Chapter 63: The Fake Ball King
Thanks to book friend "Hard-won thing" for the reward, continue to ask for recommendation votes ^_^
Du Wei has been embroiled in fake ball rumors many times before, due to his extremely unstable performance even after becoming famous, and he often makes low-level mistakes that even amateur players would not make. Throughout his career, he has been constantly suspected of faking balls and was even nicknamed the "Fake Ball Prince". However, despite all these rumors, Du Wei has managed to remain unscathed in the midst of the betting scandal, which is enough to prove his innocence. As for why Du Wei, a top domestic center-back, would often make amateur-level mistakes, Gao Lin, who once coached him, knows the reason - it's because Du Wei is an extremely unbalanced player in all aspects, just like he was back then...
As a central defender, Du Wei's physical quality is extremely excellent. Except for Fan Zhiyi in the past, no other defender has been able to match him since the Chinese Football Professional League began. Especially with Du Wei's actual height exceeding 1.89 meters (note 1), his jumping ability is comparable to that of a BT player, and even within Asia, he is absolutely top-notch. Du Wei did not waste his aerial advantage either; after years of hard training, his heading ability has reached the Asian top level. As a central defender, he only participates in attacks when the team gets corner kicks or free kicks, but his goal-scoring record is higher than that of many forwards, which is something even Li Dawei, who is also known for his heading ability, cannot achieve, and it is enough to illustrate Du Wei's exceptional heading skills.
Du Wei's physical strength may not be as good as Li Dajun, but it is fully sufficient in Asian-level competitions. His front intercepts and one-on-one defensive abilities are at least at the domestic first-class level, which he achieved when he was still very young. At first glance, he should have a great chance of becoming Asia's top center-back. However, even the old fox Milu did not see that Du Wei had two insurmountable weaknesses at the same time.
The most obvious one is that Du Weikang's concentration is not good. If the opponent's attack is strong, Du Weikang has to tighten his strings and defend desperately, which is still okay. However, if our team has the advantage and there are fewer defensive emergencies, Du Weikang will often lose focus from time to time. For a central defender, this problem is fatal, and once it appears, it can easily lead to the team losing a game that should have been won. If such situations occur frequently, club officials and ordinary fans who lack professional knowledge will naturally think of match-fixing.
Actually, lack of concentration is a common problem among domestic players, including General Fan who was invincible back then, and this aspect is also a serious issue. However, General Fan had world-class explosive power and terrifying speed that rarely appears on central defenders, so even if he accidentally lost focus, as long as he immediately accelerated to catch up, he would have at least 70-80% chance of making up for the mistake. This is something Du Wei, who is slower in speed, cannot do. Therefore, back then when General Fan made low-level mistakes, he would only be scolded, while Du Wei would be suspected of playing fake football...
Apart from direct low-level mistakes, Du Wei's indirect low-level mistakes, that is, "misplacement", are more frequent, and this has to do with his almost amateurish sense of position. Some half-baked fans might find it strange that Du Wei's card-reading ability is not bad, how can you say his sense of position is very poor? But Gao Jun knows that Du Wei doesn't lose much in one-on-one defense because his excellent predictive ability makes up for the lack of positional awareness, but in the team's defensive system, Du Wei with poor positional awareness will always run to the wrong position and destroy the team's defensive formation. For a central defender where positioning is crucial, this is really fatal. And as a result, easily losing the ball is also one of the main reasons why Du Wei was scolded for being "fake"...
Concentration is basically innate, although it can also be improved through training, but that's only effective when the player is young. At Du Wei's current age, the effect is already minimal; while spatial awareness needs to be honed through training and competition, some people can improve easily, while others find it extremely difficult, which is also an innate talent, and unfortunately, Du Wei belongs to the latter. To use a FM game concept as an analogy, at 20 years old, Du Wei already had 110+ CA (ability), but only 120+ PA (potential), and all these shortcomings are reflected in his mental attributes...
However, despite Du Wei having a fatal weakness, due to the lack of excellent central defenders in China and the extremely weak central defender position of Dongfang team, if he can come, it will still greatly enhance the team's defensive strength.
Moreover, Du Wei is not a player who cannot play to his strengths and avoid his weaknesses with the right tactics, just like how a player with obvious flaws can become a weakness and loophole in the team if the tactics are not suitable. In fact, the reason why the current national team coach Arihan is determined not to use Du Wei is that his controlling and attacking style of play will completely expose Du Wei's weaknesses and not bring out much of his advantages. Under this style of play, Du Wei's value is not even as good as a second-rate domestic defender, and it would be a big mistake to recruit him...
While the Eastern team also emphasizes technical control of the flow of "receiving, passing and shooting", due to their current strength and reputation being temporarily insufficient, they will likely adopt a defensive counter-attacking strategy in many games next year. At that time, once the defense is withdrawn, Du Wei's aerial advantage can be fully utilized, while his weaknesses can be compensated by his teammates' supplementary defense.
More importantly, the biggest weakness of Dongfang team now is that their defense line is not tall enough (not hard enough either, but the problem is not as big as the height). The goalkeeper Zeng Cheng has been unstable in dealing with high balls, and just this point alone makes Du Wei's arrival enough to greatly enhance Dongfang's strength......
As the top domestic football coach, Xu Genbao had long seen that Du Wei's level stagnated after participating in the World Cup in 02 (Coach Xu initially thought that Du Wei couldn't continue to improve because he was complacent and no longer worked hard, but later found out that Du Wei actually only had this much talent......), but even so, the current central defender of Dongfang team is still far behind him, therefore under Gao Jun's suggestion, Xu Genbao still quoted a price to buy from Huahua Club.
Note 1: Currently, the data online is 1m87, but this was reported when he participated in the Korea-Japan World Cup at the age of 20. He has since grown by 2cm (from this point, Du Wei's age should be real, but his example also shows that a true age does not necessarily mean great potential). This can be felt during national team competitions, where Feng Xiaoting is also 1m87 in height, but the two are clearly shorter than Du Wei when standing together.
