Shanghai SIPG boss Andre Villas-Boas defends ‘ridiculous’ use of Chinese Super League under-23 quota
Guangzhou Evergrande end Shanghai SIPG’s perfect record in 2017 with 3-2 win on Saturday thanks to an 80th-minute penalty from Brazilian striker Ricardo Goulart
Andre Villas-Boas claimed it would have been “ridiculous” to withdraw teenage defender Zhang Huachen in the first minute of Saturday’s 3-2 defeat by Guangzhou Evergrande, but the word seems to perfectly describe the way the Shanghai SIPG coach is finding a way around the Chinese Super League’s under-23 quota this season.
The Portuguese coach has been highly critical of new rules introduced this season which see teams forced to field one Chinese under-23 player in the starting 11, while the number of foreign players in a matchday squad has been reduced to three.
In all three games this season, Villas-Boas has fulfilled this requirement by starting 19-year-old Zhang, but the defender has amassed just 62 minutes from those appearances after being withdrawn in the first half in every game.
“I was considering when to change him, but we can’t change the young players at the first minute of the game, that will be ridiculous,” said Villas-Boas after suffering his first defeat in seven competitive games as SIPG coach having been appointed at the end of last year.
“I always say that the players should play in a very natural way instead of in a forced way. Our under-23 players are not under-23, they are under-21. We can only adapt to that slowly.”
Other Super League coaches have followed suit in some other matches this season, but Villas-Boas has consistently employed this tactic with Zhang withdrawn after 15 minutes against Evergrande.