Chenjie Zhu- Shanghai Shenhua Scout Report

 


ChenJie Zhu- Ball Playing Centre Back Who Is Walking The Chinese Super League


Date of birth: 23 August 2000

Country: China

Position: Centre Back

Height: 185cm

Preferred foot: Right


Anyone who has watched any football the past few years will have spotted a trend: Teams playing out from the back to kickstart possesion based football instead of the traditional hoof it forward style. And this has led to two positions being revamped, Goalkeepers and Central defenders. The latter is what we are looking at here, with Shanghai Shenhua's Chenjie Zhu fitting the bill for anyone looking for a ball playing centre back.


Shanghai Shenhua have struggled in the past few years, often being behind their city rivals Shanghai Port, especially during the CSL bubble in which money was being thrown around willy nilly. However this season Shenhua have been on a tear, currently 1st in the league and a big part of that is their solid defence.


Chenjie Zhu has started all 13 games he has played in this season and has kept 8 clean sheets in that time. A 6ft centre back who interestingly doesn't rely on putting in tackles, only making 1.0 per game, instead he uses his combined strength, pace and agility to instead recover and make the defensive stop, recording 3.5 balls recovered per game. Often making a slide tackle to recover.  He also posesses a classic no nonsense mindset, making 4 clearances per game. In the air he is also very strong, winning 58% of aerial duals (2.5 per game), making almost double the amount of ground duals per game 1.5 (54% win rate).  Not too long ago this was all clubs wanted from a centre back, but times have changed and Chenjie has certaintly moved with them. He makes an average of 51 passes per game at an incredible 90% accuracy rate, including 3.8 long balls at 55% accuracy. This bodes well for European teams who love playing out from the back and are looking for a competent passer who can switch on when the club is on the backfoot. 


He looks like a modern defender with his length, pace, strength, aggression, positional iq and his consistency often bossing his matchup which is typically against a foreign more experienced striker that has been brought in for big money. This gives me great confidence that he can adapt to whatever potential team he moves to, regardless of country.


Chenjie is a regular in the China national team, making 28 appearances so far. This is great for European clubs as a work permit should not bring any problems. What is very interesting is the fact Zhu was not the captain of Shanghai starting this season, however in recent games it appears he has been made captain, rewarding his stellar performances which has led to Shenhua often walking away with a clean sheet.


There is a lot to like about Zhu's game. I believe he has to work on bringing the ball out in terms of a dribble, something he hasn't really done which is becoming more and more vital in the modern game. His 6ft height hasn't seen much return in terms of goals from set pieces which is something to be worked on. But I think the main issue should it arise would be mental, after all he has never lived outside of China and moving to Europe requires some level of English to fit in. However with the increasing amount of players moving to Europe from Asian countries settling in is much easier than previous years.


Ideal Club:


A hard one to predict, as previously mentioned possesion based football is becoming the norm, meaning he can sign for basically anyone. However I feel he is a must buy for Celtic in Scotland. A club that loves to sign players from different parts of the world, develop and move them on. Celtic play possesion based football and have been struggling to replace Starfelt who left a year ago. Signing Zhu would give Celtic a solid option to pair with Carter Vickers, also allowing him to develop in a stepping stone league as well as increase shirt sales in China, similar to how the club have been able to increase their marketing in Japan in recent years. And for Chenjie he gets an opportunity to play in European competitions, develop his skills, potentially win trophies and earn a big move to the English premier league, following in the steps of Virgil Van Dijk.





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