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BEIJING, Dec. 24-- After failed World Cup qualification campaign, it's time for Chinese football to change with a training revolution that is both technical and tactical in scope. This is known as the T-T revolution. Although the arrival of Marcello Lippi has obviously changed the Chinese men's national team, who picked up only one point from their first four matches at the third round of the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia Asian qualifiers, the 11 points they collected from six matches under the Italian's reign could not change their fate of elimination. China finally ranked the fifth place of Group A with 12 points, 10 behind leaders Iran and one point away from the third-placed team Syria, who earned a playoff chance but lost to Australia. China have received early exits from their last three world cup qualifiers since they first reached the finals in 2002. This time, they went a little farther and kept hopes of advancing alive until the last group game against Qatar. One positive development is that Lippi has changed the team's defensive playing style adopted by his predecessor Gao Hongbo, who preferred a five-defender system, with an attack-minded 433 formation. The new tactics inspired the side's attacking power, courage and self-confidence when they faced Asian teams, and earned impressive wins over South Korea, Uzbekistan and Qatar. The main drawback is that the Chinese team can only perform half of the time during a match. Most of the Chinese internationals are above 28 which means their physiques, technical skills, football awareness and understanding of tactics have reached their limits. Lippi called up youngsters like midfielder He Chao, forwards Wei Shihao and Yang Liyu to the national team after the World Cup, and they showed potential in the East Asian Cup, but are still a class away from their senior teammates. | 
