[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-the-god-of-football-starts-with-passive-skills":3,"chapter-the-god-of-football-starts-with-passive-skills-the-god-of-football-starts-with-passive-skills-chapter-101":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"english","The God of Football Starts With Passive Skills",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":20,"prevChapterSlug":21,"totalChapters":22,"novelImage":23},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":16,"volume":17,"translator":18,"content_hash":19},483837,734,"Chapter 101 - 45: The Bundesliga’s Beckham! Wang Shuo: I’m Being Targeted by the Entire Bundesliga","the-god-of-football-starts-with-passive-skills-chapter-101",101,"\u003Cp>September 20th, 1:30 PM.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Xuge Stadium, Bielefeld, Germany.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Bundesliga Matchday 5, Mainz challenged Bielefeld in an away game.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Before the season started, this would have been considered a civil war between two relegation-zone teams.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But after four rounds, Mainz sat second in the league table, while Bielefeld was second to last.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They were only one point ahead of the last-place team, Cottbus.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the first four rounds, Cottbus had one draw and three losses, with zero goals scored and seven conceded.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Bielefeld had two draws and two losses, scoring five goals and conceding nine.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The home team drew their first two matches and lost the next two, falling 2-4 at home to Hamburg and 0-2 away to Bochum, marking a two-game losing streak.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Mainz’s start to the season had been nothing short of stunning, but their 1-3 home loss to Bayern in the previous round was still a cause for concern.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>More importantly, in their head-to-head record over the past few years, Mainz was at a disadvantage.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Since Klopp took over as coach, Mainz had faced Bielefeld ten times, with a record of three wins, three draws, and four losses.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Of those, five matches were played at Xuge Stadium, where Mainz’s record was one win, one draw, and three losses.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The one win was back in 2001; they hadn’t managed to secure a victory there since.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was precisely because of this head-to-head record that many professional media outlets in Germany predicted the match would most likely end in a draw.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A 1-1 draw, to be specific.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Before the match, Mainz head coach Klopp gave his players a detailed briefing on Bielefeld’s head coach, Michel Fröntzek.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He was a former Germany international, part of the runner-up squad at the 1992 European Cup, and had played for clubs like Borussia Mönchengladbach, Stuttgart, and Manchester City.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Before coaching Bielefeld, he first spent a few years as an assistant coach and later managed the 2nd Bundesliga team Aachen.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In January of ’08, he took over mid-season at Bielefeld, who were then 14th in the Bundesliga table.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But the guy was interesting.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In his first five matches after taking charge—four in the Bundesliga and one in the DFB-Pokal—he lost every single one.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Afterward, he adjusted the team’s tactics, adopting a 4-3-3 formation.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the next five league matches, they had four draws and one loss, a significant improvement in their results.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the end, he narrowly guided Bielefeld to safety, avoiding relegation.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Building on last season’s experience, Fröntzek continued to believe in the 4-3-3 formation this season.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Specifically, a very Barça-esque 4-3-3 with a single holding midfielder.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Why bring up Barça?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This season, the most interesting characteristic of the Barça team under Guardiola’s management was the height of its players.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They had assembled a group of short but technically brilliant players, such as Iniesta, Harvey, and Messi.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Bielefeld was in a similar situation in the Bundesliga.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Their deep-lying midfielder, Rudiger Kauff, was only 1.72 meters tall.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The other two more advanced midfielders, Robert Tesche and Oliver Kirch, were both around 1.8 meters.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even their Polish striker, Artur Wójcik, was only 1.83 meters tall.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Across the entire Bundesliga, even high-pressing teams like Mainz still had plenty of tall players in their midfield and attack.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A starting lineup like Bielefeld’s, built around players who were 1.8 meters or even shorter, was extremely rare.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Fröntzek’s tactics were also advanced, as he also employed a high-pressing system.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Although his players weren’t tall, they were all well-rounded in both attack and defense and possessed decent technical skill on the ball.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Klopp told everyone very bluntly that Fröntzek’s system would not work in the Bundesliga.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Why?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"In Germany, besides Bayern, no team can afford to maintain a squad composed of such technical players!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Technically refined players all have one thing in common: they’re expensive!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>High transfer fees, high salaries—everything is expensive.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Trying to copy Barça without enough technical skill is just asking for a death sentence!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Klopp was convinced that Bielefeld’s defense had massive flaws.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wang Shuo’s mission in this match was to force them to expose those flaws and then exploit them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Fröntzek was, of course, well aware of his own team’s shortcomings and had made targeted adjustments.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Besides, wasn’t it true that Mainz’s lineup and tactics had problems of their own?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Time ticked by, second by second.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As the match entered the second half, especially after the 65-minute mark, the running ability of the Mainz players noticeably declined.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But the score was still 0-0.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Both sides remained extremely cautious.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Mainz had not yet made any substitutions.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Bielefeld made a like-for-like substitution, with Jonas Kemper replacing winger Daniel Hafal.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After the substitution, Bielefeld began to intensify their attack.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the 70th minute, under pressure from Bielefeld’s attack, Pekovic received the first yellow card of the match.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The momentum was gradually shifting.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The scales of victory, which had previously tilted toward Mainz, were now slowly balancing out.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They even began to show signs of tipping in Bielefeld’s favor.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"The period after the 70th minute has always been a major weakness for Mainz.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Look here, Bielefeld has won the ball near their own half and is launching a counter-attack.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Mainz is initiating a counter-press in the opponent’s half.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Positioned at the very front, Wang Shuo had been ready to make a forward run at any moment. But after seeing Foyelner get dispossessed while on the ball and Bielefeld launch a counter-attack, he immediately started tracking back.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Bielefeld’s defensive line was pushing up, so he had to constantly stay in an onside position.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But he still remained active between the two tall center-backs, Nico Herzog and Radim Kuchera.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This was the specific task Klopp had assigned him during the halftime break.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With his back to the goal, Wang Shuo constantly scanned his surroundings and the flanks, occasionally glancing back over his shoulder.\u003C\u002Fp>",971,"2026-05-30T11:12:32.829Z","2026-06-01T04:31:05.348Z",1,"novelbin.me","298657c707a80d3ab61a571599f2e20278d27608cbae78ad521daa49c91cbbb7","the-god-of-football-starts-with-passive-skills-chapter-1","the-god-of-football-starts-with-passive-skills-chapter-300",400,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fthe-god-of-football-starts-with-passive-skills-cover.jpg"]