Let's Begin

Any grading system inevitably carries subjectivity.

The same person might be seen for their strengths by some and their weaknesses by others, so scores naturally won't be identical.

For consistently standout players like Henk Dimer, the coaching staff's opinions were fairly unified, all giving decent scores. But when it came to Yang Yang, clear disagreements emerged.

Yang Yang was the type of player with severe imbalances—his strong areas were exceptional, his weak ones abysmal. This led some coaches to rate him low, even very low, while others gave him high marks, sparking controversy.

The Almere Youth Team had just adopted Ajax's semester assessment system and lacked a mature evaluation and scoring mechanism. Head Coach John Rep, anticipating this, had specially invited Van Gaal to serve as a technical advisor.

Simply put, Van Gaal's scores were meant to be the benchmark answers for all coaches.

As the debate over Yang Yang's scores raged, John Rep unveiled Van Gaal's assessment of him.

"One-on-one offense and defense, mental fortitude, running and support, ten-meter sprint shuttle run, thirty-meter sprint shuttle run, explosive power and endurance..." Dick Van Pool read off the scoring sheet.

"Mr. Van Gaal gave scores of nine or above in these eight sub-items, with mental fortitude, off-the-ball movement, and one-on-one offense even earning full marks of ten."

As Van Pool spoke, everyone's attention fell on the scoring sheet spread across the desk.

Beyond those eight items, sub-items like vision and purpose in organizational coordination, explosive power, dribbling, and agility all scored above eight, which was also quite high.

At the same time, in passing, ball control, shooting, heading, crossing, and integration with other players, Yang Yang's sub-item scores were disappointing, mostly hovering near the passing line, with ball control earning a failing five.

A world-renowned coach steeped in youth development for years, Van Gaal's scoring sheet was undeniably fair and beyond reproach.

John Rep, standing by, felt both admiration and helplessness.

He knew Van Gaal appreciated Yang Yang and wanted to help him out—at least secure a high score to make a stronger case for promoting him to the First Team next season. But Van Gaal proved an impartial judge, showing no favoritism, giving what was due, with stark gaps between strengths and weaknesses.

In European youth development, coaching staffs often use the Wooden Barrel Theory to assess a player's overall quality, focusing on the shortest plank—the weakest link.

To reach the level of European professional leagues, no skill could be too poor. Even as a defender, defensive technique had to be solid, but offensive skills couldn't lag either. Every ability needed at least a score of seventy. For top-tier clubs, the bar was even higher.

Even many defenders criticized by fans for poor technique could, given space, pull off all sorts of slick moves with practiced ease, leaving onlookers dazzled.

Thus, players like Yang Yang, with such extreme gaps, often weren't well-liked.

However, in the remarks column at the bottom of the scoring sheet, Van Gaal suggested that beyond the scores, the player's progress over the past period and future growth potential should also be considered.

This suggestion applied to everyone, but it was undoubtedly most favorable to Yang Yang.

Everyone turned to John Rep, waiting for the head coach's decision.

"Since Louis has made a recommendation, we should of course respect his professional opinion. My thought is to use the past two months' performance and progress as a basis, add a few sub-items, and have everyone re-score."

The group nodded in agreement, thinking it a good move, and retrieved their scoring sheets to reassess.

Though it was already June, the temperature in the Netherlands remained quite cool, with midday highs barely reaching twenty degrees.

After training at the Skate Park for a while, Yang Yang had lunch at his uncle Shen Ming's Chinese restaurant and returned home for an afternoon nap.

Upon entering the Super Training Ground, Old Bing's first task was to summarize and analyze the morning's assessment, pointing out Yang Yang's mistakes through video replay.

Some errors stemmed from his shaky fundamentals, others from poor passes by teammates, and a few from on-the-spot misjudgments—all things he needed to take seriously.

"Starting today, you can cut back on juggling drills, but left-foot training still needs to be stepped up."

Old Bing's words were an affirmation of Yang Yang's hard work over the past period.

Finally reducing the monotonous juggling practice was a huge relief—he was nearly sick of it.

"Based on the last few games, you've basically mastered one-on-one breakthroughs, especially the Pendulum Dribble, which you're using more smoothly. For the next phase, I suggest you focus on two areas."

"Go on."

"Keep honing the Pendulum Dribble while adding training on other moves from [Ronaldo's Rush], and step up one-versus-many breakthrough drills."

Hearing this, Yang Yang nodded repeatedly.

In recent games, he'd often faced multiple defenders but usually passed the ball rather than going solo, since he lacked confidence in one-versus-many situations—it was the safer choice.

He also knew that as his position moved forward to right winger, he'd encounter more such scenarios and indeed needed to strengthen this area.

"Let me show you a few clips first."

As Old Bing spoke, the sideline bleachers switched to screen mode, playing familiar footage.

It was scenes from Yang Yang's inter-school matches representing Baken Academy, all failed one-versus-two breakthroughs.

"If you look closely, you'll notice that in all these failed attempts, you made the same mistake: focusing too much on the first defender while ignoring the second player covering from behind or beside you."

As Old Bing spoke, the video played in slow motion, replaying the process.

"After using the Pendulum Dribble to break through, you tend to take a big touch to accelerate, trying to shake off the defender quickly. But that often makes the ball slip out of control, beyond your reach. Any slightly experienced defender will pounce immediately, or at least cut between you and the ball."

Yang Yang understood. "The key is to maintain control of the ball after beating the first opponent."

"Exactly. That's what you need to train."

Yang Yang was well aware of his current issue. The Pendulum Dribble was sharp, but it could be overkill—especially after a high-speed burst, the ball easily got away from him. He had to learn to keep it under control even at speed, which would also help him master the [Ronaldo's Rush] Star Skill.

The logic was simple: one of Ronaldo's Rush's strengths was ball control at high speed.

Soon, Old Bing had set up the training ground.

This was a circular area marked out with white lines, roughly twenty meters in diameter, with many cone-shaped red markers randomly scattered inside, the distance between each marker also inconsistent.

Old Bing's training requirement was for Yang Yang to dribble into this area, accelerate past or shake off these red markers, without letting either himself or the ball touch any of them—otherwise, it counted as a failure.

This was just familiarization and warm-up. As Yang Yang's training deepened, the distance between the red markers would keep shrinking, while demands on his speed would also increase. There would be very strict requirements on the number of touches per marker he got past, and in the future, it would even simulate real opponents for him to practice against, but that was all later talk.

"This is way harder than juggling," Yang Yang said with a wry smile as he looked at the training ground before him.

But he was even more excited.

Compared to the monotony of juggling, this kind of training was not only more interesting but also highly practical for matches, something he'd often encounter in games, and it would significantly boost his match performance.

This was what Van Gaal had meant earlier—juggling was the foundation, the basics, but there was no need to juggle for the sake of juggling; it was more about how to play the game better.

With a smack, Yang Yang clapped his hands together, rubbing them eagerly. "Alright, let's start."

The two-hour lunch break passed quickly.

Yang Yang emerged from the Super Training Ground full of energy, washed his face, and headed out. He jogged all the way to the Skate Park while juggling the ball, then practiced some basic drills against the wall, especially trapping the ball—his weakest area.

Time slipped by in the monotonous training. Around four o'clock, Yang Yang juggled the ball northward to the Almere training ground.

By then, everyone from the youth team was already crouched at the locker room entrance, waiting for the coaching staff to post the morning's assessment results.

This time, they would not only release the morning's test scores but also combine them with daily training and match records, as well as academic performance, to give a final comprehensive rating.

In comparison, the club didn't place much emphasis on academic scores. Top students like Yang Yang got no special treatment; as long as they met the FA's requirements and passed the academic assessment, they could basically earn points.

So Yang Yang wasn't very confident about his overall score.

He knew his weaknesses well—basic skills relied on daily accumulation, and a little over a month wasn't enough for a complete transformation. So he could only rely on match performance and some strong points to grab points, but even so, he probably didn't have much of an advantage on average.

After all, guys like Henk Dimer had put in over a decade of hard training, building an incredibly solid foundation.

And the Almere youth team captain wore an expression of easy confidence, as if he already considered first place his own.

Ugh, I really wish the World Cup final I saw last night was fake!

It was exciting, full of twists and turns, but Croatia was just too unlucky—they gave it their all, and even in defeat, they were glorious!

Modric truly deserved it!