Hao had a conversation.

3 Month 15 Day!
The day the Chinese national team and the Thai U23 national team started their friendly match.

Su Hao and Su Bai officially met with Gao Qi, the top agent in China for overseas education, in a private room at a hotel. Gao Qi had been in contact with Su Hao for some time.
(End of this chapter)