Don't Walk?

Don't Walk?

"Mm, not bad!"

Watching Tang Ye constantly make passes on the training ground, Erik ten Hag was in a pretty good mood.

He had originally thought that after yesterday's extra training, Tang Ye would be unable to complete today's training tasks.

Now it seemed he had worried for nothing.

A sixteen-year-old body was made to be put through the grinder! Lazy pigs were made for training!

"Here, give it to me, give it to me!"

Tang Ye held out his hand to ask Ramselaar for the ball, then began a one-on-one duel with Amrabat down the wing.

Ever since unlocking Grealish's draft beer, Tang Ye had felt an inexplicable sense of crisis.

It showed itself whenever the comeback points in his pocket decreased—Tang Ye would become very anxious.

That anxiety drove Tang Ye to complete the daily tasks that refreshed each day.

Tang Ye bore this pressure alone in secret. By September 16, a local Dutch reporter had learned about the situation within Utrecht through an "informant" inside the team and wrote an article.

The article was quickly reposted by Dongqiudi.

The article focused on how Erik ten Hag led and trained the team, but one line caught the attention of Chinese fans.

"Because he was late for training, Erik ten Hag barred Tang from the first-team cafeteria. However, based on the reporter's observations at the training base, Tang's attitude in training was not nearly as poor as imagined."

Holy shit, how the hell could anyone put up with that?

Didn't it say his training attitude wasn't as bad as people imagined? Why wouldn't Erik ten Hag let Tang Ye eat in the first-team cafeteria?

How tragic, my Lucky Bro!

I've made more than 2,000 off Tang Ye over the past half month. How about Tang Ye stops going to the cafeteria from now on? I'll treat him to meals!

Abusing King Tang? Erik ten Hag out!

King Tang? Come on, even Messi and Ronaldo haven't been called football kings yet. How was Tang Ye already a football king?

You just don't get it. Could Messi and Ronaldo even compare to Tang Ye?

???

Chinese fans were extremely dissatisfied with Erik ten Hag's "mistreatment" of Tang Ye. Some fans even used a VPN to comment under Erik ten Hag's Twitter account.

Unfortunately, it did nothing.

The Bean Warriors were heartbroken.

Their idol had been treated unfairly, yet there was nothing they could do!...

2:45 a.m., September 20, Beijing time.

The familiar cheerful livestream room!

The players were not ready yet, but streamer Wang Chao was already prepared!

"Okay, brothers, Utrecht are finally back! Today's match is pretty late, but there are still quite a lot of people in our stream."

"If you ask me, anyone who goes to bed early on a Utrecht matchday is an idiot."

"They're all people who can't make big money."

"Come on, let's take a look at today's match squad!"

As Wang Chao spoke, he switched pages and displayed the match squad graphic posted by Utrecht F.C.'s account.

On the bench: number 99, Tang Ye! On screen, the players from both sides were already waiting in the tunnel.

Wang Chao had no interest in Utrecht's other players, so he did not introduce either team's lineup. Instead, he went straight into analyzing the direction of the match.

Unlike their previous games, Utrecht's opponent today, Willem II, was not a strong team.

Utrecht had been terrible this season, but Willem II were even worse! The direction was clear.

First, Utrecht should be able to win.

Then came the lineup.

Did they need to look at the starting lineup? No! The starting lineup was unimportant. What mattered was that Tang Ye was on the bench.

The logic was obvious, then. Utrecht would be expected to score at least three goals in this match! "Alright, the match has begun!"

The bets had already been placed, and the Bean Warriors in the livestream room were under immense pressure.

Then the broadcast cut to Tang Ye chewing gum on the bench, and the Bean Warriors suddenly felt much less pressure.

Willem II used the most classic 4-3-3 formation, one Utrecht knew all too well.

Because that was how they had played last season! In the seventeenth minute of the first half, Haller won a penalty in the box and then stepped up to score it himself.

The score became 1–0!

Utrecht, playing away from home, had taken the lead! Haller celebrated with a brilliant knee slide, successfully igniting the away stand.

"Utrecht!"

Boom! Boom!

"Utrecht!"

Boom! Boom!

Clap clap clap clap clap! Erik ten Hag applauded Haller on the pitch.

The start to this match had gone fairly smoothly.

"Settle down, settle down!"

Willem II would certainly launch a counterattack after falling behind. Erik ten Hag was very smart, immediately instructing his players to drop the defensive line deeper.

They had to weather the few minutes of Willem II's counterattack first, then return to attacking! Heimhaus passed the ball, and after Falkenburg received it in the attacking half, he immediately sent it to Van der Velden on the right.

This was Willem II's attack.

Amrabat! Amrabat was starting today!

This was his first start. Amrabat needed to seize this opportunity!

Smack! Amrabat used his body to block Van der Velden's route forward, then kicked the ball away during the gap before Van der Velden could pass.

A brilliant tackle! Erik ten Hag sucked in a breath.

Generally speaking, players promoted from the second team would not perform particularly well in their first season with the first team.

But these two this year...

Aside from the lazy pig, for whom no analysis report could be produced, Amrabat had shown enough ability to justify starting for the first team.

Especially with Ayoub in poor form this season.

Amrabat had a chance to become a starter!

Having made up his mind, Erik ten Hag returned to the bench and sat down. He briefly wrote Amrabat's English initials with his pen, then added a sentence in Dutch.

Can consider starting him

The first half ended. Thanks to Haller's brace, Utrecht held a temporary 2–0 lead.

The locker room.

"Our overall performance today has been quite good, especially Haller and Sofyan—Amrabat."

"There are no issues tactically. It won't be too late to make changes after our opponents make theirs."

"We need to make some adjustments with personnel..."

Erik ten Hag turned his gaze toward Tang Ye, who raised his head.

"Mm..."

Erik ten Hag did not want Tang Ye getting too full of himself, so he deliberately looked around at every player in the locker room.

After Tang Ye lowered his head in disappointment, Erik ten Hag said, "Tang, you're going on in the second half."

"I'm going straight on?"

Tang Ye pointed at his own nose.

"Yes. When you go out, switch with Yassin—Ayoub."

Erik ten Hag walked over to Tang Ye. "Show me what you can do, and also..."

"Don't walk?"

Tang Ye supplied what he thought Erik ten Hag was about to say.

Don't walk...

Erik ten Hag thought carefully about it, then exchanged a glance with Mitchell van der Gaag.

"It's fine. Just play according to your own ideas."