Did the lack of Asian club football mean more rest for Kitchee’s local players? The stats say otherwise

Written by Adam and Samuel

Credits to Jarly

It’s no question that Kitchee’s season has been full of disappointment, especially when the team imploded in recent weeks. Some fans have questioned whether the squad rotation has been properly managed because players looked slower and have clearly lacked energy in the past two months. Unfortunately, injuries and lack of depth have caused Kitchee to run a tight rotation this season with key players accumulating heavy minutes. The club being reluctant to sign any players during the winter transfer window also did not help the case when league rivals Eastern, Tai Po and Lee Man all signed new players, although prior big expenditure on current squad members may have played a part. In hindsight, Kitchee management might have built the squad differently during the past summer if it could have foreseen that its local players would become much more preferred by the new Hong Kong representative team manager, Ashley Westwood. I consulted fellow Kitchee fan Samuel to dig deeper and analyse the international minutes played by Kitchee’s local players relative to its league rivals and whether this is a contributing factor to the noticeable fatigue. 

Credits to Jarly

The Hong Kong representative team current regulars from Kitchee include Ngan Cheuk-pan, Fernando, Leon Jones, and Juninho. Ngan and Fernardo played sporadically for Hong Kong under previous head coach Jorn Andersen and they were not selected for the trip to Fiji in September under caretaker Wolfgang Luisser. On the other hand, Leon Jones, who made his debut for Hong Kong in June 2024 against Iran, was selected for Fiji but dropped out due to injury. But in October, things changed under Westwood as Fernando became the key player for Hong Kong as a libero. Ngan got the nod ahead of Lee Man’s Wu Chun-ming (a favourite of Andersen) and Eastern’s Lam Hin-ting after his Kitchee teammate, Tan Chun-lok, was unavailable through injury for the majority of the season. Vaz Nunez remaining injured also meant that Jones became an undisputed starter at centre back for Hong Kong. 

Credits to Jarly

With that being said, this meant that the aforementioned Kitchee players have not been getting their rest this season during international breaks with Jones at 751 minutes, Juninho at 702 minutes and Ngan at 645 minutes for Hong Kong. Fernando, who isn’t getting any younger at the age of 38, has played 665 minutes for Hong Kong which accounted for one-third of the minutes he has played this season. But for other Hong Kong league contenders, they have become less impacted by players fatigue from international duties since many Hong Kong top talents moved to Chinese clubs during the past two seasons, such as Oli Gerbig and Shinichi Chan leaving Kitchee, and Sun Ming-him leaving Eastern. Eastern now only has goalkeeper Yapp Hung-fai playing heavy minutes for Hong Kong at 900 minutes after Jesse Yu moved to China League One during the winter transfer window; though Jesse did play 421 mins for Hong Kong during his time at Eastern this season. Eastern lost two other Hong Kong internationals over the winter, Anson Wong and Ng Yu-hei, but neither had been playing much for Hong Kong. Lee Man has Everton Camargo and Wong Wai being Hong Kong regulars but their minutes are significantly lower at 525 minutes and 495 minutes respectively. Tai Po, which is the current league leader, does not have any of its locals playing significant minutes for the representative team. Philip Chan has only played 319 minutes for Hong Kong despite being the reigning Footballer of The Year and maintaining his hot form this season and goalkeeper Tse Ka-wing has mostly been on the bench. Stefan Pereira of Southern is the only other HKPL player who played a considerable amount of minutes (416). Westwood’s preference of playing Kitchee's local players alongside  China-based Hong Kong players puts Kitchee at a disadvantage against its league rivals. This becomes even a bigger problem for Kitchee as it has to field 5 local outfielders due to Fynn Talley in goal, which  limits the possibility of resting its Hong Kong internationals. However, Fynn Talley’s improving performances has definitely been a bright spot in a poor Kitchee season and whether it warrants the use of a foreign goalkeeper is not the focus of this article. 

Credits to Jarly

The impact from international duties for Hong Kong is very noticeable for Kitchee because even though the club does not have Asian club football this season, Ngan, Jones and Juninho are among the 25 HKPL players who have played over 2,000 minutes this season from all HKPL and international competitions (as of Apr. 20, 2024). In particular, Ngan has played almost 2,400 minutes and only 8 other players have played more minutes than him; those players are from either Eastern or Lee Man and these two clubs played 6 extra games this season due to their participation in ACL2, as well as making the Senior Shield final. Everton Camargo is an exceptional case with over 3000 minutes played, but the only other local outfielders with more minutes than Ngan Cheuk-pan are Eastern duo Alex Jojo (2491 minutes) and Ma Hei-wai (2408 minutes) as they played 120 mins and 105 mins respectively during last week’s FA Cup semi-final. Leon Jones and Juninho are also well over 2,200 minutes, with only Li Ngai-hoi of Lee Man also in this group for local outfielders. Jojo, Ma Hei-wai and Li Ngai-hoi have been used significantly less internationally- Jojo and Ma Hei-wai have played less than 300 international minutes, even taking into account the Hong Kong-Guangdong Cup, while Li Ngai-hoi has been out of the Hong Kong setup for the entirety of Westwood’s time in charge.

Credits to Scoop

Although the downfall of Kitchee’s season comes down to dropping points against teams in the bottom half of the table, one can’t help but wonder whether the course of this season would have been different if our local players did not have to play as many minutes for Hong Kong. With fresher legs and more rest, the team probably could have performed better. It is quite noticeable that Fernando and Ngan were sluggish in the recent games. Ignoring the Sapling Cup which has taken place during international windows, Fernando has started every Kitchee game since January, and Ngan Cheuk-pan has started all bar one game since early November; with no replacements deemed adequate by Edgar Cardoso, they often find themselves playing close to ninety minutes week in week out. In recent years, the general impression on which team will win the HKPL has always been who has the better foreign players but the contribution of the local players should not be disregarded. When 4 of Kitchee's locals are playing heavy minutes for at both club and international level, it has certainly hindered Kitchee's performance this season.

Thanks to Scoop and Jarly for the photos. Please check out their pages and give them a follow.

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