Chapter 146: Current Possession Rate is 45%!

In midfield, the atmosphere in Villarreal's locker room was extremely tense.

Even Tang Ye, who often chatted with people in the locker room, remained silent now.

The reason was simple: Villarreal had to find a new tactic.

A tactic sufficient to reverse the match and defeat Ajax!

Creak—

Escrivá pulled the tactical board to the center, and the players immediately lifted their heads.

"You should be able to feel that our opponent's pressing intensity is very high, which causes us to make mistakes easily."

"Whether in midfield, defense, or attack, it's the same; no matter how good our ball control is, we're prone to errors when facing pressure. That's unavoidable, so what should we do?"

Thump thump!

Tapping the tactical board twice rapidly, Escrivá explained: "When our defenders are pressed, our midfielders must actively drop back from the wings to provide support."

"What if the forwards encounter pressure?"

Tang Ye looked at Escrivá, the two staring wide-eyed at each other: "Full-backs overlapping is one way to provide support, but I still prefer having midfielders offer the support."

"Hmm..."

Tang Ye's expression suddenly turned serious.

It seemed his tasks for the second half would be heavy!

Dropping back to support the defenders and making forward runs to support the strikers—these were all things Tang Ye needed to do.

Sitting on the bench to retie his shoelaces, Tang Ye was already ready!

Seeing Tang Ye like this, Rodri involuntarily became nervous.

Bro, you're not going to transform into a striker again, are you?

"Tom!"

After Escrivá finished speaking, Bruno voluntarily sat down beside Tang Ye: "Can you still run?"

Hmm...

Tang Ye squinted, placing both hands on his thighs and calves to feel them carefully.

"Tom, what are you doing?"

Tang Ye suddenly opened his eyes wide, startling Bruno into taking half a step back.

"I've checked, and I should be able to run a very long distance."

Bruno had been preparing to voluntarily shoulder some of the offensive pressure for Tang Ye, but since Tang Ye was so confident, Bruno said nothing more.

Truth be told regarding offense, that guy Tang Ye was definitely more skilled than Bruno!

"Deploegdedapp'remeerschehelden~ (Fearless heroes~)"

"Onzevreugd'trotschbezit! (Our joy, our proud possession!)"

"Alomgevreesdinheeldenland! (Feared throughout the land!)"

"..."

Just as they stepped out of the player tunnel onto the stairs for the second half, Ajax's team anthem immediately reached Tang Ye's ears.

The home fans, currently in the lead, were constantly pressuring the away team players.

They not only wanted to secure their current one-goal advantage but also intended to extend the scoreline!

There was still one goal left in the second half!

No, not just one goal; there should be two more goals in the second half!

Ajax needed to end this revenge match against Villarreal's number 99 perfectly with a 3-0 scoreline!

Tang Ye said nothing, took a piece of chewing gum from his pocket, put it in his mouth, then clapped his hands and stepped onto the pitch.

The team song sung by the fans hardly affected Tang Ye.

But it could very easily affect Escrivá!

The camera focused on Escrivá; the Villarreal head coach was now standing motionless on the sideline.

The match began!

【Come on, Villarreal!】

【Tang Tang Qiuwang, don't let Ajax successfully exact their revenge.】

【Whoever rushes onto the field and kicks those three Villarreal forwards, please don't waste the Ball King's brilliant passes.】

"Ajax!"

Bang bang!

"Ajax!"

Bang bang!

The match reached the 52nd minute.

Currently, Villarreal's possession rate was still leading, and by a significant margin.

However, they simply hadn't had any attacking opportunities.

In contrast, on Ajax's side!

Slap!

Ziyech, on the wing, delivered a precise low driven pass with the instep, finding Younes at the baseline; Younes controlled the ball just before González, then slowly approached Villarreal's penalty area.

A familiar feeling; Escrivá immediately signaled the team to actively contract their defensive line.

Younes slowly reached the edge of the penalty area, feinting a few times, but of course, Ruiz was impossible to fool with feints.

Villarreal's defenders performed excellently, so Younes chose to pass back!

The ball was passed back to Ziyech, who had come to support; Ziyech then passed it to Schöne, who distributed it to the right flank.

After receiving the ball, Traoré continued to press Villarreal's defensive line.

This was the main theme of the first few minutes of the second half: Ajax kept seeking opportunities on the wings, while Villarreal's defenders ran left and right, defending with great difficulty.

"Left! Left! Help out! Get up and help!"

Escrivá shouted with all his might.

Until around the 55th minute, the score remained 1-0.

This match truly owed much to Musacchio and Ruiz; without them, Villarreal's goal might already have been breached.

Damn it!

Escrivá erupted in impotent fury on the sidelines.

As head coach, how could he not see that Villarreal's tactics had been completely neutralized by Ajax?

Bosz really has something!

Bang!

Escrivá gritted his teeth.

Think quickly!

Think quickly about how Utrecht defeated Ajax last season!

Escrivá sat back down on the substitute bench chair and instructed Martí to use his laptop to find the data and match footage from Utrecht's away game against Ajax last season.

Martí was responsible for analyzing the data, while Escrivá began studying Ten Hag.

"Skip forward a bit."

Escrivá urged, and Martí dragged the red dot along the progress bar.

"Faster, keep going, just skip through it, yes, yes, yes."

In less than half a minute, Escrivá fast-forwarded through the entire match.

According to Escrivá's estimate, Ten Hag had remained seated for roughly 75 to 80 minutes of the entire game.

In other words, he hadn't made any tactical adjustments at all?

Looking at the Villarreal players defending hard on the pitch, Escrivá steeled his heart.

Previous experience had made it clear: no matter how hard they tried now, they would likely fall behind anyway; in that case, it was better to rest on the sidelines for now and study Utrecht's tactics.

On the pitch, Tang Ye kept scanning left and right; he soon noticed Escrivá disappearing near the touchline.

Oh?

Did this mean his time to shine had arrived?

"Here, over here!"

Tang Ye ran into the open space.

Bang!

Musacchio bypassed Rodri and delivered a long, driven pass straight to Tang Ye.

He had the ball!

Finally regaining possession after so long, an excited Tang Ye immediately turned and drove forward.

Once in position, he played a through ball that struck a defender squarely on the head.

Possession lost!

"Damn it!"

Escrivá watched tensely, but in the end, he still chose not to stand up.

Right beside Escrivá's left hand, assistant coach Martí was constantly manipulating the data.

Martí retrieved the statistical data from the Utrecht versus Ajax match, then pulled up today's match data and compiled them into a linear chart.

It was evident that, apart from attacking frequency, Villarreal's statistics were far superior to Utrecht's.

Among them, the green line representing possession rate was the most prominent.

Utrecht had hovered around 42%, whereas Villarreal sometimes even exceeded 60%.

However, there was also bad news: after Escrivá sat back down, the green line representing the team's possession rate was slowly declining.

Meanwhile, the yellow line representing the number of attacks was slowly rising?

A drop in possession rate suggested the defense might become unstable, yet the number of attacks was indeed increasing.

Escrivá didn't know whether this was good or bad.

Possession rate: 56%.

Possession rate: 53%.

Possession rate: 49%.

!!!

Taking a deep breath, by the 62nd minute of the match, Villarreal's possession rate in the second half had already dropped below 50%!

Was this fucking drop happening a bit too fast!

He turned his head to check the situation on the pitch, then turned back again.

Possession rate: 48%.

Escrivá:...

In the 68th minute of the match, Dolberg carried the ball on Villarreal's flank attempting to dribble past a defender, but he was quickly surrounded by Rodri and Sansone and forced to relinquish possession.

Perfect!

Tang Ye had anticipated this defensive success, so he had already moved to the left flank to wait.

He reached out, calling for the ball!

Rodri spotted Tang Ye immediately and sent the ball straight over with a single kick.

"Wow!"

Thwack!

Tang Ye trapped the ball with his chest, waited for it to drop, then controlled it with his foot.

Move forward!

Move forward quickly!

"Here!"

Pato ran toward Tang Ye; Tang Ye passed the ball to him and immediately made a run down the flank without possession.

A one-two!

Villarreal executed a one-two combination on the left wing.

Confirming the area around Tang Ye was safe, Pato played a through ball.

Tang Ye received the ball!

Whoosh!

【De Bruyne's Down-the-Line Cross Lv2: Similar】

Proficiency: 89/200

His Down-the-Line Cross was only at Lv2, but that didn't matter.

In this situation, the most important thing wasn't passing accuracy, but seizing the right moment to pass!

The ball surged into Ajax's penalty area; Sanchez stretched out his foot to clear it but failed to make contact.

Behind him stood De Ligt!

De Ligt made contact!

But...

De Ligt only grazed the ball with his toe; he couldn't direct it left or right.

A soft "thud" sounded as De Ligt inadvertently poked the ball into his own net.

Goal!

That was an own goal by De Ligt!

"VAMOS!"

Pato reacted instantly, charging toward Tang Ye the moment the ball hit the net.

【You gained 10 Counterattack Points】

【Assisted the opponent in scoring; a 38-year-old player is indeed cunning and treacherous. You gained an extra 10 Counterattack Points】

"Mm!"

Realizing what had happened a moment late, Tang Ye broke into a smile and accelerated toward the sideline.

"Goal!"

"They've equalized!!"

"Tang Ye's cross after his run down the line helped Villarreal equalize!"

"1-1! Ajax has lost their advantage!"

VAMOS!

Escriba shot up from his chair, utterly ecstatic!

"Hey, Ferran!"

Marti reached out to grab Escriba; the Spanish manager sat back down in his seat. "What is it?"

"Look at this!"

Marti pointed at his notebook; Escriba squinted at it, and after about three seconds, his eyes widened abruptly.

Villarreal's possession curve and Utrecht's possession curve converged at the 69th minute!

Possession: 45%

"..."

Escriba turned to look at Marti; Marti blinked. "F-Ferran, what do we do..."

Adjusting his mindset, Escriba folded his arms across his chest.

Before the match, he and Marti had been studying Ajax's games from last season, focusing specifically on their two matches against Utrecht.

But they hadn't figured anything out.

Now Escriba finally understood.

The key to the matches between Utrecht and Ajax wasn't the players on the field.

It was Erik ten Hag, sitting on the substitutes' bench off the field.

He couldn't decipher Utrecht's tactics, but Escriva could read Ten Hag's mindset.

The more they resisted in today's match, the harder it became.

So might as well...

Stop resisting!

Picking up a bottle of mineral water beside him, he gulped down several mouthfuls, then resumed sitting in his chair with his arms crossed.

Pretending to be extremely calm wasn't the core of the tactic, but it was absolutely an indispensable part of it.

The match continued!

"You can pass there!"

Tang Ye pointed to the left flank; Rodri turned and immediately spotted Sansone dropping back to receive, so he quickly played the pass out.

At the same time, Tang Ye and Bruno ran forward together.

It was tied now, that was true, but the Villarreal players definitely wanted to aim higher.

Sansone received the ball, turned, and spotted Tang Ye pushing up through the center.

Slap!

Pass it out!

Let's see how Tang Ye handles this!

Tang Ye first lifted his head to observe.

After a quick glance revealed no opportunities inside the penalty area, he deliberately lifted his foot to avoid the ball.

"You take it!"

?

Bruno quickly turned sideways to control the ball, while Tang Ye ran past him, charging straight to the right flank.

A very bizarre run, but considering it was Tang Ye, it was perfectly normal.

This was a scoring chance for Villarreal!

"Boooo!!!"

The home fans let out boos trying to disrupt Bruno, but Bruno remained extremely calm; he was in no rush to play the ball.

Tang Ye wandered near the baseline, and after failing to find a way to slip into the penalty area, he ran back toward Bruno.

"Pass me the ball!"

Hearing Tang Ye's voice, Bruno stepped on the ball to stop it, then ran toward the right flank where Tang Ye had originally been.

Tang Ye and Bruno had swapped positions!

De Ligt hadn't yet realized who had the ball when Tang Ye used his left foot to cut the ball directly into the penalty area.

By the time De Ligt reacted, the ball had already rolled past him.

"Woww!!"

Right beside Davinson Sánchez, Pato, who had surged forward, fired a low shot.

Clang!

The ball smashed against the right post, rebounded out, and then rolled into the net.

"GOOOO——AAAAA——LLLL!"

The Johan Cruyff Arena fell silent.

The home fans could not accept this fact!

Pato immediately sprinted toward the corner flag, while Tang Ye raised both hands: "Wuhu!"

【You have obtained Counterattack Points *10】

【Assist brace achieved; you have obtained an additional Counterattack Points *10】

"Come on, everyone!"

Bruno patted Tang Ye on the head, signaling for him to hurry over to the left flank so they could enjoy the joy of the goal together.

2:1!

They had taken the lead!

"Here I come, here I come!"

Tang Ye ran past Bruno at an even faster speed, then delivered his own knee slide!

Whoosh whoosh whoosh!

He jumped up and pumped his fist!

"Villarreal!"

"Villarreal!"

The few away fans finally made their voices heard at this moment.

For some reason, they had been suppressed throughout the first half, but now the situation had changed.

It was Ajax that was now trailing!

The director, knowing exactly how to create dramatic effect, cut the camera to the substitute benches on both sides.

Bos stood on the sideline, constantly shouting instructions to his players.

Escrivá, meanwhile, sat in his chair with a relaxed expression.

For some reason, after Tang Ye assisted Pato in scoring, Escrivá reached out and touched his own head.

【What did I say! Haha, Tang Tang Qiuwang, directly punishing Ajax!】

【This counts as Tang Ye saving Saint Escrivá; if not for Tang Tang Qiuwang, Saint Escrivá would probably have been cursed to oblivion after the match.】

【Ajax is truly fierce, damn it, but I feel Villarreal in the second half is even fiercer; this attack is so freaking smooth!】

The match continued; already trailing, Ajax, under coach Bos's command, hastily launched a counterattack against Villarreal.

In the 80th minute, the broadcast displayed the possession statistics for both teams in the second half.

Villarreal: 40%

Ajax: 60%

Fans who didn't understand football might think Villarreal was in poor form, which was why they were trailing in something as familiar as possession.

Fans who understood football had already smelled a familiar scent!

Wasn't this freaking a certain Dutch specialty!

The match reached the 84th minute!

"Go, go, go!"

During an interception in the middle lane, Schöne advanced rapidly with the ball.

Ajax maintained their stature as Eredivisie giants; even while trailing, the coordination between their players remained remarkably tacit.

Tang Ye focused his attention and sprinted toward Schöne.

Tang Ye's positioning was excellent; he was searching for an opportunity to tackle!

Tackle directly!

Bang!

A very clean tackle, but unfortunately, Klaassen seemed to have anticipated it; the ball knocked away by Tang Ye rolled precisely to Klaassen's feet.

The tackle was executed, but it didn't completely halt the opponent's attack!

But no need to panic; Tang Ye's teammates had already seized their chance!

Cheryshev, who had been substituted on less than ten minutes ago, marked Klaassen one-on-one, while Sansone was sprinting back!

Klaassen passed the ball to the center!

Rodrigo charged forward and completed the steal immediately!

Oof!

Seeing a teammate gain possession, Tang Ye quickly scrambled up from the ground and sprinted rapidly toward the attacking front.

"Huff, huff!"

A bit tired!

Ptui!

Spitting out the chewing gum in his mouth, he accelerated and ran to the front.

Bang!

Rodrigo's instep pass accurately found Pato, positioned furthest forward; Pato dribbled the ball himself for nearly ten meters before encountering a challenge from an Ajax center-back.

"Here!"

Tang Ye pointed to an empty space in front of him, and Pato immediately kicked the ball over.

There's a chance!

Swing the right leg out!

Smack!

【De Bruyne Far-Corner Curling Shot Lv3: Simulation】

Proficiency: 155/200

Duang!

The ball smashed against the junction of the crossbar and the post, rebounded out to De Ligt's feet, and the latter cleared it away with a long kick.

Damn!

Tang Ye clasped both hands behind his head.

Just a tiny bit short of scoring!

"Beep, beep-beep—!!!"

Right after De Ligt cleared the ball, the match ended.

Hiss—

Hands on hips.

Tang Ye felt a little upset now.

If his Far-Corner Curling Shot had been Lv4, that shot would have gone in!

What a pity!

"Tom!"

Bruno and Rodrigo ran toward Tang Ye simultaneously; seeing the smiles on his teammates' faces, Tang Ye suddenly stopped feeling upset and actively raised both hands to celebrate.

"VAMOS!"

(End of Chapter)