Is this the mysterious sixth sense – premonition?

Mancini stood where he was, watching Chivu run over to Tang Long, exchange a few words with him, and then walk back.

"Boss, Tang says his sudden forward run to snatch the back post was a tactic you set up, and his goal was thanks to your expert guidance," Chivu said.

Chivu added a final note, "He said he already mentioned all of this at the post-match press conference."

Mancini waved his hand with a smile.

"This kid is being slippery, just trying to butter me up. I never discussed that tactic with him. Go back and ask him again."

Chivu had no choice but to find Tang Long again, and after a brief conversation, he returned.

"Did you get a clear answer?"

"I did. He said he had a premonition."

"A premonition? What kind of premonition?"

"He had a feeling the ball would be delivered to the near post. He trusted that Davis wouldn't reach it, but that Icardi definitely would, and that Icardi would flick it on to the back post, allowing him to swoop in and clean up."

Mancini and Chivu looked at each other in disbelief.

The two of them had already watched the replay of that goal from multiple broadcast angles, using 0.1x slow motion, frame by frame, at least twenty times.

They clearly remembered that the moment Brozovic's foot made contact with the ball during the set-piece, Tang Long had already prepared his starting stance.

When the ball had barely left the kicker's foot by a meter, while everyone else was still judging where it would land, Tang Long was already sprinting toward the back post!

Chivu's eyes suddenly lit up.

"Premonition—that's a term I'm very familiar with! My former teammate Eto'o used to say the same thing, and he played the same way. It's like having a pre-judgment of the ball's trajectory, as if guided by some mysterious sixth sense!

And Milito, yes," Chivu's eyes grew brighter, "I often saw that when our midfielders took long shots, everyone else would stand still and watch, but Milito would always charge toward the goalkeeper the moment the ball was struck. Every season, he would score four or five goals just by cleaning up rebounds from the keeper!

He told me he had a premonition of when the ball would bounce back to him!"

Hearing Chivu compare Tang Long to world-class strikers like Eto'o and Milito, a surge of warmth welled up in Mancini's heart.

During his own playing days, Mancini was a top-tier striker in Italy, second only to Baggio.

He had experienced that inexplicable sixth sense of premonition himself, but he had always felt it was something mystical and elusive.

Could it be that Tang Long, only 18 years old, had also touched upon this sense of premonition on the football pitch?

"A premonition, a great premonition! This young man, Tang, has a limitless future."

The weight of Tang Long's importance in Mancini's mind suddenly grew much heavier.

After finishing a pleasant training session, he had just returned to his dormitory.

The hidden reward was triggered once again!

"Congratulations to the host for unlocking the milestone achievement: Serie A debut goal!"

"Unlock reward: Proficiency increased by 20 points for the body part used in the debut goal!"

"Heading accuracy improved!"

"55--75!"

This massive leap gave Tang Long the heading ability required to survive in Serie A.

Although a 55-rated header had allowed Tang Long to score a match-winner in a Serie A game, Tang Long knew deep down that it was largely due to his early anticipation and positioning, which allowed him to head into a near-empty net while completely unmarked.

At that position, let alone Bologna's goalkeeper Lelia, even if Buffon or Cech had been standing in the goal, it would have been of no use.

Precisely because of this, in the set-piece tactics deployed by the set-piece coach Bissack, Tang Long was tasked with guarding the edge of the penalty area to pick up second balls, rather than rushing in to compete for the first ball.

Even though the improvement in his heading gave Tang Long a massive boost in confidence, he still felt a tiny bit of regret!

He really wished this Serie A debut goal had been scored with his feet; that would have been perfect!

Tang Long's current stats:

Host: Tang Long

Age: 18

Height: 182

Weight: 75KG

Positions: Attacking Midfielder, Shadow Striker, Defensive Midfielder.

Shooting Accuracy: 62

Shot Power: 64

Heading: 75

Dribbling: 59

Long Passing: 67

Short Passing: 78

Set Piece: 42

Speed: 65

Stamina: 80

Strength: 78

Jumping: 77

Defense: 35

Overall Rating: 70

Pitch Rating: Average Serie B level

The change in these values reflected the hard work put in since the winter break.

By shoring up physical shortcomings like stamina, strength, and jumping, Tang Long's overall rating had seen a massive boost!

He had risen from a Serie C level to that of a Serie B starter!

Possessing the level of a Serie B starter at just 18 years old definitely placed him among the elite of his age group.

Even the standout player promoted from the youth team before Tang Long, Italy national youth team regular Bonazzoli, was roughly at this same level.

Of course, this pitch rating was based on the overall average.

Serie A relegation-threatened teams mired in the mud this season, such as Genoa, Cagliari, and Verona, had some starters and most rotation players who were actually only at a Serie B level, which is why they often rode the league elevator.

However, Tang Long possessed an additional asset that other players could hardly hope to match!

The AI prediction in his brain allowed him to read the game and anticipate situations with absolute dominance.

And this kind of prediction simply could not be reflected in quantitative data!

Yet Tang Long was very clear in his heart that relying solely on superior anticipation was not enough to make him a big star.

Thinking of a play is one thing, but whether one can actually execute it is quite another.

That night, in the dormitory at the training base.

Tang Long began to contemplate his position within Inter Milan.

He had started in the match against Bologna.

His performance was indeed good, contributing one goal and one assist.

But could this really allow him to firmly secure a starting spot?

One had to know that Tang Long's start was entirely due to Guarin being excluded from the starting lineup because his weight exceeded the limit.

But everyone knew that Guarin's absence was only temporary!

A healthy Guarin in peak competitive form still held an irreplaceable position in the Inter Milan squad.

For instance, in the match against Bologna, why did Inter Milan concede a goal right at the start?

It was because Inter Milan's midfield lacked a "black-and-hard" powerhouse like Guarin to provide support, allowing the opponent's center-forward to drop back into the midfield and bully them with his physicality at will.

Just as assistant coach Herrera said during the post-match review:

"Our opening strategy was a bit off. We should have had Ranocchia mark Borrelli earlier. As long as we cut off that high point, the team wouldn't have fallen into the predicament of conceding first. However, this was also due to Guarin's absence, which led to a lack of toughness in our midfield."

Conceding too early put the team in an unfavorable position from the start.

Coming back with two goals to reverse the match sounded stirring, and the fans certainly enjoyed it—but for head coach Mancini, he clearly did not like this kind of situation.

For the Inter Milan players on the pitch, this kind of match was actually extremely grueling; they had to fight until the very last moment to determine the outcome.

And in the process of this struggle, it was a huge torture and challenge for both body and mind, as they carried thousands of pounds of pressure.

Against a relegation-threatened team like Bologna, wrapping up a 2-0 lead early in the first half was the winning habit of a giant club.

From this perspective, at the current stage, Tang Long could not perfectly replace Guarin.

Self-awareness is a virtue; Tang Long would not be blindly confident, nor would he let a single good performance go to his head.

How could he truly gain a firm foothold?

He pondered for a long time before dialing the number of his mentor, Chivu:

"Mr. Chivu, sorry to disturb you outside of working hours. I just wanted to ask, do you have any match highlights of Icardi? The longer the better, preferably something like a dozen hours or so!"