Chapter 475: Landing in Abu Dhabi, the Final Match Before the Asian Cup

In the past two days, 80% of England's local football news has been about the Asian Cup.

Manchester United sit top of the Premier League with 16 wins and 3 draws in 19 matches, but now their starting midfielder is gone.

Don't Manchester City and Liverpool have any ideas?

That's impossible.

If Manchester City and Liverpool were men, they'd already be fuming by now.

Along with the Asian Cup comes the winter transfer window of the five major leagues.

Fans expect Manchester United to make some moves in the winter window.

Spending over 100 million euros to sign a Dembélé isn't realistic.

But strengthening a center-back or full-back shouldn't be a problem, right?

Unfortunately, all recent Manchester United transfer rumors are just gossip—no reputable newspaper has reported anything.

Oh, there is one.

The Guardian previously analyzed how much money Manchester United could spend in this winter window.

The answer is… not much money at all!

Tang Ye's 180-million-euro installment payment just ended!

Rac: Ten Hag hopes Manchester United can complete the transfer of Amrabat in the winter window; notably, the Moroccan midfielder is also one of Ten Hag's "lieutenants."

Tang Ye's plane is still in the air; it's already evening in Manchester.

Invited by Ten Hag, Fan De is now in the living room of Manchester United's head coach.

"Eric, I feel that if we perform just a little better, drawing with Tottenham shouldn't be too hard."

"We have so many points; a draw doesn't really matter."

Fan De said.

But he gave no reason—how exactly Manchester United would draw with Tottenham.

"Hmm."

Ten Hag nodded, thinking Fan De made sense: "What about Arsenal? How do we handle Arsenal?"

"Arsenal…"

Fan De shrugged: "Arsenal isn't a league game—it's the FA Cup. We can just let them have it."

It feels a bit humiliating, but upon closer thought, it's actually quite reasonable.

"What about Brighton? They're pretty good too."

For some reason, Ten Hag kept asking Fan De questions today, and his feet kept shaking.

"This… this is hard to say, but I feel we won't lose… probably won't… right?"

"…"

Ten Hag shook his head and pointed to the air conditioner remote beside Fan De: "Check what temperature the AC is set to."

"28 degrees. What's wrong?"

"Hmm…"

Ten Hag pulled his blanket tightly around himself: "Michel, don't you feel a little cold? The room is warm, but I feel freezing."

"Hmm, Eric, now that you mention it…"

Fan De picked up the blanket on the sofa and draped it over himself.

"So cold, so cold, shiver, shhh—"

"Yeah, I'm cold too, huff…"

Ten Hag now envied the little match girl.

When the little girl was cold, she had matches to warm herself—and even saw her father and grandmother.

But what about Ten Hag?

Even if he lit a match, he wouldn't see his father.

Because his father is now in the UAE.

…

"Mr. Tang, welcome to Abu Dhabi."

Tang Ye nodded to the staff; after walking a few steps in the airport, he saw Chinese fans waiting to greet him.

A giant banner was lowered from the second-floor food court, written in Chinese, English, and Arabic.

【GGBOND THE KING HAS ARRIVED, MAKE WAY!】

"…"

Tang Ye's lip twitched.

"We've waited three days for you, King Tang."

"Go on!"

"Manchester United is awesome!"

Xinhua News Agency, December 29, reporter Liang Xiaosheng: Tang Ye appeared at Abu Dhabi Airport and signed autographs for Chinese fans. Tang Ye is expected to play in the friendly match against Abu Dhabi United.

【While Manchester United fans weep in silence, Chinese fans stand up.】

【Finally, finally it's coming… victory.】

【God damn GGBOND THE KING HAS ARRIVED, are you guys that bored?】

【The weirdo's here—this banner was a college student's idea from the fan association; I hung it (. jpg)】

【??? Caught the weirdo! Did I get GGBOND's autograph photo?】

Dongqiu Di match preview: Final stage of Asian Cup preparation! Beijing time January 2, China national team's closed-door friendly vs. Abu Dhabi United; Tang Ye is expected to play.

…

Professional Footballers' Association of England: Premier League December Player of the Month nominees:

1. Son Heung-min, Tottenham.

2. Salah, Liverpool.

3. Harry Kane, Tottenham.

4. Tang Ye, Manchester United.

5. Martial, Manchester United.

December was strong; Manchester United still has two players on the monthly shortlist.

Tang Ye will almost certainly win the award.

The reason is simple: although he missed one game, Tang Ye led the league in goals and assists in December.

Two number ones—what's left to debate?

Of course, this award means little to Tang Ye, who is about to compete in the national team tournament.

The Asian Cup is the top priority!

"Our first match is against Kyrgyzstan on January 7. Kyrgyzstan isn't strong, so we must win this first game."

Li Pi stands in the center, but the players keep glancing toward the corner.

Because most of the national team can't understand Italian—they need a translator.

"Kyrgyzstan isn't strong, and our second opponent (the Philippines) isn't strong either."

Li Pi seems confident, but then he shifts tone.

"But… your performances in training these past few days have been unacceptable. If you keep playing like this, we won't even need to wait for the third match—we might not win our first two."

"I may be exaggerating a bit, but I think I've made my point clear."

The training clearly hasn't been good; Tang Ye can see Li Pi's complexion is off.

He held up three fingers: "We must perform well in every match. I'm not asking you to win all three—yes, that's difficult, and I admit it. But we must win the first two."

China's group in this Asian Cup is fairly favorable.

With Kyrgyzstan, the Philippines, and South Korea, if we win the first two, even a loss to South Korea would likely still get us through.

"Like the World Cup, it's three matches—we can't afford any mistakes. Guys, do you understand?"

Mr. Marcelllo repeatedly emphasized the number "three."

Tang Ye noticed something strange.

That Li Pi was more nervous now than he was during the World Cup.

The World Cup is more important than the Asian Cup!

The two coaches on the national team know the reason best.

For the World Cup, China had no goal; even if we didn't advance, Li Pi wouldn't be criticized.

But the Asian Cup is different.

From Dongqiu Di's comment section, fans expect China to reach at least the quarterfinals—some even expect a semifinal run.

What if we fail to meet even the bare minimum?

Well, no need to guess what they'll say—Marcelllo, with decades of coaching experience, can already imagine it.

【Brought in GGBOND and still can't make the quarterfinals? Is the Italian just good at surrendering?】

"He's under huge pressure."

Zhang Yuning leaned close to Tang Ye, pointing toward Li Pi: "He even got Kyrgyzstan's abbreviation wrong…"

"Huh?"

Tang Ye's eyes lit up.

If it weren't for Zhang Yuning's reminder, he would never have noticed, because he had no idea what the three-letter abbreviation for Kyrgyzstan was.

"Actually, I'm under a lot of pressure too."

Tang Ye suddenly said, then pinched his own calf.

To be honest, when Tang Ye learned about the Asian Cup in October, he started looking forward to it.

During the World Cup, Tang Ye's physical condition was too poor, and he ultimately couldn't lead the national team to defeat Brazil.

Ggbond was even scolded by Ronaldo in his dreams because of it.

But!

Now the situation is different.

The training in Los Angeles during the offseason and the club's new-season drills have given Ggbond massive muscles.

An 85 physical strength rating is already quite impressive even in the Premier League.

Then…

What would that look like across Asia?

…

"Faster! Faster!"

Maddaloni urged them; the players in the circle quickly increased their passing frequency.

Tang Ye and Zhang Yuning, who were responsible for intercepting, also had to speed up!

Slap!

Slap-slap-slap!

The passing speed was fast; intercepting it was indeed not easy.

Fortunately, Tang Ye and Zhang Yuning still had decent chemistry.

"Hey!"

Tang Ye suddenly sat down and successfully intercepted Zhang Linpeng's pass; the latter was still a bit stunned.

Because he never expected Tang Ye to guess his passing intention.

"Awesome! Awesome!"

Zhang Yuning pulled Tang Ye up from the ground, while Zhang Linpeng came over to swap positions with Tang Ye.

Now Zhang Yuning and Zhang Linpeng were the ones trying to intercept.

Everyone else was responsible for passing!

"At most two touches—pass the ball within two touches!"

Maddaloni reminded the players again.

"Here we go!"

Wu Lei quickly passed the ball to Tang Ye.

Zhang Linpeng charged over!

!

Tang Ye pulled the ball down with his right foot, then tapped it to Feng Xiaoting beside him.

Slap!

Slap-slap!

The passing frequency kept increasing.

"Tang Ye!"

Wang Shenchao lofted the ball to Tang Ye.

It was a high, difficult pass!

Tang Ye clenched his gum between his teeth, expression serious.

"Lei Ge!"

Calling out Wu Lei's name, Tang Ye suddenly kicked the ball hard into the ground; the rebound shot straight through Zhang Yuning's legs.

"Wow!!"

"Yuning! What happened, Yuning!"

"Zhang, focus your attention!"

Maddaloni pointed at his temple and shouted at Zhang Yuning.

"Haha."

Tang Ye walked over and slapped hands with Zhang Yuning.

…

Today, the coaching staff had the players do a long session of keep-away drills.

Since the end of warm-ups, they'd already trained for 30 minutes of keep-away, and there was no sign of stopping.

The usually silent Ancelotti finally spoke.

"One touch—pass on the first touch."

Switching from two touches to one, the passing rhythm accelerated again.

"Damn!"

Immediately after switching to one-touch passing, Wang Shenchao made a mistake.

"It's okay, Chao Ge, it's okay."

Tang Ye patted Wang Shenchao's shoulder: "Before receiving, just observe first—just observe."

"…"

"I feel the training camp time is still insufficient."

Maddaloni let out a long sigh.

Both of the national team's coaches looked deeply troubled.

"So maybe I should've requested training a week earlier? But that wouldn't work—they need their holidays."

Ancelotti wasn't the type to demand extra training; otherwise, he would've agreed when the FA proposed training in early December.

Marcello's laid-back personality led to less-than-ideal results.

For a Chinese team aiming to reach the Asian Cup semifinals, twenty days of cohesion time seemed insufficient.

Ancelotti had his own explanation: "For what we want, an extra week doesn't make much difference. We reach the semifinals through form."

Ancelotti adjusted his glasses: "If we can recapture the form we had during the World Cup group stage, I think reaching the semifinals won't be a problem."

"And…"

Ancelotti looked at Tang Ye on the pitch, coaching teammates on quick passing, his gaze following Tang Ye's movements: "I've watched Manchester United's matches this season—Tom's become a bit different."

"Hmm…"

After standing and listening for a few minutes, Maddaloni suddenly fell silent.

The Chinese team's assistant coach's mind was now filled with Tang Ye's long-range shots from the Premier League.

"Marcello, I just realized something."

"What is it?"

Maddaloni rummaged in his jacket pocket, then pulled out his phone.

He found a file titled 【2018-19, tom, long-range shots】.

He opened it; inside were over twenty videos collected by Maddaloni.

He opened one at random.

"Marcello, tell me…"

"Is there any goalkeeper in Asia who can save a shot like this?"

"Uh…"

Ancelotti adjusted his glasses again and said nothing.

…

The date was January 2nd—the day of the national team's friendly against Abu Dhabi United.

According to the official schedule released by the national team, this should be the final friendly before China's match against Kyrgyzstan.

Fans were eager to see how the team had gelled since Tang Ye's return—whether they could reproduce the extraordinary level they showed during the World Cup.

Unfortunately, today's training match was closed to the public, so fans couldn't see the details.

Half an hour before kickoff, the Chinese players warmed up while listening to Maddaloni speak.

"Today, don't focus too much on the score—just get the passes out, gradually increase the speed. Remember, don't rush!"

Maddaloni shouted loudly.

The Chinese team's performances in previous training matches hadn't been good—today would show whether there was any improvement.

Tang Ye listened carefully to Maddaloni, but his eyes kept scanning around.

"Uh, sir, I have a question, but I'm not sure whether I should say it."

Tang Ye raised his hand cautiously.

"Hmm? Tom, go ahead—no problem."

Maddaloni grinned broadly.

Normally, players weren't allowed to influence tactical decisions before a match.

But if it was Tom, it was acceptable.

"OK, it's just..."

Tang Ye suddenly raised his right arm and pointed his right index finger at the open ground beyond the training field: "Two people are hiding in that tree, both carrying cameras. Should we make them leave?"

"Huh?"

Madaloni spun around sharply.

(End of Chapter)