A Brand-New Tang Long Emerges! Manchester City's Major Overhaul Starts with Him!
On June 10, 2016, the 15th UEFA European Championship kicked off in France as scheduled.
Although France could be reached simply by crossing the narrow English Channel, Tang Long chose to watch it on television instead of going to the site to save time and reduce travel fatigue.
He spends most of his time at home in Manchester, either training in the AI Cloud Training Ground or working out with a personal trainer to lose weight, following Guardiola's instructions.
With Diletta taking her team to France to cover the event, Tang Long wasn't distracted by women, and his physical strength was fully restored.
During this period, Guardiola discussed summer transfers with Manchester City's management while closely monitoring the performance of several players who participated in the UEFA European Championship and praying that they would not get injured.
A month has passed in the blink of an eye.
On July 10, Portugal defeated the host team France 1-0 to win the UEFA European Championship for the first time in history.
Meanwhile, Mancini's England national team suffered a shock 1-2 defeat to Iceland in the round of 16, ending their run in the quarterfinals.
During this month, Tang Long also allocated all 100 hours of specialized training time and received in-depth training in other projects.
Since Tang Long will be switching from attacking midfielder to left winger next season, Tang Long is focusing his efforts on training as a striker to accommodate Guardiola's tactical changes.
"Specialized training time has been used up!"
"Please check the training results, host!"
"Improved shooting accuracy!"
"86--91!"
"Shot power increased!"
"83--88!"
"Heading skills improved!"
"79--85!"
"Improved jumping ability!"
"80--85!"
"Speed increase!"
"86--90!"
Shooting accuracy, shooting power, heading ability, and speed—these are the key areas Tang Long is focusing on improving.
In particular, his heading ability has improved significantly, from 79 to 85.
Due to the limited time available for high-efficiency specialized training, Tang Long did not spend much time on jumping.
However, thanks to the careful guidance of his personal trainer, Tang Long's weight decreased from 79KG to 77KG, a reduction of 2KG, which led to a corresponding improvement in his jumping ability.
The side effect was a slight decrease in strength.
Host: Tang Long
Age: 19
Height: 182
Weight:77KG
Positions: Left winger, attacking midfielder, shadow striker, defensive midfielder.
Shooting accuracy: 91
Shot power: 88
Header: 85
Dribbling: 90
Long pass: 85
Short pass:91
Set pieces: 81
Speed: 90
Physical fitness: 85
Strength: 84
Jump: 85
Defense: 77
Overall rating: 89
Although winning the league championship broke the 90-point threshold for data, Tang Long discovered that once any data point exceeded 90, further improvement required several times more time and effort than for the relatively weaker data points.
The diminishing marginal utility effect begins to emerge.
Shooting accuracy is also one of the most important attributes for a striker.
Tang Long spent almost half of his 100 hours of specialized training on shooting practice.
The AI Cloud Training Ground covers all kinds of training, including volley shots, one-on-one shots, and long-range shots from outside the penalty area, but it has only been upgraded to level 91.
Although there is no solution to break the deadlock at the moment, Tang Long's information is already quite impressive!
His shooting accuracy is comparable to Agüero's, and his dribbling is just as good, but he is slightly inferior in jumping ability and speed.
Of course, Tang Long also possesses passing skills that Agüero could never master in three lifetimes. This allows him to both shoot and pass in the left forward position, drawing more attention from opposing defenders and making him a key initiator of the team's attack.
"Aish... I'm back..."
On July 10, Ranocchia returned to Manchester City's training ground looking disheveled and travel-worn, carrying his bag.
He was the first Manchester City player to arrive at the UEFA European Championship finals.
He was extremely depressed and didn't even want to watch the Portugal vs. France final.
This UEFA European Championship marks the first time in his career that 28-year-old Ranocchia has participated in an international tournament as a key player.
If the 2-0 victory over Spain in the round of 16, a shutout of the defending champions, gave Ranocchia a lot of confidence, making him believe that Italy could definitely win the championship;
However, in the final quarter-final, Italy and Germany drew 1-1 after 120 minutes, and Italy lost 5-6 in the penalty shootout. This elimination in the quarter-finals was difficult for Ranocchia to accept emotionally.
"Why did you come back so soon? Aren't you going to rest for a few days?" Tang Long asked.
"I've been resting for a week now, sigh! Italy is best at penalty kicks. In the 2006 World Cup final, we beat France on penalties to win the championship. Who would have thought that we would lose to Germany!" Ranocchia said.
Inside the club's gym.
Tang Long and Ranocchia rode their bicycles side by side, chatting idly.
There were other players in the gym, such as Caballero, Agüero, Kolarov, and Joe Hart, who also didn't play in the UEFA European Championship and had been training for two days.
With many teammates not yet back, the gym wasn't crowded, and there wasn't the usual tension of starting formal summer training.
"Have you met Guardiola? What do you think of him? Is he easy to talk to?" Ranocchia took a sip of water and continued chatting with Tang Long.
Ranocchia never dreamed that one day he would be playing under this tactical mastermind of possession football.
"I'm quite looking forward to our tactics and style of play in the new season. In my opinion, our passing and possession game was already very strong last season thanks to Pellegrini's coaching. With Guardiola coming, where else can we improve? I can't think of anything. Tang, can you think of anything?"
Tang Long smiled and said, "Andre, you need to be careful. This season you might have to switch from center-back to midfield. It's a tough task. If you don't play well, you'll be bombarded with criticism from the fans!"
Ranocchia, with a mouthful of water in his mouth, couldn't help but spray it all over Tang Long with a "pfft".
"Midfielder? You must be kidding me, Tang! I've been playing center-back since I started my career, for over ten years now. I'm 28 years old, and I've never played midfielder before!"
He thought Tang Long was lying to him, so he grinned and grabbed Tang Long's neck with his hand, shaking him back and forth.
"Who said you've never played? When you were 13, you played midfield in Perugia, and you even played center forward before you were 10."
A deep voice sounded from behind Ranocchia, startling him. As soon as he turned around, he was shocked.
Guardiola, unnoticed, stood behind the two men, listening to their conversation with a beaming smile.
"Ah, Mr. Guardiola, hello! Hahahaha, I never imagined our first meeting would be in the gym." Ranocchia generously gave Guardiola a hug.
The other people in the gym were also startled and stopped their workouts, standing up as well.
Everyone was a little confused; when did he come in?
Summer training hasn't fully started yet, and everyone in the gym wasn't very focused, chatting and exercising at the same time. How come no one noticed the head coach was there?
Bony was very nervous, lowered his head, and hid behind the crowd.
He was just chatting with Kolarov, saying that Guardiola's passing game can be quite boring at times, just passing the ball around without ever launching a high ball. Is that really football?
Bony said this because he is a traditional English striker who is not good at playing on the ground. He was afraid of Guardiola's arrival and worried that he would not fit into his tactics.
"That bald Spain, he walks so quietly, he probably didn't hear what I said earlier," Bony prayed silently, afraid of leaving a bad impression on the head coach.
As the saying goes, what you fear will come to pass; what is meant to be a blessing will not be a curse, and what is meant to be a curse cannot be avoided.
A new emperor brings a new court.
After Guardiola arrived at Manchester City, he immediately began planning a major overhaul...