Chapter 50: An Imaginative Way Out of Trouble (Requesting Follow-Reads!)

During halftime, just one second before Ten Hag entered the locker room, Ayub grabbed hold of him.

"Erik... do you think I still have a chance in the second half?"

Ayub's expression wasn't good, but he couldn't openly fall out with Ten Hag, so he could only try communicating first.

"Relax, relax. I know you're anxious, but don't rush just yet, okay? If you have a chance, then you will have a chance; do you understand what I mean? Go inside first."

Ten Hag pushed Ayub toward the locker room, and as soon as they entered, they saw Tang Ye wrestling with Amrabat.

"Everyone, quiet down!"

Ten Hag roared, and the players in the locker room immediately ran back to sit properly on their chairs.

"The 3-1 scoreline is very good; apart from a very few players whose running distance wasn't quite up to standard in the first half, I am relatively satisfied with everything else."

"I've been trying hard to run,"

Tang Ye raised his hand to remind them.

High-intensity training had rapidly improved his stamina levels; nowadays, Tang Ye's running distance in almost every match was longer than in the previous one.

Ten Hag turned to look at Tang Ye: "Your running can be even more active; that way, when the opponent presses, our backfield can deal with the ball more easily."

After saying this, Ten Hag thought of something and suddenly added: "This applies only to defense; during attacks, um... just rely on your instincts."

Tang Ye nodded.

It seemed that in the second half, he would need to retreat and defend even more actively!

"Then there's the matter of the match itself; the opponent's midfield is very strong, do you understand what I mean? You need to push forward, to press, to crush their midfield."

Ten Hag made a pushing-forward gesture with his hand.

Speaking of pressing, Ten Hag had much more to say: "Pressing is a collective effort; Allé and Nasser (Balazit), you two must move forward together, forward together, pressing two players simultaneously; only then will the opponent feel fear."

"And then?"

Ten Hag's gaze lingered on Allé and Balazit respectively for a moment, his two hands rubbing together: "Midfield slaughter! Kill their midfield!"

"Should I run up then? I can tackle and snatch the ball from under the feet of their number 10!"

Tang Ye suddenly said.

Ten Hag's eyes lit up.

That was indeed a viable method.

However...

Ten Hag recalled Tang Ye's heaven-defying one-on-one defensive ability, finally shook his head and dismissed the idea: "You just look for opportunities to guess correctly in the attacking third; who knows, you might even guess a few more goals."

"Oh, oh."

Tang Ye rubbed his hands together and glanced at his 【De Bruyne Curved Long Pass】, which had already reached level 3.

He felt there was still a chance to further expand the lead!

After Ten Hag finished speaking, Allé suddenly walked over and swapped positions with Amrabat: "Tang, I already have two goals on my record; do you know what that means?"

"What does it mean?" Tang Ye hadn't reacted at first.

"One more goal and I'll have completed a hat-trick!"

Allé sat on Tang Ye's left side, grabbing Tang Ye's right shoulder and shaking it continuously: "Do you understand what I mean? Pass me the ball, please!"

Suddenly entrusted with such an important task, Tang Ye felt immense pressure and could only give an ambiguous reply: "I... I'll try my best."

After resting for a few minutes, Ten Hag began clapping, signaling the players to perk up; it was now time to prepare in the player tunnel.

After all the players had left, Fan Fan Dejiahe suddenly stood before Ten Hag: "Erik, did you notice Yassin's expression? Are you really not planning to let him play?"

Upon realizing he might lose his starting position, Ayub had also begun his extra training.

Ayub was extremely cunning; he deliberately chose the first team's secondary pitch for his extra training, ensuring that both Ten Hag and Fan Fan Dejiahe could see Ayub training below.

Actually, the reason Ayub did this was simply because Ten Hag had emphasized a few extra times during training that "hard work pays off" and similar phrases.

Ten Hag looked left and right; only after confirming no one else was in the locker room did he speak: "What I need are geniuses, geniuses like Tang."

"Hard work?"

Ten Hag didn't know why but suddenly laughed: "Michel, if hard work could change everything, why did I play football my entire life yet never make it to the top five leagues? Was it because I didn't want to go?"

Ten Hag's words plunged Fan Fan Dejiahe into silence.

Although unwilling to accept it, competitive sports are just this cruel.

The key point is never what you do during training.

The key point is what you can do during a match!

The second half began; Tang Ye fished a new piece of chewing gum from his pocket, spat the now flavorless gum into the new gum's wrapper, and stuffed it back into his pocket.

New chewing gum, new match state!

"Twente attacking in the front field; number 10 Ziyech carries the ball himself toward the arc top."

"Very smooth dribbling; Ramselaar is currently very uncomfortable, not knowing how to handle it."

"Ziyech, from the outside, takes a long-range shot!"

"Holy crap!"

Wang Chao, sitting in front of his computer desk, hugged his head with both hands; Twente's number 10, Ziyech, had blasted open the goal defended by Ruiter with a single long-range shot.

The score was pulled to 3-2!

【Damn it, who said Twente was weak? That f***ing was a world-class goal!】

【Both are number 10s, so why is this Ziyech so much stronger than Balazit?】

【Terrible Utrecht; ten people are dragging down our Tang Tang Qiuwang, 1v21, what is our Tang Tang Qiuwang supposed to do?】

【Stop with the Tang Tang Qiuwang talk; your Tang Tang Qiuwang has gone invisible again.】

【It's not yet time for Brother Meng to exert his strength.】

【Can the streamer increase the video quality? Even though this is a pirated stream, I still have standards for clarity!】

Ye He's long-range shot left the Utrecht players completely dazed.

After scoring, Ye He jogged backward and encountered Tang Ye, who had reached out a hand.

Ye He thought Tang Ye was coming to mess with him and immediately cursed, "Get lost..."

"You shot incredibly accurately."

"Ah, oh, oh, thank you, thank you."

Realizing what was happening, Ye He nodded repeatedly, then stepped forward to pat Tang Ye's arm.

Watching Ye He gradually run farther away, Tang Ye felt a slight sense of loss in his heart.

Why could others shoot so accurately while he could only rely on luck?

The match continued, reaching the 72nd minute of the second half!

The team currently attacking on the field was...

Twente!

"Damn it, that long-range shot by number 10 has completely boosted the away team's momentum; brothers, let me check the betting odds first."

"Hiss—Utrecht's odds aren't looking very stable right now."

The director's camera cut to Tang Ye, who was slowly drifting back toward his own defensive half.

Since the very start of the second half, Tang Ye had kept Ten Hag's instructions firmly in mind, frequently dropping back to defend.

Although his one-on-one defending ability was lacking, Tang Ye possessed a tackling skill that made attacking players wary, so his defensive efforts still served some purpose.

But the price paid was also significant.

Tang Ye, who could originally run the entire match after drinking 【Vardy Red Bull】, was now struggling to keep up with the pace!

Seeing this, Ten Hag could only instruct Ayoub on the substitutes' bench to start warming up, hoping to find a suitable opportunity to substitute Tang Ye off.

Regardless of anything else, with an assist to his name, Tang Ye's performance in today's match was flawless.

The very second Ten Hag told Ayoub to put on the yellow bib, Rieuwé executed a successful forward tackle, dispossessing Ye He.

The ball flew toward Klaiber.

The Twente players immediately rushed toward Klaiber, preparing to apply pressure.

With no other option, Klaiber panicked and headed the ball, knocking it toward Tang Ye.

Holy shit!

Watching the ball fly toward him, Tang Ye was scared out of his wits.

He was currently positioned right in the center of his own half, surrounded front and back by Twente players.

What Klaiber had passed him wasn't a header; it was a damn "mountain of knives" ball!

With no other choice, Tang Ye glanced back, memorizing his teammates' positions from a moment ago.

He ran forward to meet the ball.

He lifted his thigh.

And kicked the ball directly into the attacking third!

"Tang Ye, that's a clearance!"

"A very brilliant clearance; Tang Ye resolved the inverted triangle pass Klaiber sent him."

"Wait, this doesn't seem like a clearance!"

"Allé is running forward! Holy shit!"

"Control the ball!"

"Shoot!"

(End of Chapter)