Chapter 299: The Upgrade Path of the Manchester United Legendary Chest: Home Match Against Benfica

Here it comes!

A Manchester United Star Player Chest!

Tang Ye hadn't received a new template for quite some time, but he was in no rush to open this chest.

Receiving it already as a Star Player Chest meant it had the potential to grow into a Legendary Chest.

A Manchester United Legendary Chest!

Tang Ye knew what this meant!

【Do you wish to place the Manchester United Chest·Star into the Money Jar to initiate the Wealth Management Mission?】

【Mission Requirement: Score 6 goals or provide 6 assists in domestic English competitions (Premier League, EFL Cup, FA Cup).】

【Reward: Manchester United Chest·Legendary.】

The upgrade mission for the Legendary Chest!

The Star Player Chest's mission required 3 goals or 3 assists.

But the Legendary Chest required 6 goals or 6 assists.

Hmm... the difficulty had increased significantly compared to before.

However, Tang Ye felt no distress.

Because the increase in mission difficulty indirectly highlighted the chest's preciousness.

The Manchester United Legendary Chest was hard to obtain, but this was absolutely something Tang Ye needed to pursue!

He needed to gain help from Manchester United's predecessors.

And thereby become even stronger!

Cristiano Ronaldo, Beckham, Ruud van Nistelrooy...

"Phew..."

Recalling the Manchester United legendary players he knew best, Tang Ye let out a long breath.

He shook his head, preparing to start a game, but just then, the phone he had placed on the table rang.

First, let's see what's going on.

WhatsApp; this was a message from... Fan Fan Dejiahe.

Manchester United assistant coach Fan Fan Dejiahe had posted some videos in the first-team players' group chat; these were analyses of Benfica players made by the Manchester United technical team.

Wow!

Nodding slightly, he scrolled up through the chat history to find the team's November schedule, and Tang Ye suddenly remembered something he had overlooked.

Their first match in November was in the Champions League!

The opponent was Benfica!

Tang Ye remembered he still had a Champions League mission active on him.

And it was a chain mission.

【Stage Two Mission Progress: Goals (1/2), Key Passes (7/10).】

【Time Limit: 4 matches; Matches Played So Far: (2/4).】

Looking closely, one could see that Tang Ye still needed 1 goal and 3 key passes to complete his Stage Two Champions League mission.

It didn't seem too far off?

He frowned in thought.

Tang Ye now had a feeling that if he got a bit lucky in the match against Benfica, he should be able to complete this mission directly!

Yes!

Time to work hard!

Filled with longing for the Stage Two mission rewards, Tang Ye closed the CS: GO he had just opened and launched FIFA instead.

They would be playing Benfica in a few days.

Better run 50 simulated matches first!

Professional Footballers' Association, October Player of the Month Candidate List:

1. De Bruyne, Mancheng.

2. Monreal, Arsenal.

3. Nick Pope (Goalkeeper), Burnley.

4. Tang Ye, Manchester United.

5. Sané, Mancheng.

In La Liga, the monthly best player candidates were perennially monopolized by a few individuals: Messi, Ronaldo, Griezmann, and Neymar.

In comparison, the selection process for the Premier League's monthly best was much more comfortable.

Currently, only De Bruyne had entered the Player of the Month candidate list for all three months: August, September, and October.

This had a lot to do with Mancheng's heaven-defying form this season.

In October, Mancheng still hadn't lost a single match!

【What do you think? Let's hear from someone who knows football; does King Tang Tang Qiuwang have a chance this month?】

【To be honest, knowing football isn't as good as knowing the FA; only those who understand the FA can make perfect predictions.】

【If they had won that match against Liwupu, it would most likely have been Tang Ye, but that match ended in a draw.】

【Wait, how come my Saint Teng hasn't even made it onto the Coach of the Month candidate list?】

Besides Tang Ye being selected as a Player of the Month candidate, there was another matter Chinese fans were very concerned about.

That was Ten Hag!

The great Ten Hag, why can't he even make the shortlist for Premier League Manager of the Month?

Remember, back in the Eredivisie, Ten Hag almost monopolized the Best Coach trophy!

Damn it!

What the hell is the FA doing!

……

At the Carrington base, the content of today's first training session is long passing.

"OK Rod, wait a bit and you're with my group; I'll teach you how to play."

Tang Ye rubbed his hands together.

This long-passing thing was truly something he excelled at.

Tang Ye knew Rodri's long passing wasn't very accurate, which largely affected the Spanish defensive midfielder's adaptation to the Premier League.

As Rodri's friend, Tang Ye knew he needed to step up at this moment.

To teach Rodri his secret long-passing techniques, bit by bit!

"Tom, you come out."

Fan Fan Dejiahe looked up at Tang Ye; the latter froze for a moment: "Wha, what's wrong..."

Glancing at Ten Hag beside him, the Manchester United manager squinted, his expression making Tang Ye feel a bit panicked inside.

"Eh, Mr. Erik, I shouldn't have made any mistakes; I arrived at the base ten minutes early today, Rod can vouch for me."

"I didn't say you made a mistake; come with me."

Fan Fan Dejiahe led Tang Ye to the adjacent pitch.

Glancing back at Ten Hag, Tang Ye said softly: "Mr. Michel, I actually run quite fast; you just haven't noticed it yet. Regarding speed training, I think we can hold off for now."

Being singled out by an assistant coach for separate training was something Tang Ye had experienced far too many times back at the Shandong Luneng Football School.

It simply meant Tang Ye hadn't met the coach's expectations in some particular ability, so he required individual training.

"It's not speed training, it's not speed training."

Fan Fan Dejiahe called over Pereira, Manchester United's third goalkeeper.

Pereira was putting on his gloves when Fan Fan Dejiahe directed Tang Ye to the penalty spot: "Today it's penalties, and it will be like this from now on; your long-passing training time will be only half that of the other players, and the other half will be spent practicing penalties."

"This..."

Tang Ye stepped on the ball beneath his foot, twisting his ankle: "Mr. Michel, actually my long passing isn't that impressive."

Fan Fan Dejiahe laughed out loud: "Bullshit! Yesterday afternoon you and Rodri were chipping the crossbar from the backfield; I saw you hit it two out of three times."

"That was luck."

"..."

Fan Fan Dejiahe shook his head.

"Penalty training isn't tiring; it's just a matter of using your brain, something you should be good at."

Seeing Tang Ye seemed rather unwilling, Fan Fan Dejiahe began to persuade him.

"I know, I know."

Tang Ye nodded quickly.

Now he wasn't as resistant to penalty training as he had been before.

Because this stuff really wasn't tiring, and at the same time, it was quite interesting.

Tang Ye had deep trust in Fan Fan Dejiahe, so after hesitating, he still voiced his true thoughts.

"But I prefer places with more people."

Fan Fan Dejiahe shrugged: "Counting me, there are already three people on this training pitch."

Tang Ye pointed toward Training Pitch Number One: "But over there there are nearly twenty people."

Just as Tang Ye finished speaking, laughter from Lingard came from the adjacent training pitch; Tang Ye was very curious what Jesse was laughing about.

Maybe he would end up laughing too because of it?

"..."

Finding Tang Ye's words somewhat amusing, Fan Fan Dejiahe pinched his nose. "This will only take up fifteen minutes of your time, twenty at most; once we're done, we'll go over together."

"As you know, our team currently doesn't have any particularly great penalty takers; this is when we need to cultivate one."

Looking into Tang Ye's eyes: "Tom, we need a specific player who can step up when we earn a penalty opportunity, rather than like in the match the day before yesterday, where a penalty chance led to a long discussion inside the penalty area."

Tang Ye nodded lightly: "I feel my penalty taking is actually quite good right now."

Then he suddenly realized something.

"Wait, are you going to have me take penalties in matches?"

"My penalty taking is good, but compared to Marcus and Antony (Martial), it still falls far short."

Fan Fan Dejiahe opened the notebook in his hand and took a look.

【Tom, penalty conversion rate 84% (training), ranked second】

"Well..."

!

Closing the notebook, a smile hung on Fan Fan Dejiahe's face.

"Actually, the difference isn't that much."

……

Slap!

Slap!

"Front, front!"

"Shoot! Shoot!"

On the training ground came the sounds of Manchester United players striking the ball and shouting, while Ten Hag stood at the side, lost in thought.

He suddenly spoke: "I think 4-2-3-1 might not be our optimal solution."

"Anthony can return to training in at most another half-week."

Fan Fan Dejiahe reminded him.

"I know what you mean, but what I mean is, even if Martial is with us, we shouldn't play 4-2-3-1."

Ten Hag's words surprised Fan Fan Dejiahe.

He had followed Ten Hag for many years, and in his mind, the 4-2-3-1 had always been Eric's favorite formation.

"But this is the Premier League."

Last night, Ten Hag carefully studied Villarreal's performance from last season and discovered their low point in January and early February.

"If we keep using the same formation, opponents will study us—we need something new."

Ten Hag held up both hands, gesturing—though Fan Fan Dejiahe had no idea what he was gesturing at.

"Then what formation do you want?"

"4-3-1-2."

"Two strikers? Then what about the middle? Who goes into the box?"

Ten Hag said nothing, but looked at Tang Ye, who was slowly walking across the training ground: "Someone will go into the box."

He turned to Fan Fan Dejiahe: "Do you think this is appropriate?"

"You already have a plan—anything I say now is useless."

Fan Fan Dejiahe helplessly shrugged; he knew Ten Hag's character.

Boom!

Valencia fired a shot and scored; Ten Hag blew the whistle.

"Alright lads, let's pause for now, pause for now!"

……

Check Dongqiu Di preview: Home match against Benfica—Red Devils Manchester United chase their first win of November!

The Sun front page headline: In this season, Manchester United's Champions League win rate is 100% in the two matches without Ten Hag, and also 100% in the one match with Ten Hag.

"But if Manchester United loses just one more Champions League match, their win rate with Ten Hag will fall below their win rate without him," said The Sun reporter.

The match is still a day away, but English journalists are already pressuring Ten Hag!

Currently, Manchester United's head coach still has a 100% Champions League win rate.

Can Benfica bring down Ten Hag's win rate?

【I feel Benfica still has a good chance.】

【Holy shit, is the Holy Ten Hag dead? Win rate without coach > win rate with coach.】

【Don't worry, Tang Tang Qiuwang will save Ten Hag!】

【That's right, ggbond will step in at the critical moment!】

Will ggbond step in at the critical moment?

"Rod, today's our home game, so we won't see the eagle."

Sitting on the bus heading to the stadium, Tang Ye said to Rodrigo beside him.

But Rodrigo seemed distracted.

"Rod, what are you thinking about?"

Snapped back to attention by Tang Ye, Rodrigo quickly shook his head.

"Nothing. I was just thinking about how we should play today's formation."

Rodrigo showed his phone screen to Tang Ye—the starting lineup had been posted in the group chat by Fan Fan Dejiahe half an hour ago.

Goalkeeper: De Gea

Defenders: Valencia, Smalling, Bailly, Ashley Young

Midfielders: Mata, Rodrigo, Tang Ye, Herrera

Forwards: Mkhitaryan, Rashford

With excellent training performance, Ten Hag decided to directly test his 4-3-1-2 idea in the next match.

Tang Ye's position was pushed even further forward!

"Mr. Eric said it's the same as before, even though we have one fewer forward, he said someone would pretend to be a forward and go into the box—I don't know who Mr. Eric means."

Tang Ye analyzed seriously: "Whoever goes into the box, I'll pass to them."

First, check the system.

【Task progress: Goals (1/2), Threatening passes (7/10)】

Benfica's eagle was interesting, but Tang Ye still needed one goal and three threatening passes to complete his task.

Tang Ye would never be merciful.

Benfica could only pray their eagle would save them!

"lesgrandesquipes! (Fr.) Great teams"

"thechampions! (En.) Champions"

"unegrandereunion! (Fr.) A grand reunion"

The familiar Champions League theme song entered his ears; Tang Ye walked out of the tunnel, holding the hand of the ball boy.

Manchester United's red flags fluttered across the stadium!

"China Central Television! This is live coverage for you..."

"Now, let me introduce the starting lineups for both teams in this match. First, the home team, Manchester United."

Before the match had even begun, the CCTV screen first displayed Manchester United's formation.

A "C" hung beside Ashley Young's number.

Because Carrick was not playing, the second captain, Ashley Young, was the on-field captain for today.

But this was not what the fans cared about.

The fans noticed Manchester United's formation.

4-3-1-2; Tang Ye, together with Rashford and Mkhitaryan at the very front, formed an inverted triangle.

According to the memory of fans in the live broadcast room, this should be the first time Ten Hag had used this formation.

Using the Champions League group stage to conduct experiments.

Saint Ten has great boldness!

Next is the away team, Benfica!

Benfica (4-2-3-1)

Goalkeeper: Svilar

Defenders: Pereira, Luisão, Rúben Dias, Grimaldo

Midfielders: Fejsa, Pizzi, Augusto

Forwards: Salvio, Jiménez, Gonçalves

Head Coach: Vitória

A simple comparison reveals that the lineup Benfica fielded for this match was exactly the same as in their previous game.

"Hey Tom, your shoelaces!"

At Rashford's reminder, Tang Ye squatted down to tie his shoelaces.

Immediately afterward, the match began!

"China Central Television! This is..."

"As we can see, right at the start of the match, Benfica seized the kickoff opportunity to launch a quick attack against Manchester United."

"Gonçalves!"

"He has the ball up front!"

"Rodri's interception was a mistake!"

(End of Chapter)