Chapter 57: Utrecht

<2 Goals, 1 Assist Draw Against Ajax, Tang Ye Involved in All Goals Against Ajax>

<16-Year-Old Prodigy Lands in the Eredivisie!>

After the match against Ajax, Utrecht remained above Ajax in the league standings.

Unfortunately, Alkmaar, originally in third place, won their 12th-round match and surpassed Utrecht on goal difference to become the new league leader.

Ten Hag grew tense upon seeing the updated table again.

Their goal this season was to finish in the top twelve, but they were currently ranked second.

If they dropped ten more places, they would fail to achieve their target!

When the head coach is anxious, he transfers that stress to the players; the originally planned two-day break was cut by Ten Hag to just one day.

“I’m really done with this—training on weekends?”

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

Aale and Bamrabet both nodded; unlike Tang Ye, they were both diligent players.

But even these two now thought Ten Hag had gone too far!

Five days of training, one day of match, one day of rest—that meant the first-team players had only one day off per week!

Damn it!

“Tang, are you still adding extra training?”

Aale suddenly asked. Hearing Aale speak to him, Tang Ye tossed the ball high and then struck it hard: “Yeah, I have to train all day except weekends—but I skipped a few times before, so now I have to make them up, meaning I have to stay even on weekends.”

“So you have no holidays at all, just training every day?”

Aale’s eyes widened.

This is fucking—

Too self-disciplined!

“No, not really.”

Tang Ye shook his head: “I have to go to school once a week—the IJld High School, the one partnered with the club. They have classes on Saturdays too; I went yesterday morning.”

“You’re amazing!”

Aale gave Tang Ye a thumbs-up.

He’s truly a workhorse.

“Wait, you went to school yesterday morning?”

Aale and Bamrabet exchanged glances, then both turned to Tang Ye: “Didn’t you have lunch with us yesterday noon?”

“And you played FIFA in the afternoon with Zaka,” Bamrabet reminded him.

“Uh, well, that, that…”

Tang Ye blushed, his midfielder’s instincts making him scan the surroundings.

He confirmed Ten Hag and Van der Gaag were still far away.

“Going to school doesn’t mean I have to sit in class—I signed in and left.”

“Alright…”

Aale was speechless.

He’d almost forgotten Tang Ye was the type who always found ways to lighten his own load; handling small issues like this was too easy for him.

“Beeeeep—!!!”

Van der Gaag suddenly blew the whistle, signaling the end of the break.

“Let’s go!”

Aale and the others gathered toward Ten Hag’s position. Once everyone was present, Ten Hag announced today’s training content.

“We’ve played a third of our matches this season, and my feeling so far is that sometimes our attack just doesn’t come alive.”

“Without an exceptionally creative pass, our forwards often can’t reach the opponent’s baseline.”

Ten Hag spoke, searching the group for Tang Ye—but couldn’t find him at first.

Considering Tang Ye might be sitting on the ground, Ten Hag didn’t rush, continuing to scan the group while explaining: “I’m going to try a three-forward formation. We’ve been playing 4-3-1-2; now we’re switching to 4-2-3-1.”

Josten’s eyes lit up.

Utrecht had no real strikers—if Ten Hag was going with three forwards, he’d almost certainly be the central one!

No wonder he’d been suddenly called up to the first team in early November.

This had all been planned!

Ayoub frowned. If Utrecht was now playing 4-2-3-1, his chances of starting would shrink even further.

After a moment’s thought, Ayoub muttered: “The 4-2-3-1 demands a lot from midfielders—we don’t seem to have anyone who can really…”

He stopped mid-sentence, realizing his mistake, and clamped his mouth shut.

At the start of this season, Utrecht’s midfield faced two problems.

1. Couldn’t control the ball.

2. Couldn’t deliver good passes.

These two issues were linked—only once you controlled the ball could you even attempt to pass it well.

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

He could deliver excellent passes without needing to control the ball first.

It was insane—but that’s exactly how Utrecht was now.

Their threat passes and possession rate were inversely proportional!

“That’s fine then.”

Ten Hag nodded; after walking around, he’d already scanned every player in the group.

“Michel will explain the training details next. I’m going to go catch a pig in the dorm.”

With that, Ten Hag sprinted straight toward the reserve team’s dormitory.

If Tang Ye wasn’t on the training ground, he was 99% likely in his dorm!

“Wait, didn’t he get a raise? Why is he still living in the dorm? Renting in Montfort shouldn’t be that expensive, right?”

Aale stared at Ten Hag’s retreating back, lost in thought.

Bamrabet was speechless: “He’s late even when he lives in the dorm—do you think he’d ever make it if he lived outside?”

…

Wednesday night, Ten Hag received a call from owner Verhof.

In the call, Verhof praised Ten Hag for achieving such an astonishing result in his first season.

Ten Hag chuckled: “Mr. Paul, it’s not as hard as you think—Utrecht hasn’t even reached its peak this season yet.”

“Huh? Are you sure? Why say that?”

Ten Hag’s words caught Verhof’s attention; he sat up straight from his chair.

“What you’ve seen so far—the 5-3-2—is only one small part of Utrecht’s tactical system this season. I tried this simple setup early on because Utrecht suits the 5-3-2 perfectly.”

“But that’s just the beginning—I’ve studied every Eredivisie team. Besides the 5-3-2, I’ve got dozens of other tactics written down.”

Ten Hag spoke confidently; Verhof’s eyes widened.

In July, Ten Hag had just arrived at Utrecht; in the first half of the season, he’d already built a powerful tactical system, even briefly topping the league table.

And this was just the beginning!

As a businessman, Verhof had a sharp instinct.

He could feel it—Ten Hag was Utrecht’s savior!

He could lead Utrecht to glory!

Hss—

“Eric, if our players fully embrace your tactical philosophy, how far could Utrecht go this season?”

“That’s a hard question to answer.”

Ten Hag remained calm: “But I’m certain Ajax won’t be our match. The match against them the day before yesterday? They won by luck. If they played normally, they couldn’t beat us.”

!!!

“You’ll get the players you want in the winter transfer window—I’ll give you at least 20 million euros in budget.”

…

(End of Chapter)