Chapter 71: I Should Have Developed Like This! (20k Update, Seeking Monthly Tickets!)

"Tang, you passed the ball to me in that situation!"

On the bus returning to the base, Di Di Bala leaned over the back of the seat in front, his two eyes shining as he looked at Tang Ye before him.

Given the situation during the match, Tang Ye had come infinitely close to the small penalty area, and he was facing the goalkeeper directly.

In such a situation, even if Tang Ye's shooting stat was only 60, he could have scored, yet Tang Ye still chose to pass; this was the reason Di Di Bala was now so moved.

"Tang, you shouldn't have passed it to him at all."

Ale placed his hand on Di Di Bala's head: "This guy is extremely moved right now. Hey, Nasser, are you going to cry from being so moved?"

Di Di Bala hastily pushed Ale's hand away from his head: "No, no, how could that be? I just can't believe it. Why would anyone pass the ball at that moment!"

He turned his head to look at Tang Ye: "So, what were you thinking at that time?"

"Uh, is that really important?"

Tang Ye felt somewhat awkward under Di Di Bala's scrutiny.

"Of course it's important; this matter concerns scoring a goal, and everything related to scoring goals is very important!"

As a striker, Di Di Bala held a special obsession with scoring goals.

"Uh, I just wanted to pass, so I passed."

Tang Ye rubbed his nose: "Before running to that position, I already saw you on the right, so I passed the ball to you. That seems reasonable, doesn't it?"

"Is that so?"

Di Di Bala blinked his eyes: "You passed the ball to me just because it was reasonable?"

"Alright, alright!"

Ale pulled Di Di Bala down, then instructed Tang Ye: "Tang, remember this: from now on, don't pass the ball to him; just pass it to me."

"Though I won't be moved to tears. Nasser, don't you think I'm right?"

"Enough, enough!"

Ten Hag, sitting at the very front, suddenly stood up, interrupting the Utrecht players who were making noise at the back: "Winning one match has got you all excited like this; we are approaching the late stage of the season, and the main event is yet to come!"

He took out his phone to check the league table: "Although we are still first in the standings, I can sense a threat, a threat from behind. PSV and Ajax have been winning continuously recently; you all need to feel these threats as well!"

"But our goal is to secure a top-four finish; even if PSV and Ajax surpass us, it shouldn't matter, right?"

Tang Ye suddenly said.

"Nonsense!"

Ten Hag immediately refuted Tang Ye's words: "You are Chinese; Chinese people should be the ones with the strongest sense of crisis. If we relinquish first place now, what if we make a mistake later and fail to enter the top four?"

Alright!

But...

Tang Ye took out his own phone and glanced at the league table.

The gap between them and the team in fourth place in the league had already widened to 8 points!

Was it really that dangerous?

The next day, during recovery training, the team welcomed their new winter transfer window signing, Frenkie de Jong.

Ten Hag pushed de Jong forward in front of him: "This is our new substitute defensive midfielder, Frenkie."

In a professional club, whether each player is a starter or a substitute should be very clear, so Ten Hag directly stated de Jong's status as a substitute during the introduction.

De Jong naturally had no objection to this; at Ajax, he was also just a substitute, and moreover, a substitute who couldn't even get onto the field.

The reason de Jong was willing to transfer to Utrecht was that he felt his chances of becoming a starter at Utrecht were greater than his chances of becoming a starter at Ajax.

"By the way, everyone should be here by now, right?"

Ten Hag suddenly remembered something, looked at the players present, and said: "Uh, one person is still missing, but it doesn't matter; let me introduce Frenkie first."

"One person missing? Should we wait a bit longer? Will he come to training today?"

Good question!

Ten Hag looked down at his wristwatch and gave a judgment based on experience: "He should still be in bed right now."

"Is he injured?"

De Jong nodded.

"It's not an injury; it's because the dormitory heating system is too good. Damn it, I knew it!"

Ten Hag was now feeling some regret.

During the Christmas party, he had been too emotional, to the point of actually thinking about restoring the morning heating in Tang Ye's room.

Could the heating in Tang Ye's room really be restored?

Absolutely not!

With the heating on constantly in the morning, Tang Ye was two hundred percent going to be late!

Ten Hag sent Fan Fan Dejiahe to the dormitory to fetch the person, while de Jong, looking completely bewildered, asked Ten Hag: "What does this have to do with the heating system?"

Ten Hag waved his hand: "Once sows are in a warm environment, they want to sleep. Now you should understand, right?"

De Jong still didn't get it, but the team's warm-up had already begun.

"Coming, coming, don't rush!"

Half an hour later, Tang Ye rushed out of the cafeteria line and began today's training in a flustered manner.

"Are you the coach?"

Ten Hag suddenly asked Tang Ye a very strange question.

"I am not."

"Then why are you wearing a down jacket?"

Ten Hag pointed at the Nike down jacket on his own body, then pointed at the Nike down jacket on Tang Ye's body.

Clearly, Tang Ye was the only player on site wearing a down jacket.

Ten Hag was utterly heartless; he reached out and directly stripped the down jacket off Tang Ye, leaving the poor Tang Ye no choice but to force himself to run, as doing so would allow him to avoid feeling the cold.

Since they had just played a match yesterday, the team's training intensity today would not be too high; Ten Hag organized the players for a 5v5 scrimmage.

Before the groups had even begun to form, Tang Ye saw Derong, this brand new face, and walked straight over: "Bat said you're a midfielder? Are you an attacking midfielder?"

"Defensive midfielder."

Derong corrected him: "Though I can also play as an attacking midfielder."

"Then you're just like me."

Tang Ye patted Derong on the shoulder: "I can play both as an attacking midfielder and as a striker!"

"Since when have you been able to play as a striker?"

Amrabat stared with wide eyes.

"I've always been able to play it; you just haven't noticed."

Tang Ye explained briefly, then chatted a few words with Derong.

He hadn't expected this guy to be a native-born Dutchman, which was still relatively rare within the Utrecht team!

"What is your market value?"

Huh?

Derong clearly hadn't expected Tang Ye to ask such a question and took a step back, but this was no secret, so Derong answered directly.

"6 million euros; that's the latest figure."

"6 million!"

Tang Ye opened his mouth wide: "Damn, then you're currently the most expensive player on our entire team!"

After saying this, Tang Ye looked Derong up and down.

Seeing Tang Ye's exaggerated facial expression, Derong quickly began to explain.

During last summer's transfer window, he had been bought from Willem II by Ajax for a price of 7.7 million euros.

The transfer market exists to serve actual transfers; since Derong had real transfer data of 7.7 million euros, even though he hadn't played many Eredivisie matches, he could still possess a considerable market value.

Simply put, the scouts believed Derong had potential for development!

"That's still very impressive."

Tang Ye decided that after returning home tonight, he would use Derong to play a match of FIFA, especially since he happened to have Derong's player card.

However, before Tang Ye could start the game, Ten Hag directly placed Tang Ye, Amrabat, and Derong into the same group.

Three midfielders in one group; who knew what Ten Hag was trying to do.

"The first phase doesn't emphasize coordination; as long as you can get the ball into the goal, it counts as success," Ten Hag issued the instruction, and Tang Ye's group immediately began.

Goalkeeper Ruiter kicked the ball to Derong, while Joosten quickly ran toward Derong, preparing to mark this new signing of the team closely.

Derong did not rush; with his back to the opponent, he stepped with his right foot to the diagonal front of the ball, pretending to run past Joosten's left side, but actually suddenly switched sides to break through.

The Dutchman's method of shaking off his marker was extremely clever; by the time Joosten reacted, Derong had already created space.

After completing the shake-off, Derong dribbled the ball forward quickly, and Ramselaar ran up to defend.

Derong was forced to slow down; the two began to tangle together, and Derong took this opportunity to showcase his excellent ball-shielding ability.

In the end, the dribble past the defender wasn't successful, so Derong passed the ball to Tang Ye, who had run to his side to provide support; with Tang Ye's cooperation, he then performed another sequence of ball-shielding dribbling inside the penalty area.

He passed the ball back to Tang Ye, who curled a shot into the far corner to score.

"Clap, clap, beautiful!"

The goal-scorer Tang Ye received applause from Derong and other teammates, but the look in Tang Ye's eyes as he gazed at Derong was full of envy.

!

Superb progressive ability, a standard ball-controlling midfielder!

"I should have developed into something like this..."

Off the field, Ten Hag watched the first-team players passing the ball continuously, his mood relaxed.

Ten Hag was very happy now because the club had brought him the players he wanted.

He could feel that Utrecht was walking on the right path.

Excellent players, suitable tactics.

And an super-strong Manager of the Month!

This was Utrecht's future!

Eredivisie Round 19, Utrecht hosting Zwolle.

Utrecht's form was very good; less than five minutes after the match began, Tang Ye assisted Joosten to open the scoring, bringing the score to 1:0.

For any team, this was a rather good start, and Ten Hag also kept this lineup.

However, by the second half, a sudden change occurred; Zwolle forward Nyland executed a very forceful challenge that directly knocked Tang Ye flat on the ground.

"Holy shit!"

Tang Ye lay on the ground, clutching his ankle tightly with both hands.

"No, no, no, no..."

Ten Hag felt something was terribly wrong; the Utrecht team doctor hurried onto the field, subsequently bringing news that plunged Ten Hag into despair.

Tang Ye had sprained his ankle!

"Hiss..."

Tang Ye sat on the substitutes' bench; team doctor Roosevelt brought over two ice packs, instructing Tang Ye to press them against his ankle.

"How does it feel?"

"A bit cold."

"..."

"I'm asking about the pain. Do you feel any pain?"

Ten Hag kept his hands in his pockets, three very obvious horizontal wrinkles etched across his forehead.

Tang Ye carefully assessed his injury, then replied, "Hmm... it hurts a little."

Ten Hag turned his head away, his expression somewhat unpleasant.

Dutch youth protection organizations always insist on enforcing their minor protection laws during youth player training sessions.

But this is a match!

Why isn't the minor protection law applied to official matches!

【Wait, he's injured?】

【Damn, it's Nijland, right? Is this opposing striker really acting so arrogant?】

【It's over. With Meng gone, Utrecht is straight-up GG!】

【Believe in Ten Hag!】

"Damn it, what the hell!"

Streamer Wang Chao watched Tang Ye being helped off the field by the team doctor; he felt his own heart aching.

It wasn't just his heart that hurt.

His wallet was feeling the pain too!

So now, the Bean Warriors in the live stream faced a dilemma.

With Meng twisting his ankle and leaving the field, should they still believe in Utrecht for the rest of the match?

Or rather...

Should they still believe in Ten Hag at all?

Tang Ye sat on the substitutes' bench, the ice pack making his hand feel somewhat uncomfortable.

Roosevelt had just said that Tang Ye's condition would likely require a month of rest.

Resting for a month was certainly a good thing, but Tang Ye quickly noticed something wasn't right.

Of Utrecht's three forwards, one, Joosten, had just been promoted from the reserve team and hadn't yet figured out how to play in the Eredivisie.

Then there was Haller; this big guy was a typical target man, with ball-protection and dribbling skills so terrible they were unbearable to watch.

As for Di Di Bala, this fellow could dribble, but he couldn't pass.

Three forwards with distinct characteristics gathered together, plus Ramselaar who liked to pretend to be a ball-controller, and Utrecht simply couldn't find any attacking opportunities.

The situation on the field was somewhat awkward for Utrecht, but Ten Hag didn't panic.

According to this Dutchman's experience, Utrecht would always mysteriously generate attacks.

Especially in the second half!

Utrecht in the second half was incredibly formidable!

However...

"Shit, they equalized at the death? Damn, Nijland's poaching in the box!"

Nijland was really jumping around; he twisted Tang Ye's ankle in the first half, then scored a last-minute equalizer against Utrecht in the second, completely leaving Ten Hag dumbfounded.

What kind of luck was this today!

Was his prayer to Jesus on Christmas Eve not devout enough!

After the match ended, Ten Hag entered the press room with a deathly grim face, and the reporters immediately asked him about the late equalizer.

"That was luck. I can say with full responsibility that our opponents had very good luck today. As you know, a last-minute equalizer always requires some luck."

Ten Hag slowly explained to the reporters: "Strictly speaking, a last-minute equalizer reflects a team's luck, not their strength. From this perspective, we, who scored first right at the start of the match, were the stronger side."

"Our opponent won on luck; otherwise, this match should have ended 1-0. It's regrettable that we didn't find more opportunities after taking the lead, but we truly deserved to win."

Click!

Click-click-click!

"How is Tang's injury?"

The reporters unsurprisingly asked about Tang Ye's condition; Ten Hag answered based on the team doctor's advice: "I think he might need a month to recover, but it's hard to say, since Tang is still a child, and children generally recover faster."

The reporters nodded.

"After Tang left the field, Utrecht encountered the problem of being unable to create attacking opportunities. Do you think this issue is related to Tang not being on the pitch?"

"Oh? There is no direct relationship."

Ten Hag did not agree with the reporter's speculation: "Tang can indeed create opportunities at times, but a team does not revolve around a single player. Our attack failed to materialize today due to issues across the entire midfield and forward line. It is very wrong to suggest we lacked attacking capability just because Tang was on the bench. Our true core has always been on the field."

Oh?

Ten Hag's words left the reporters below momentarily stunned.

Although they suddenly realized.

Damn it, the core this guy was talking about was himself!

(End of Chapter)