Chapter 33: Top-Tier Positioning, Consecutive Goals! (4k)

Amsterdam time, September 26th, afternoon.

The bus carrying 18 players and more than 10 club staff members drove toward Galgenwaard Stadium.

Today marked the 7th round of the Eredivisie, with Utrecht hosting Cambuur at home!

"All tickets for the home match are sold out; it's a full house today."

In the aisle of the bus, Ten Hag rested his hands on the seats on either side: "With a full house, some of our players might feel significant pressure, so if any of you are particularly nervous, you can tell me; Michel and I will provide assistance."

Captain Ramelaar crossed his arms over his chest: "Come on, Erik, we've all experienced a full house before; some of us have even played at Old Trafford. This bit of pressure won't affect us."

"I know it won't affect you, but it will affect others."

"Not everyone on our team has experienced a full house."

As he spoke, Ten Hag's gaze landed on Amrabat.

Unsurprisingly, upon hearing that there would be a massive crowd of fans today, Amrabat's expression became somewhat uncomfortable.

Ten Hag sighed; it seemed his decision not to start Amrabat today was correct.

Then, he looked toward Tang Ye, who was sitting beside Amrabat.

At that moment, Tang Ye was leaning back against the seat with his eyes closed.

"Hey, Tang!"

Ten Hag called out.

Tang Ye did not react.

"Sir, he's asleep,"

Amrabat said quietly.

"..."

"You should all have Tang Ye's kind of mindset; yes, I mean mindset, not attitude. Do you understand what I mean?"

"Okay, brothers, welcome back!"

"Today marks the long-awaited Utrecht match; although only four days have passed since the last game, many brothers have washed their feet too frequently during these four days, and their Happy Beans might already be spent. These four days have been extremely tormenting for you brothers!"

"But it doesn't matter; Tang Ye is still on the big list for today's match!"

"Now we just have to see if King Tang Ball intends to treat the brothers to a foot wash today!"

"Now, let me introduce the starting lineups for both teams!"

Cambuur (4-3-3)

Goalkeeper: Zeinstra

Defenders: Andruskovicus, Pelsman, Dammers, Pereira

"Ole Ole Ole..."

Galgenwaard Stadium was extremely lively; today Utrecht's opponent was Cambuur, the weakest team Utrecht had faced in the Eredivisie so far.

Because the opponent was relatively weak, Ten Hag decided to play a trick today.

5-3-2?

No, today Ten Hag directly brought out a 4-3-3, or more specifically, a 4-1-2-1-2.

Two attacking midfielders and two strikers clearly indicated an intention to attack your flanks.

Just as arranged before the match, Utrecht played very aggressively in this game; less than 20 minutes into the first half, Di Di Bala headed the ball directly into Cambuur's goal with a thunderous strike.

By the 30th minute of the match, Utrecht was already leading by two goals.

It seemed as though the situation was completely tilting in Utrecht's favor, but things immediately started to go wrong.

This was Utrecht's first time playing with four defenders this season; the midfield and defensive players on the field were all somewhat confused. The culprit, Van der Mareel, committed two errors within a short five minutes, directly gifting Cambuur one goal.

"Oh!"

Ten Hag held the back of his head, took a deep breath, and then sat down on the substitutes' bench.

"We need to adjust now; switch to five defenders."

Fan Fan Dejiahe said beside Ten Hag's ear.

With Utrecht currently leading by one goal, switching directly to a defensive posture was the safest option.

But Ten Hag did not want to play it that way.

"Suddenly switching to five defenders will cause us to lose even more!"

The Dutchman knew the guys on his team very well.

He had not instilled the idea of temporary formation changes during training; if the formation was suddenly changed during the match, these players would not be able to handle it.

Ten Hag disagreed with the suggestion to revert to five defenders, leaving Fan Fan Dejiahe with no choice but to shut his mouth.

At this moment, Ten Hag felt someone tapping his shoulder.

Turning around, he discovered it was Tang Ye.

"Lazy pig, what's wrong? Do you need to go to the toilet?"

Tang Ye pointed toward his teammates attacking on the field: "Mr. Erik, let me go up and give it a try."

Tang Ye could see clearly from below that Cambuur primarily attacked via the flanks, meaning that Tang Ye, playing as an attacking midfielder in the center, did not have so many defensive duties.

If he were on the field, the pressure would be relatively small!

Of course, the main reason was the Counterattack Point.

Since the opponent in this match was not strong, Tang Ye felt he had a chance to obtain a Counterattack Point.

"Go on the field, you?"

Ten Hag looked Tang Ye up and down: "But your eyes were closed an hour ago; will you be able to handle it?"

"It'll definitely work."

Tang Ye thumped his chest to guarantee it; Ten Hag frowned in thought for a moment, then finally decided to put Tang Ye on.

"Here it comes, it's the 44th minute of the match, and the Deleizhi Sect coaching staff has requested a substitution from the referee."

"Let's see how Ten Hag's substitution decision pans out..."

"Tang Ye replaces Ayoub!"

"A perfect substitution, a perfect substitution! The great Dutch manager has brought on his team's strongest attacker!"

Three minutes later.

"The first half is over; unfortunately, although Tang Ye has entered the game, he hasn't touched the ball yet."

"Damn it, can't these Deleizhi Sect defenders play football? Is passing the ball to Tang Ye really that hard?"

The first half ended with Tang Ye's touch count at a whopping zero.

The four-defender setup Ten Hag deployed today was far too unfriendly for Tang Ye; whenever the defenders got the ball, they just passed it out to the wings.

Tang Ye himself wasn't the type of player with a strong running coverage range, so with this setup, he could only pace back and forth in the front half of the pitch.

The result was that by the time stoppage time ended, Tang Ye still didn't know how much air had been pumped into the match ball today.

At halftime, Ten Hag gave a speech in the center of the locker room while Tang Ye sat in the corner, his arms resting on his thighs.

After thinking it over and feeling something was off, Tang Ye rubbed Van der Mareel's arm: "Buddy, you can pass me the ball in the second half."

"But if you don't drop back to receive, how can I pass it to you?"

"Then I'll drop back."

"Can... can that work?"

Tang Ye patted Van der Mareel's shoulder: "Don't worry, I'm very steady."

The second half begins!

Having already made personnel adjustments in the first half, Deleizhi Sect makes another substitution: Amrabat comes on for Jansen.

With this, both players promoted from the reserve team are now on the field.

The bond between Tang Ye and Amrabat has formed!

"Run forward, I'm watching!"

Amrabat controlled the ball and signaled for Tang Ye to run forward; Tang Ye started moving ahead as Amrabat requested.

However, Amrabat immediately made a mistake; Ogbegbe rushed up, used his shoulder to block the position, and directly stole the ball from Amrabat's feet.

"Get back!"

Ramselaar shouted loudly, accelerated back, and just as Ogbegbe passed sideways, he reached Barto and kicked the ball out to the defenders.

Now Van der Mareel has the ball!

In today's match, Cambuur's attacking line didn't push too high, and their pressing intensity was average—this is what's known as low-block defense.

But now with the ball right in front of him, Ogbegbe had to rush up no matter what.

"To me!"

Tang Ye boldly called for the ball; seeing Tang Ye so brave, Ten Hag on the sidelines couldn't help but clap and cheer.

Boom!

Van der Mareel remembered what Tang Ye had told him at halftime and passed the ball straight to Tang Ye.

Tang Ye received the ball and prepared to turn; just then, Amrabat shouted "Behind you!" Tang Ye turned his head and saw that Ofgul behind him was still quite far away.

He turned his head back, but the ball at his feet had already been stolen by Ogbegbe.

"Holy crap!"

Tang Ye muttered that things were bad and quickly ran back.

Van der Mareel now faced a grave situation!

Tang Ye couldn't quite catch up to Ogbegbe, but his thinking was very clear.

Ogbegbe was on the attack; as long as he didn't intend to shoot directly, he would definitely slow down once he reached the edge of the penalty area.

Sure enough, Ogbegbe slowed down, preparing to distribute the ball to the wing; Tang Ye seized this opportunity, slid directly, and tackled the ball away, while Ramselaar rushed back to quickly clear it.

Tang Ye stood up from the ground and gave Van der Mareel a thumbs-up: "See, I told you passing to me is very steady."

Van der Mareel:...

"What kind of nonsense are you playing? Where's the teamwork? What kind of teamwork is this!"

Ten Hag had originally been in a relatively good mood, but after watching Amrabat and Tang Ye pull off that heaven-defying combination play, his heart suddenly stopped beating.

Both were promoted from the reserve team, so how could they produce this kind of operation?

"It's fine, it's fine, I'm trying hard."

Tang Ye raised his hand toward Ten Hag outside the field: "I've found my rhythm; watch our teamwork."

The match reached the 68th minute; Cambuur finally managed to create an attacking chance, with Barto breaking through on the wing before being blocked by Ramselaar.

The two immediately started a one-on-one duel.

Originally, Tang Ye wouldn't have gone to the wing, but since his touch count in this match was truly too low, he voluntarily walked toward the right flank.

Pretending to drop back, he actually moved in an arc, quietly slipping behind Barto.

"Someone behind you!"

A Cambuur player warned, but it was already too late; Tang Ye stuck his foot between Barto's legs and directly passed the ball to Ramselaar.

"Haha!"

Having succeeded, Tang Ye acted extremely arrogantly, turned, and ran off.

Ramselaar spotted the opportunity.

With a feint, he shook Barto off.

A direct through-pass was sent forward.

That was Tang Ye's position.

"Tang Ye is starting to run, Tang Tang Qiuwang is on the move, control the ball!"

"Right flank, Tang Ye continues running toward the byline!"

Tang Ye was now extremely close to the right touchline, almost brushing against it as he moved forward.

This position was excellent because he could see all his teammates in the attacking third.

The problem was that Tang Ye had already started panting.

"Damn, so tired."

"Hell, get running, don't drag your teammates down!"

Ten Hag shouted at Tang Ye, and the next second, Tang Ye began his maneuver.

He did not go down the line; instead, he kicked a curved ball from right to left.

【De Bruyne Curved Through-Pass, Lv3: Simulation】

Proficiency: 2/200

No wonder this kick felt so comfortable.

So it was activated!

"Wow!"

The fans near the away stand jumped straight to their feet.

From a god's-eye view, the ball's trajectory looked like an inverted letter "C."

The ball sailed past Cambuur's full-back and center-back, finally arriving in the central channel, precisely where Di Di Bala was making his forward run.

The ball was in the air, and its position was quite good.

The only drawback was that it was a bit too far.

Di Di Bala timed it perfectly, rushing forward to head it.

A header!

But he headed it straight over the crossbar.

"Idiot! Nasser!"

Ten Hag furiously roared at Di Di Bala on the pitch: "I told you, don't drag your teammates down!"

"Tang deliberately stopped just now; couldn't you even react to that? If you had run out earlier, you wouldn't have been short by that distance! Idiot, use your brain to think!"

"Damn it!"

Ten Hag turned around, waving his hand, and complained to Fan Fan Dejiahe, who was sitting in his chair: "He couldn't even spot such an obvious tactical pause; Nasser's offensive awareness is terrible!"

【No way, wasting my Tang Tang Qiuwang's brilliant pass; what's wrong with this number 10? Does he still want to be in the starting lineup in the future?】

【So close to making it 3:1.】

【Brother Meng wanted to help the team reach 3:1, but these teammates are just too useless.】

【A bunch of 16-year-old brats; Brother Meng can't carry them!】

【Turning heaven and earth upside down!】

【Watching Tang Ye play is both anxiety-inducing and satisfying; with this big-picture vision, when he stopped on the flank I thought he had run out of stamina, but it turned out he was setting up a pass—what awareness!】

【You guys don't understand; Tang Ye used the sudden stop to evade the full-back's defense; the pass was just a bonus!】

【Damn, I actually thought Brother Meng stopped because he ran out of breath; I am guilty!】

As time ticked by second by second, the bean warriors in the live stream began to feel the pressure.

The score was now 2:1.

But earning from 2:1 was definitely not as profitable as earning from 3:1.

Don't look at the fact that there's only one goal difference; this directly decides how many extra hours you can add to your shift tonight!

298 is certainly comfortable, but 598 is even more worthy of your savoring!

This match concerns the GDP growth of several domestic cities; everyone must take it seriously!

When the match reached the 75th minute, the backend data team released the possession statistics for both teams.

Everyone was surprised to discover that although they were clearly the leading side, Utrecht's possession rate was actually only 47%.

Why was this?

The camera cut to Tang Ye.

The data team displayed his statistics on the live stream screen.

Played for 34 minutes, possession time: 9.2 seconds.

After all that, it turns out there's a traitor in the team!

But it didn't matter; the fans in the live stream all knew that their Brother Meng was best at redeeming himself.

"Utrecht, corner kick!"

"Allé and Di Di Bala, these two players are crucial! But they're both marked tightly."

"Hm? Damn, Tang Ye, Tang Ye, jump up, header!"

"Tang Ye's header missed; I forgot that Tang Ye doesn't have heading ability."

"It doesn't matter, there's still a chance, follow up with a shot!"

"..."

"Goal! Goal! Goal!"

The fans in the live stream and the spectators on site now shared a single question in their hearts.

Master, aren't you an attacking midfielder? Why are you here?

The broadcaster showed the replay: after Ramsey raised his hand on the wing, Tang Ye circled behind Van der Mareel and secretly slipped into the penalty area.

Cambuur's defenders all had their assigned marks; surprisingly, no one noticed Tang Ye sneaking in!

Substituted into the Eredivisie match, scoring in consecutive games!

"Top-tier run... positioning!"

"Top-tier positioning! Tang Tang Qiuwang is still pushing hard!"

(End of chapter)