Former Asian champions Evergrande to take team reshuffle after six straight winless games

Source: Xinhua| 2018-05-21 00:14:25|Editor: yan
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JINAN, May 20 (Xinhua) -- Reigning Chinese Super League (CSL) champions Guangzhou Evergrande will undergo a team reshuffle following a 2-0 defeat away to Beijing Renhe in the Chinese Super League on Sunday.

Benjamin Moukandjo opened the scoring for Renhe with a volley in 9th minute into the match. In 15th minute, Augusto Fernandez scored a long shot to seal the 2-0 win.

It was Evergrande's sixth winless match in all competitions including domestic league, Chinese Football Association Cup and Asian Champions League.

"My players could not put them together after allowing two goals to Renhe. They created many chances but failed to convert those to goals," said Evergrande coach Fabio Cannavaro.

After the 11th round, Chinese Super League will have a break of more than 50 days, giving attention to the Russia World Cup.

Cannavaro said the break period is critical as his side can take this chance to relax and put aside all burdens for a rebound at the rest of the season.

Evergrande had collected 18 points from five wins, three draws and three losses, ranking fifth in league, five points behind league leaders Shanghai SIPG.

Evergrande have won seven Chinese Super League titles in a row since their promotion to the top flight at the end of 2010 and are the only Chinese club to win Asian Champions League twice so far.

However, Evergrande are disappointing in playing against the newly-promoted teams like Dalian Yifang and Renhe. They lost to Yifang 3-0 to give Dalian their first league victory on May 5 and then to Renhe 2-0 away on Sunday.

In addition, Tianjin Quanjian eliminated Evergrande to advance to Asian Champions League quarterfinals on May 15. Evergrande had suffered two defeats against Tianjin Quanjian last season in Chinese Super League, when Cannavaro took the helm then in Quanjian.

After Sunday's surprising defeat, Evergrande boss Xu Jiayin responded immediately by proposing to reshuffle the team during the coming summer transfer window. Xu has been demanding a profound replacement of foreign players and allowing sales of any domestic players over 23 years old.

Evergrande will stick to the all-Chinese squad plan in the future and aim to win another domestic league trophy with all-Chinese players, according to Xu's scheme for the club.

Elsewhere, Shanghai SIPG defeated Jiangsu Suning 2-0 to set pace in the league with 23 points. Quanjian beat Shanghai Shenhua 2-1. Yifang had a 2-1 win over Guizhou Hengfeng for their second league victory.

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