LinkingSeas News

homego back

   Chinese striker Wu Lei said on Tuesday that he needs to “work harder” if he is to recover protagonism for his side Espanyol this season.

   Last season the Barcelona based club won promotion back to La Liga just a year after being relegated to the second division (Liga SmartBank), but Wu Lei didn’t have a particularly good campaign.

    Although he played 31 times, only eight of those appearances were in the starting line up with the remaining 23 off the subs’ bench in a total of just 835 minutes competitive football, well down on the 1,724 minutes he played in the previous season.

   “I didn’t have so many minutes last year, but right now I have a lot of confidence in myself. I have to push myself more to show my knowledge of this division and take advantage of my character in this division,” the forward said in a press conference.

   Wu Lei said that everyone at Espanyol was working “very hard” to be in shape for the new season that starts in less than two weeks, but he insisted he was in “physically perfect” shape and thar he wanted to be “more involved to help the team.”

   He also explained why he chose to remain in Spain rather than seek a return to China, saying he enjoyed the faster speed of the Spanish game.

   “The pace is very high and thanks to this style of football, I have improved many things,” commented the forward, who netted five goals for China in World Cup qualifying matches in May and June.

   “I have a very clear comparison: when I returned to the Chinese team the pace seemed slower and I was more relaxed. Here the pace is always very high,” explained Wu Lei, who hoped Chinese fans would “understand” his situation.