On April 4, the fourth round of the Chinese Super League begins. The Shanghai Haigang team coached by Muscat will face the Yunnan Yukun team, which has greatly improved its strength, at home. The record of only 3 losses, 2 draws, and 1 win in 6 games in the new season revealed the decline in the overall strength of the defending champion; the rumors about the team from the outside world also confused the attention of some die-hard fans; before the game, two newly introduced foreign players, Claude and Anpeim, missed the last training session due to injuries—— In the face of difficulties, criticism and even doubts, winning is undoubtedly the most powerful way to fight back. Can the Shanghai Haigang team use the most hard-core strong performance to get out of the trough of competitive status?
Injuries: Weakened strength on both offense and defense
In the last training session before the game, some reporters from Harbor and the team were helpless to discover that the two new foreign players Jean-Claude and Anpeem, whom the Muscat coaching staff had introduced in the new season, were both absent from the last training session before the game due to injuries. In addition, center Leonardo has not fully recovered from his injury and has been playing with injuries, and defender Jiang Guangtai is still in the recovery period from his injury. The decline in the Harbor team's performance in the 2026 season is strongly related to the widespread injuries in the team.
The official poster released by Harbor Club before the game.
Midfielder Jean Claude is a typical defensive midfielder, active in running and tough in defense, but he has obvious shortcomings in offensive connection and passing organization. The Harbor coaching staff introduced Jean Claude to replace Jusa, perhaps out of consideration for strengthening defense, but judging from the actual performance, the team's midfield control and connection ability have experienced a cliff-like decline. In the last round of Haigang's away game, they lost 0-1 to Dalian Yingbo. Jean-Claude was injured and fell to the ground during a scramble. The team doctor then entered the field for treatment.
However, Jean-Claude, who has a strong sense of responsibility, chose to persist through the injury, which will undoubtedly aggravate the injury. Therefore, he missed the warm-up match of the Togo national team during the FIFA match day window. Facing the Yunnan Yukun team with strong offensive strength, Jean Claude's absence due to injury is undoubtedly a major loss on the defensive end. After the two midfielders Xu Xin and Abraham left the team, the Haigang team currently only has Zhang Yuan, Lu Yongtao and Yang Shiyuan at No. 6. How to reorganize the front barrier of the penalty area requires the coaching staff to spend some thought.
On March 20, Dalian Yingbo team player Yang Mingrui (left) competed with Shanghai Haigang team player Li Shuai during the game. On March 20, in the third round of the 2026 Chinese Football Association Super League held in Dalian, Liaoning, Dalian Yingbo defeated Shanghai Haigang 1-0 at home. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Pan Yulong
Center Leonardo's injury was even more passive. He was not confirmed for surgery until halfway through winter training, which affected the team's normal progress in signings. Muscat even did not hesitate to lay off attacking midfielder Melendo, but also introduced sixth foreign aid winger Anpeim, to some extent, with the consideration of sharing the offensive firepower with Leonardo. Nowadays, Leonardo has returned early without a foreign center in the team, but he wears knee pads for support and protection. He also avoids kicking during physical confrontations and basically gives up when he encounters opportunities that require high-speed sprinting.
Obviously, Leonardo was not in his best form in the first three rounds of the Super League. Fortunately, the intermission period that just passed gave him a valuable opportunity to rest and recover, and fans are also looking forward to the return of this super shooter king.
On March 20, Shanghai Harbor Team head coach Muscat watched the game from the sidelines. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Pan Yulong
On the back line, although Jiang Guangtai is currently back in Shanghai, he can only carry out jogging and rehabilitation training. He still has to wait at least about a month before he can compete in high-intensity competition. "With Jiang Guangtai and without Jiang Guangtai, Haigang is basically two defensive teams. So without Jiang Guangtai, the Haigang team has lost goals one after another this season, which is related to the decline in defensive quality and also shows that the coaching staff's tactics lack targeted changes." An insider said.
In addition, Harbor coach Muscat revealed that young forward Li Xinxiang has become the latest member of the team's injury list: "Only Li Xinxiang is injured, which is very unlucky. This is the second time he has been injured during the Guozihao training camp."
Of course, the injury situation of the Harbor team is not all bad news: Wang Zhenao, who has been sidelined for a year, and Liu Ruofan, who has been sidelined for three months, have now joined the team for training. As for Wu Lei's comeback, since his knee injury is irreversible, he will still feel obvious pain after each game, so his playing time in each game should be limited to about 20 minutes. Some people in the industry also suggested that in view of Wu Lei's injuries and technical characteristics, the team needs to develop a personalized training plan for him to give full play to his "substitute surprise" characteristics of scoring goals in the final stage.
Rumors: Groundless speculation lacking evidence
In the new season, Harbor has been plagued by bad luck since the beginning of winter training. The wave of injuries was so ferocious that it was rarely seen in team history, directly tearing the team's skeleton to pieces. What is more fatal than injuries is the overwhelming rumors and public opinion. From the locker room to the transfer market, some operations of the Harbor team have aroused doubts from some people.
The "Sports Weekly" report showed a certain acumen of observation.
Winning means everything is fine, losing means everything is wrong. This is actually a symptom of the cruelty of competitive sports. However, for the current lack of stability in performance, the harbor does need to show more technical and tactical improvements to respond to doubts.
According to a report by Wang Xiaorui, an all-media reporter from Sports Weekly, coach Muscat also fell into confusion and disappointment after the Haigang team lost 0-1 to Dalian Yingbo in the last round away game. After the game, he talked about the turf: "Objectively speaking, the field conditions in this game are difficult for both sides. Everyone can see that it is difficult to cooperate in passing and receiving. There is still an intermission period before the next game. We still have a long time to prepare for the game, and we will also summarize and prepare accordingly."
The "Sports Weekly" report also said that the Harbor team has a bigger hidden worry – a bad start has become a fact: "What is even more troublesome is that the problems that the Harbor team is showing now are not just technical and tactical. This is actually what worries the outside world the most."
On March 7, 2026, the Shanghai Haigang team lost 1-2 at home to Henan.
