China name their 23

This week China announced their 23-man squad for the Asian Cup which is likely to be Marcello Lippi's farewell tournament. The squad as not caught the imagination either with a 38-year-old captain and with no exciting young talent called upon. 

Not much excitement for this China side

It would be fair to say that excitement for China at this tournament is at a low point. The country is in a four-team group with Kyrgyzstan, Philippines and South Korea with many predicting they could finish bottom. The level of enthusiasm does not seem to have been lifted with the announcement of the squad too.

A lot of the issues with this side is that Lippi is not willing to change his team and promote new young talent. This is seen with the Italian using many players he managed with Guangzhou Evergrande. Added to this Martin Lowe (@plasticpitch) commented on The Asian Games podcast when he was quizzed on China's chances at the Asian Cup. As the simple answer when put to him 'do China have a chance' the response was 'No and I would put quite a lot of that blame on Lippi'.

A move that has angered fans of the China national team is the lack of young talent being selected and placing Zheng Zhi with the former Celtic man well past his best. Meanwhile, a defeat on Christmas Eve to Iraq in a warm-up match as done nothing to lighten the mood.

Here is the side in full

GK: Yan Junling, Wang Dalei, Guo Quanbo

DF: Feng Xiaoting, Zhang Linpeng, Zhang Chengdong, Yu Yang, Shi Ke, Liu Yiming, Liu Yang

MF: Zheng Zhi, Wu Xi, Hao Junmin, Zhao Xuri, Jin Jingdao, Chi Zhongguo, Piao Cheng

FW: Wu Lei, Gao Lin, Yu Dabao, Yu Hanchao, Xiao Zhi, Wei Shihao