Yang Yang had personally promised Utrecht Head Coach Erik ten Hag that he could come to De Toekomst to observe Ajax's training, but he had not expected the Dutch bald manager to be so eager.
As soon as Ajax opened camp, he had already rushed to Amsterdam.
Utrecht was very close to Amsterdam, and the round trip by car was not far, making it fairly convenient.
Yang Yang welcomed Ten Hag's arrival and said that he could watch Ajax's training from the sidelines whenever he wished.
Over the following days, Ten Hag appeared at De Toekomst on time every day. He trained with the team, then had lunch with Yang Yang and the rest of the coaching staff. Only after watching the afternoon training session did he return to Utrecht.
It was said that, in order to observe Yang Yang's training, he had even entrusted Utrecht's winter-break camp to his assistants.
Although Yang Yang could not be completely open with Ten Hag, he did not hold anything back either. Whatever Ten Hag noticed and took an interest in, Yang Yang explained in full. Many times, he patiently clarified things until Ten Hag understood.
During the week before winter-break training camp, Ajax mainly focused on building up their fitness. The intensity was lower than during the preseason camp, but Pintus's training remained extremely strict. His method of grouping players according to their positions and individual circumstances allowed Ten Hag to sense what made Ajax's training different.
At first glance, it seemed to be nothing more than dividing the players into groups, but a closer look revealed that the real skill of Ajax's coaching staff lay in how scientifically and effectively they formed those groups. Behind that stood the coordinated efforts of Ajax's entire coaching team, technical team, data analysis team, medical