Long Dong scouting report: excellent English super pivot winger, enhance the tactical system of the side

Long Dong, who will turn 30 in two months, left the English Premier League and then came to the Chinese Super League to join Dalian, where he has played in La Liga, the Russian Premier League and the English Premier League, and has the ability to work as a pivot. What can he bring to soccer city Dalian, where he spent a season with Rafa Benitez at Newcastle? You may want to take a look at it together.

Long Dong's strength has been recognized through his years of playing in the West, Russia and England

Born in 1989, Long Dong joined Malaga in the summer of '10, when he was valued at 3.5 million euros. To a certain extent, Long Dong, along with Camacho, Maresca, Demichelis, Baptista and others who joined Málaga subsequently, were strong additions to the team after the Qatari royal family bought the team.

During his time at Málaga, Long Dong put up some excellent numbers as the team's main striker, contributing 25 goals and 6 assists in 57 league appearances over two seasons.

Since then, Long Dong has left the team for the Russian Premier League, leaving his footprints in Rubin Kazan and Zenit, and the scoring efficiency is still not bad. It is worth noting that during his time with Rubin Kazan, Long Dong only left 6 goals in the Russian Premier League due to his low playing time, but he scored 7 goals in the UEFA Cup, a stunning performance. Thanks to this performance, Long Dong joined Zenit in January '14 for a fee of 18 million euros.

Figure 1: Long Dong's key stats at the Europa League level from the start of the 10-11 season

Since then, Long Dong has come to the Premier League to make a name for himself, and in three seasons at West Bromwich Albion, he scored nine, eight and seven Premier League goals, making him a more than competent striker in the Premier League's mid-to-lower tier. In the summer of '18, Long Dong came to Newcastle, where he produced the best figures of his Premier League career under Rafa Benitez: 11 goals and 7 assists.

Crucially, as a center-forward with excellent size and heading ability, he's been excellent at pivoting after grinding it out in the Premier League. He has averaged 4.6 successful scrambles per game in each of the previous two seasons.

Why did one side choose him? There was a recruiting drive from Pepe, and also a trend in the Chinese Super League

Under Rafa Benitez, Long Dong produced some of the better performances of his career. This time, after Benitez fled his stingy Newcastle boss, he is desperate to do big things in the Asian game. Therefore, recruiting his favorite old team is a very necessary means, and the 30-year-old Long Dong is arguably the best choice.

In the previous season, Mu Xiekui, Carrasco, Gaitan composed of the offensive trident power is greater, is a party can recover the decline to stay in the Chinese Super League is an important reason. The following Gaitan's departure and the increase in age of Mu Xiekui, who has suffered a major injury, has led to a change in the team's construction. The introduction of Long Dong is not only the team's "sheep mending", because Boateng although diligent, but he is limited by physical and tactical role is not obvious, the most critical is that the introduction of Long Dong is in line with the trend of the construction of the Chinese Super League foreign aid system.

Chart 2: the Chinese superpower are strengthening the front line, the pivot center has regained importance

The above chart is the introduction of the pivot center in the front line of the Chinese superpower team in recent seasons, we can clearly see: before the start of the season and the current opening of the summer window has 11 teams to introduce or replace the pivot center, this is a trend is incredibly obvious signal: Chinese superpower team are The first time I've seen this, I've seen a lot of people who are trying to make the transition.

The reason for this transition is that, at a deeper level, Chinese Super League teams lack a rich enough tactical system to form a balanced rotation. Therefore, Elneny, Goodyear, these system players can not survive the fertile ground had to leave; and from the specific reasons, that is, today's world football and even the Chinese Super League, the defense system has become increasingly perfect, burst point foreign aid in the tight defense system or targeted restrictions under the effect began to decline; and has the advantage of high altitude pivot winger, but because of the physical and technical and tactical characteristics began to play a mighty.

One side to give up Mu Xiekui and the introduction of relatively young Long Dong, both Benitez to recruit the love of the reasons to do great things together, but also the current trend of the Chinese Super League to bring the impetus.

Analysis of technical characteristics: excellent pivot ability

Long Dong's technical characteristics are more representative, on the one hand, as a pivot winger has a strong header work ability. On the other hand, his tactical position has been improved during his time at Newcastle, and his output at the attacking end has been significantly strengthened compared to the West Brom era.

1, pivot point to do the ball ability is excellent

From the above figure 1 we can see, Long Dong in the previous two seasons in the Premier League can contribute to the average 4.6 times the success of the top of the very good. And, in this summer's Copa America, as the main center forward of the Venezuelan national team, although he didn't score any goals, he averaged 4.8 times.

As you can see, Long Dong's physique and heading skills are very good, which is also perfectly in line with his positioning as a pivot center forward.

Figure 3: Accurate header ferry ability

The above figure is a header ferry made by Long Dong in the elimination of the Copa America match between Venezuela and Argentina: Venezuela breaks the ball and passes it long, Long Dong's header is aimed at the right side of the teammates who are forward, and his ferry is very accurate. However, the teammates of the front encountered Argentina's targeted restrictions, Taliafico in Long Dong header before the header to start the front to limit, and ultimately broke the ball.

But that doesn't mean Long Dong's pivot role is diminished. In the Premier League last season and in this summer's Copa America tournament, we were able to visualize Long Dong's ability to make the ball work.

Figure 4: Long Dong completes a precise forward ferry under the interference of Argentinean defenders

Figure 5: In the Premier League, Long Dong's ability to do the ball is also a very strong manifestation

2, the ability to improve the ending, the header can strengthen the means of attack

Compared with the monotonous style of play of the West Bromwich Albion, Rafa Benitez under the rule of Newcastle, although because of the overall strength of the overall weakness of the depth of the technical and tactical aspects of the difficult to find. Newcastle under Benitez, although it is difficult to operate in depth at the technical and tactical level, but it is given more offensive duties to the attackers. In this case, Long Dong was given a system more suitable for him to play.

Figure 6: Long Dong's tactical positioning changed while playing for Newcastle

From the chart above, we can clearly see that after coming to Newcastle, Long Dong's average number of shots, number of shots on target, and his ability to seize chances have all improved, while in terms of the average number of shots to regain the ball (in which he was second in the Premier League in the same position in both seasons), Long Dong's figures have dropped because Newcastle's tactical system is not like that of West Bromwich Albion, which seeks to bombard with set pieces. West Bromwich Albion are not looking for set-pieces or for strikers to fight off opposition defenders.

In the first 17 rounds of the Premier League, the side averaged just 14.9 successful tackles per game (11th in the Premier League) and 4.2 successful tackles up front, 15th in the Premier League, just better than Fulham. Long Dong's arrival, especially his ability to work with headers, could enrich the side's top-three offense.

Figure 7: Long Dong's run in the box and his ability to head the ball towards goal are of a high standard

Conclusion

At 30 years of age, a striker is already coming to the end of his career. However, Long Dong still has a strong role as a pivotal center forward, as seen in the 18-19 Premier League season and this summer's Copa America tournament. As a former disciple of Master Bey's, the two sides are more familiar with each other and can better understand the tactics, and his arrival can also enrich the technical and tactical system of the side.

For this attraction, it may be optimistic and optimistic attitude.

(Boiling water has no temperature)