Chapter 57: The Savior of Utrecht

"2 Goals and 1 Assist to Dramatically Draw with PSV, Tang Ye Participates in All Goals of the Match Against PSV"
"16-Year-Old Genius Boy Arrives in the Eredivisie!"
"Ten Hag States in Post-Match Interview That He Is Willing to Give More to the Team; Nothing Can Stop the Defending Champion's Momentum"

After the match against PSV, Utrecht's league ranking remained above PSV's.
Unfortunately, AZ Alkmaar, who were originally in third place, won their Round 12 match and surpassed Utrecht to become the new league leaders thanks to a superior goal difference.
Seeing the league standings once again made Ten Hag somewhat nervous.
Their goal for this season was the top twelve, and their current ranking was second.
They were only 10 positions away from failing their objective!
When the head coach is nervous, that emotion gets transferred to the players, and Ten Hag reduced the original two-day holiday to just one day.

"I honestly can't believe this. Who the hell still trains on the weekend?"
Tang Ye juggled the ball on the pitch while complaining to a teammate nearby.
Haller and Barazite nodded simultaneously. Unlike Tang Ye, they were relatively diligent players.
Yet even these two guys now felt that something was wrong with Ten Hag!
Five days of training, one day of match, and one day of rest—meaning the first-team players only had a single day off per week!
Damn it!

"Tang, are you still doing extra training today?"
Haller asked suddenly. Hearing Haller address him, Tang Ye popped the ball higher into the air and then volleyed it away. "Yeah, every day except the weekend. But I skipped a few times earlier and need to make up for it, so I have to stay over the weekend too."
"So you don't even get a holiday and train every single day?"
Haller's eyes widened.
This is fucking...
Too disciplined!

"No, I don't," Tang Ye shook his head. "I have to go to school once a week, to that high school partnered with the club, Yilder High. They have classes on Saturdays too, so I went yesterday morning."
"You're amazing!"
Haller gave Tang Ye a thumbs-up.
This was a true model worker.
"Wait, you went to school yesterday morning?"
Haller exchanged a glance with Amrabat, and then both of them looked at Tang Ye. "Didn't you have lunch with us yesterday noon?"
"And you played FIFA in the afternoon, along with Zakaria," Amrabat reminded him.
"Uh, well, this, this..."

Tang Ye's face flushed. The instinct of a midfielder made him look around his surroundings at that moment.
He confirmed that Ten Hag and Van der Gaag were still quite a distance away from him.
"Going to school doesn't necessarily mean studying. I just signed in and left."
"Alright..."
Haller was speechless.
Almost forgetting that Tang Ye belonged to the category of person who actively creates shortcuts for himself, handling such minor issues was still way too easy for him.

"Beep—!!!"
Van der Gaag suddenly blew his whistle, signaling to the players on the pitch that the break was over.
"Let's go!"
Haller and the others gathered at the spot where Ten Hag was standing. Once everyone had arrived, Ten Hag began to announce today's training agenda.
"We've already played a third of our matches this season. My impression of those previous games is that our attacks sometimes fail to materialize."
"Without truly creative passing, our forwards sometimes simply cannot make runs to the opponent's byline."
Ten Hag spoke as he searched the crowd for Tang Ye, but didn't spot him right away.
Considering that Tang Ye might be sitting on the ground again, Ten Hag didn't rush and continued to scan the group for Tang Ye while explaining: "I plan to try out a three-forward formation. We originally played a 4-3-1-2, and now we are shifting to a 4-2-3-1."

Josten's eyes lit up.
Utrecht didn't have many strikers; if Ten Hag was going to play with 3 forwards, he would most likely be that central striker!
No wonder he was suddenly called up to the first team by Ten Hag back in early November.
All of this had been prepared in advance!
Ayoub frowned. If Utrecht were going to play 4-2-3-1 next, his chances of starting would become even slimmer.
Thinking about it carefully, Ayoub blurted out, "The 4-2-3-1 demands exceptionally high standards for the midfield, doesn't it? We don't seem to have the kind of players who can pass..."
Halfway through, Ayoub realized something was wrong and quickly shut his mouth.

Before the start of this league season, Utrecht's midfield faced two problems:
1. Inability to control the ball.
2. Inability to deliver good passes.
These two problems were chained together because you only have the opportunity to pass the ball out once you've controlled it.
However, Tang Ye's emergence solved half of Utrecht's midfield problems.
He could deliver great passes without even needing to control the ball.
It was somewhat absurd, but that was indeed how Utrecht operated now.
Their number of dangerous passes was inversely proportional to their possession rate!

"If there are no questions, that's good."
Ten Hag nodded. Having walked around earlier, he had already checked every player in the crowd.
"Michel will go over the training details with you in a moment. I'm going to go catch someone in the dormitory first."
With that, Ten Hag sprinted directly toward the direction of the youth team's dormitory.
If Tang Ye wasn't on the training pitch, there was a 99% probability he was in his dorm!

"Wait, didn't he get a salary raise? Why is he still living in the dorms? Renting a place in Montfoort shouldn't be expensive, right?"
Haller watched Ten Hag's receding figure and fell into deep thought.
Amrabat was speechless. "He's late even while living in the dorms. Do you think he'd survive living outside?"

...

On Wednesday night, Ten Hag received a call from club owner Verhoef.
During the call, Verhoef praised Ten Hag for achieving such extravagant results in his very first season in charge.
Ten Hag chuckled. "Mr. Paul, things are actually not as difficult as you might imagine. The current Utrecht has not yet reached the peak of the season."
"Ah? Are you sure? Why do you say that?"
Ten Hag's words caught Verhoef's attention. Verhoef, who had been lounging in his chair, sat straight up.
"The 5-3-2 you see right now is only a part of Utrecht's tactics 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 for a 5-3-2 formation."
"Of course, this is just the beginning. I've already studied every single team in the Eredivisie. Aside from the 5-3-2, I have many other tactics in my notes that I can deploy."
Ten Hag spoke fluently and with great confidence, leaving Verhoef wide-eyed.
Ten Hag had just arrived at Utrecht this July, and within the first half of the season, he had established a formidable tactical system for the team, even briefly climbing to the top of the league table.
And this was only the beginning!
As a businessman, Verhoef had a very sharp sense of smell.
He could feel that Ten Hag was Utrecht's savior!
He could lead Utrecht toward glory!

Hiss—
"Erik, if our players fully implement your tactical philosophy, how far can this season's Utrecht... go?"
"That question is rather difficult to answer."
Ten Hag appeared quite calm. "But I estimate that PSV is most likely not our match. Actually, PSV only won that match the day before yesterday out of sheer luck; if played normally, they cannot beat us."
!!!
"You will get the players you want in the winter transfer window. I will give you a budget of at least 20 million euros."