Chapter 57: Utrecht's Savior

"2 Goals, 1 Assist, Salvaging a Draw Against PSV: Tang Ye Involved in Every Goal Against PSV"

"16-Year-Old Genius Lands in the Eredivisie!"

"In a post-match interview, Ten Hag expressed his willingness to give more for the team, stating that nothing could stop the defending champions from advancing."

After the match against PSV, Utrecht's league ranking still remained one spot above PSV.

Unfortunately, AZ Alkmaar, originally ranked third, won their Round 12 match and, thanks to a superior goal difference, surpassed Utrecht to become the new league leaders.

Seeing the standings again, Ten Hag felt somewhat nervous.

Their goal for this season was to finish in the top twelve, and their current ranking was second.

They were just ten positions away from failing to achieve their goal!

When the head coach gets nervous, he transfers that anxiety onto the players; the original two-day holiday was cut down by Ten Hag to just one day.

"I really can't take this; who trains on a weekend?"

Tang Ye juggled the ball on the field while complaining to the teammates beside him.

Haller and Di Di Bala nodded simultaneously; unlike Tang Ye, they were both relatively diligent players.

But even these two guys now felt that Ten Hag had a problem!

Five days of training, one day of matches, one day of rest—meaning these first-team players only got one day off per week!

Damn it!

"Tang, are you still going to do extra training now?"

Haller suddenly asked; hearing Haller speak to him, Tang Ye juggled the ball high and then kicked it away with a volley: "Yes, besides weekends, I train all other times, but since I skipped a few sessions before, I need to make up for them now, so I have to stay over on weekends too."

"So you don't even have holidays, training every single day?"

Haller's eyes widened.

What the hell...

That's too self-disciplined!

"No."

Tang Ye shook his head: "I have to go to school once a week, that Ilde High School cooperating with the club; they have classes on Saturdays too, and I went there yesterday morning."

"You're amazing!"

Haller gave Tang Ye a thumbs-up.

This was truly a model worker.

"Wait, you went to school yesterday morning?"

Haller and Amrabat exchanged a glance, then both looked at Tang Ye: "Didn't you eat lunch with us yesterday?"

"And in the afternoon, you even played FIFA, together with Zaka," Amrabat reminded him.

"Uh, well, um..."

Tang Ye's face turned red; a midfielder's instinct kicked in, causing him to scan the surroundings immediately.

He confirmed that Ten Hag and Fan Fan Dejiahe were still quite far away from him.

"Going to school doesn't necessarily mean studying; I signed in and left right away."

"Alright..."

Haller was somewhat speechless.

He had almost forgotten that Tang Ye was the type to reduce his own workload; handling such minor issues was far too easy for him.

"Beep!!!"

Fan Fan Dejiahe suddenly blew his whistle, signaling to the players on the field that break time was over.

"Let's go!"

Haller and the others gathered at Ten Hag's location; once everyone had assembled, Ten Hag began announcing today's training content.

"We've played one-third of our matches this season, and the feeling I've gotten from those earlier games is that our offense sometimes fails to materialize."

"Without some highly creative passes, sometimes our strikers simply cannot reach the opponent's baseline."

As Ten Hag spoke, he searched for Tang Ye within the crowd, but failed to find him immediately.

Considering that Tang Ye might be sitting on the ground again, Ten Hag did not rush; he continued searching for Tang Ye's figure among the crowd while explaining: "I plan to try a three-striker formation; we originally played 4-3-1-2, but now we'll switch to 4-2-3-1."

Josten's eyes lit up.

Utrecht didn't have many strikers; if Ten Hag wanted to play with three strikers, then he would most likely be that center forward!

No wonder he had been suddenly called up to the first team by Ten Hag back in early November.

All of this had been planned!

Ayoub frowned; if Utrecht was going to play 4-2-3-1 next, then his chances of starting would be even slimmer.

Thinking carefully, Ayoub muttered: "The 4-2-3-1 formation should place extremely high demands on the midfield; we don't seem to have anyone capable of passing..."

Halfway through his sentence, Ayoub himself realized something was off and hurriedly shut his mouth.

Before the start of this season's league campaign, Utrecht's midfield faced two problems.

1. Inability to retain possession.

2. Inability to deliver good passes.

These two problems were linked, because only after you retain possession do you have the opportunity to make passes.

But Tang Ye's arrival solved half of Utrecht's midfield problems.

He could deliver good passes without needing to control the ball.

It sounded somewhat absurd, but this was indeed the current state of Utrecht.

Their number of threat balls and their possession rate were inversely proportional!

"No problem, that's good then."

Ten Hag nodded; having just walked around, he had already scanned every player in the crowd.

"Mitchell will go over the training details with you later; I'm off to the dorms to catch a pig first."

With that, Ten Hag ran straight toward the second-team dormitories.

If Tang Ye wasn't on the training ground, there was a 99% chance he was in the dorms!

"Wait, didn't he get a raise? Why is he still living in the dorms? Renting a place in Montfoort shouldn't be that expensive, right?"

Watching Ten Hag's retreating figure, Alley fell into deep thought.

Amrabat was speechless: "He's late even while living in the dorms; do you really think he could manage living outside?"

On Wednesday night, Ten Hag received a call from the owner, Verhoef.

During the call, Verhoef praised Ten Hag for achieving such extraordinary results in his very first season leading the team.

Ten Hag chuckled: "Mr. Paul, things actually aren't as difficult as you imagine; Utrecht hasn't even reached its peak for this season yet."

"Huh? Are you sure? Why do you say that?"

Ten Hag's words caught Verhoef's attention; the man, who had been lounging in his chair, sat up straight immediately.

"The 5-3-2 formation you see now is only part of Utrecht's tactical plan for this season, and a very small part at that. I made this simple attempt at the start of the season because Utrecht is exceptionally well-suited to the 5-3-2 formation."

"Of course, this is just the beginning; I've already studied all the teams in the Eredivisie, and besides the 5-3-2, I have many other tactics ready in my notes."

As Ten Hag spoke eloquently, Verhoef's eyes went wide with astonishment.

Ten Hag had only arrived at Utrecht this July, yet in the first half of the season, he had already established a powerful tactical system for the team, even topping the league standings for a time.

And this was just the beginning!

As a businessman, Verhoef possessed keen instincts.

He could feel that Ten Hag was Utrecht's savior!

He could lead Utrecht to glory!

Hiss—

"Erik, if our players fully implement your tactical philosophy, how far... how far can Utrecht go this season?"

"That's a difficult question to answer."

Ten Hag remained relatively calm: "But I estimate that PSV Eindhoven will most likely not be our match; in fact, in the match the day before yesterday, PSV won purely by luck—if played normally, they couldn't beat us."

!!!

"You will get the players you want during the winter window; I will give you a budget of at least 20 million euros."

(End of Chapter)