Chapter 22: Don't Walk?

"Hmm, not bad!"

Watching Tang Ye constantly delivering passes on the training ground, Ten Hag felt somewhat pleased.

He had originally thought that after yesterday's extra training, Tang Ye would fail to complete today's training tasks.

It now seemed that Ten Hag had worried unnecessarily.

A sixteen-year-old body is meant to be pushed!

Lazy pigs are meant to be trained!

"Here, pass it to me, pass it to me!"

Tang Ye reached out to Ramelaar for the ball, then began a one-on-one duel with Amrabat on the wing.

Ever since unlocking 【Grealish's Draft Beer】, Tang Ye had felt an inexplicable sense of crisis.

The specific manifestation was that whenever the Counterattack Points in his pocket decreased, Tang Ye would become very nervous.

This feeling of nervousness compelled Tang Ye to complete the daily quests that refreshed every day.

Tang Ye bore this pressure alone in silence; by September 16th, a local Dutch journalist learned about the internal situation of the Utrecht team through an "informant" within the squad and subsequently wrote Yi Pian Wen Zhang.

This article was immediately reposted by Check Dongqiu Di.

The focus of the article was describing how Ten Hag led and trained the team, with one sentence catching the attention of Chinese fans.

"Due to arriving late for training, Ten Hag refused to allow Tang to enter the first-team canteen, but according to the journalist's observations at the training base, Tang's training attitude was not as terrible as imagined."

【Holy crap, can this f***ing be tolerated?】

【Didn't they say his training attitude wasn't as terrible as imagined? Then why didn't Ten Hag let Tang Ye eat in the first-team canteen?】

【Tragic, my brother Meng!】

【I've already made over 2,000 relying on Tang Ye in the past half-month; how about from now on Tang Ye doesn't go to the canteen either? I'll treat him to meals!】

【Abusing Tang Tang Qiuwang? Ten Hag, get fired!】

【Tang Tang Qiuwang? Wait, neither Messi nor Ronaldo has been called the Ball King yet; how did Tang Ye become the Ball King?】

【You just don't understand; can Messi and Ronaldo even compare to Tang Ye?】

【???】

Chinese fans were extremely dissatisfied with Ten Hag's "abuse" of Tang Ye, with some even climbing onto Twitter to comment under Ten Hag's account.

Unfortunately, it achieved nothing.

The Bean Warriors were heartbroken.

Their idol was being treated unfairly, yet they could do nothing about it!

Beijing Time, September 20th, 2:45 AM.

The familiar Happy Livestream room!

The players weren't ready yet, but the streamer Wang Chao was already prepared!

"OK brothers, the long-awaited Utrecht match is here again; today's game is scheduled quite late, but we still have quite a few people in the livestream room."

"If you ask me, anyone who goes to bed early on a Utrecht match day is an idiot."

"They're all people who won't make big money."

"Come on, let me show everyone today's match roster!"

As Wang Chao spoke, he switched pages to display the image of the match roster posted on the Utrecht F. C. account.

On the substitutes' bench, number 99, Tang Ye!

In the frame, players from both sides were already lined up and ready in the player tunnel.

Wang Chao wasn't interested in the other Utrecht players, so he didn't introduce the players from either side, instead diving straight into analyzing the direction of this match.

Unlike previous matches, Utrecht's opponent today, Willem II, was not a strong team.

Utrecht was quite weak this season, but Willem II was even weaker than Utrecht!

So the direction was already very clear.

First, Utrecht should be able to win the match.

Then, looking at the lineup.

Did the starting lineup need to be examined?

No need!

The starting lineup wasn't important; what mattered was that there was a Tang Ye on the substitutes' bench.

So the logic was already very clear; in this match, Utrecht was roughly estimated to score more than three goals!

"Alright, the match has begun!"

The bets had already been placed, and the Bean Warriors in the livestream room were now under immense pressure.

At this moment, the director cut the camera to Tang Ye chewing gum on the substitutes' bench, making the Bean Warriors feel the pressure wasn't so great anymore.

Willem II was employing the most classic 4-3-3 formation, a lineup Utrecht was all too familiar with.

Because that was exactly how they played last season!

In the 17th minute of the first half, Haller won a penalty inside the box and then personally took the spot-kick, scoring.

The score became 1-0!

The away team, Utrecht, had taken the lead!

After scoring, Haller delivered a spectacular knee slide, successfully igniting the away stand.

"Utrecht!"

Boom! Boom!

"Utrecht!"

Bang bang!

Crack crack crack crack crack!

Ten Hag applauded Haller on the pitch.

The opening of this match was still quite smooth.

"Steady, steady!"

With a deficit, Willem II would surely launch a counterattack against Utrecht; Ten Hag was very clever, immediately instructing his players to drop their defensive line at this moment.

First get through these few minutes of Willem II's counterattack, then resume the offense!

Heemhof's pass; Falkenberg received the ball in the front field and immediately sent it to Van der Werden on the right.

This was Willem II's attack.

Amrabat!

Amrabat started today's match!

This was his first start; Amrabat needed to seize this opportunity!

Slap!

Amrabat used his body to block Van der Werden's forward path, kicking the ball away during the gap in Van der Werden's pass.

A wonderful tackle!

Hiss—

Ten Hag took a deep breath.

Generally speaking, players promoted from the reserve team do not perform very well in their first season with the first team.

But these two this year.

Except for the Lazy Pig, for whom no analysis report could be given, the level Amrabat had demonstrated was already sufficient to support him starting in the first team.

Especially given Ayoub's poor form this season.

Amrabat had a chance to start!

Having made up his mind, Ten Hag returned to the bench, sat down, simply wrote Amrabat's English initials with his pen, and then added a sentence in Dutch.

【Consider starting】

The first half ended; thanks to Haller's brace, Utrecht held a temporary 2:0 lead.

The locker room.

"Our overall performance in today's match was still quite good, especially Haller and Sofyan (Amrabat)."

"There were no tactical issues; it's not too late to make changes after our opponent makes theirs."

"Some adjustments need to be made to the personnel..."

Ten Hag cast his gaze toward Tang Ye, who lifted his head.

"Hmm..."

Not wanting Tang Ye to get too cocky, Ten Hag deliberately scanned all the players in the locker room.

After Tang Ye lowered his head in disappointment, Ten Hag said, "Tang, you're going on in the second half."

"Straight away?"

Tang Ye pointed at his own nose.

"Yes, when you go on, swap with Yassin (Ayoub)."

Ten Hag walked up to Tang Ye: "Show your performance, and also..."

"Don't walk?"

Tang Ye supplied the words he thought Ten Hag was about to say.

Don't walk, huh...

Ten Hag thought carefully for a moment, then exchanged a glance with Fan Fan Dejiahe.

"It's fine, just do what you think is best."

(End of chapter)