China's relatively early exit from the Asian Games has led to a new bout of soul-searching about the game in the country, with the China Youth Daily warning against shortcuts in player development.

On Monday, the newspaper posted an article with the headline "Lippi's assistant cannot decide growth of China's U23 soccer team," – a reference to the failed campaign in Jakarta led by an aide to national coach Marcello Lippi.

In the article, the publication made it clear that China's exit at the round of 16 stage was no surprise. It said the country needs to focus on youth development with patience rather than trying to find shortcuts like hiring a successful foreign manager.

The Under-23 team – which features at the Asian Games – lost 4-3 to Saudi Arabia. Though the final score looked close, the Saudi's scored four goals in the first 63 minutes though China managed to pull three back in the next 15 minutes. China Youth Daily felt the manner of the performance made it difficult to call the defeat a "hopeful loss."

Traditionally, someone has to be held responsible after failure. This time, manager Massimiliano Maddaloni, an Italian like Lippi, became the target. Inside football circles, some said he could not even name his players, some said he had not shown the team videos of Saudi Arabia playing and some called him a terrible commander during the game.

As a matter of fact, it's no surprise that China were eliminated "early," considering the fact that the country had lost 12 games in the first round of the knockout stage of various international events over the past 13 years.

What's behind the loss this time was the poor development of youth in Chinese soccer, the paper said. With only a little more than 1,000 professional players out of some 70,000 registered, it's only normal that China, a country of 1.4 billion people, could not compete with strong rivals.

By contrast, China's neighbors, Japan and South Korea, have respectively around one million and over 500,000 registered soccer players, not to mention field area per capita and other specific data that would embarrass Chinese soccer even more. With a good enough base for development, it's no wonder that Japan made it into the best 16 at the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia while their U20 team won the FIFA U20 Women's World Cup.

According to multiple sports media outlets, Dutch manager Guus Hiddink is taking over China's U21 team soon. No matter what he has achieved before, it's not reasonable to see Hiddink as the salvation of Chinese soccer considering what kind of situation awaits him. Starting from the beginning and investing in kids are better options than seeking shortcuts, China Youth Daily concluded.

(Top picture: Disappointed Chinese players after losing to Saudi Arabia at the Asian Games. /VCG Photo)