Cannavaro concerned about his team’s mental state

Kampala, Uganda | XINHUA |   Fabio Cannavaro has expressed concern over the agitation his Guangzhou Evergrande team showed under mounting psychological pressure more than a month into the modified Chinese Super League (CSL) season.

The Italian said he was aware that agitation had crept into his side after they spent nearly six weeks in the CSL bubble, but that he could do nothing about that.

“How can I help my players? I want to see which player can help me. It has been more than seven months that I did not see my family. We all have families,” he said through an interpreter.

“And I found during the recent matches some players, including some on the bench, and working staff began to show agitation. I hope we can calm down,” the Guangzhou head coach said.

His Shandong Luneng counterpart Li Xiaopeng said he would stick to a rotation of his players for the remaining fixtures, potentially at the cost of their performance, to help ease off the psychological strain.

“As we have to spend all days in this area, we have been under huge mental pressure which could blunt your reaction on the field. Then you could easily get injured,” he said.

“I am determined to carry on with the rotation system, even if that means we will lose some games. Nothing is more important than the players’ health,” he said.

The truncated 2020 CSL campaign saw 16 teams split into two groups, each group of eight teams to be based in the same hotel, to play a tournament style league behind closed doors.

Guangzhou Evergrande currently sit atop their group with 19 points after eight rounds, followed by Shandong Luneng with 16 points.

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XINHUA