Football: I am only 16 years old, and you want me to retire and make a comeback?

Chapter 475 Landing in Abu Dhabi, the Last Training Match Before the Asian Cup
In the last two days, 80% of the local football news in England has been related to the Asian Cup.

Manchester United sit atop the Premier League table with 16 wins and 3 draws in 19 rounds, but now their key midfielder has left.

Don't Manchester City and Liverpool have any ideas?
This is impossible.

If Manchester City and Liverpool were men, they would be Pochettino by now.

In addition, the winter transfer window for the top five European football leagues will also be held alongside the Asian Cup.

Fans are hoping Manchester United will make some moves in the winter transfer window.

Spending over 1 million to acquire Dembele during the winter transfer window is unrealistic.

But adding a center-back or full-back shouldn't be a problem, right?

Unfortunately, all the recent transfer rumors surrounding Manchester United have been circulating, with no reputable newspapers reporting on them.

Oh, there are some too.

The Guardian previously analyzed how much Manchester United could spend in the winter transfer window this season.

The answer is... not much money!
Tang Ye's €1.8 million installment payment has only just ended!
RAC: Ten Hag hopes Manchester United can complete the transfer of Amrabat in the winter transfer window. It is worth mentioning that the Moroccan midfielder is also one of Ten Hag's "subordinates".

Tang Ye's plane was still in the air; it was already evening in Manchester.

At the invitation of Ten Hag, Van der Gaghe is currently in the living room of the Manchester United manager's home.

"Eric, I actually feel that if we play a little better, drawing with Tottenham shouldn't be too difficult."

"We have more points now, so a draw doesn't really matter."

"Van der Gach said."

However, he did not give a reason why Manchester United would be able to draw with Tottenham.

"Um"

Ten Hag nodded, agreeing with Van der Gaghe's point: "And what about Arsenal? How will Arsenal be dealt with?"

"Arsenal..."

Van der Gach shrugged: "Arsenal isn't in the league anymore, it's in the FA Cup, we could just let them go."

It feels a bit humiliating, but upon closer reflection, it makes a lot of sense.

"What about Brighton? They're pretty good too."

For some reason, Ten Hach kept asking Van der Gach questions today, and his legs were shaking as he spoke.

"Well... that's a bit hard to say, but I feel like we won't lose... we shouldn't... right?"

"..."

Ten Hach shook his head and pointed to the air conditioner remote next to Van der Gach: "Check what temperature the air conditioner is set to."

"28 degrees Celsius, what's wrong?"

"Um……"

Ten Hach pulled his blanket tighter around himself: "Michelle, aren't you feeling a little cold? The room is warm, but I just feel so cold."

"Hmm, Eric, now that you mention it..."

Van der Gach picked up the blanket from the sofa and draped it over himself.

"So cold, so cold, hiss, hiss—"

"Ugh, I'm so cold too, phew..."

Ten Hach now only envies the little match girl.

The little girl has matches to keep warm when she's cold, and she can even see her father and grandmother.

But what about Ten Hag?

Even if he lit the match, he still couldn't see his father.

Because his father is currently in the UAE.

……

"Mr. Tang, Abu Dhabi welcomes you."

Tang Ye nodded to his staff and walked a few steps through the airport before spotting the Chinese fans who had come to greet him.

A huge banner was hung down from the second-floor restaurant, written in Chinese, English, and Arabic.

[GGBond King has arrived, get out of the way!]

"..."

Tang Ye's lips twitched.

"I've been waiting for you for 3 days, Tang Qiuwang"

"come on!"

"Manchester United is awesome!"

Xinhua News Agency, December 29th (Reporter Liang Xiaosheng): Tang Ye appeared at Abu Dhabi Airport and signed autographs for Chinese fans. Tang Ye is expected to play in the friendly match against Abu Dhabi Unión.

While Manchester United fans wept silently, Chinese fans stood up.

[Finally, finally it's coming... Victory?]

[The god-like GGBond king has arrived! Are you guys really that busy?]

[Something strange happened at the scene. It was an idea from a college student in the fan club, and I was the one who hung the banner (.jpg)]

[Strange sights spotted! Did you get my GGBond autographed photo?]

Dongqiudi Match Preview: Final Stage of Asian Cup Preparations! On January 2nd, Beijing time, the Chinese national football team will play a closed-door friendly against Abu Dhabi Unison. Tang Ye is expected to play.

……

The Professional Footballers' Association (PFA): Premier League Player of the Month nominees for December:
1. Son Heung-min, Tottenham Hotspur.

2. Salah, Liverpool.

3. Harry Kane, Tottenham Hotspur.

4. Tang Ye, Manchester United.

5. Martial, Manchester United.

Manchester United had a good December, with two players making the Players of the Month list again.

Tang Ye should be able to win the award directly, barring any unforeseen circumstances.

The reason is simple: although he missed one game, Tang Ye still ranked first in both goals and assists in December.

With two firsts, what's the suspense left?

Of course, this award is really insignificant for Tang Ye, who is about to participate in the national team competition.

The Asian Cup is the most important thing!

"Our first match is against Kyrgyzstan on January 7th. Kyrgyzstan isn't considered strong, so we absolutely must win that first game."

Lippi stood in the very center, but the players kept glancing towards the corner.

Because the vast majority of players on the Chinese national football team do not understand Italian, they need the help of translators.

"Kyrgyzstan is indeed not strong, and our second opponent (the Philippines) is not strong either."

Lippi seemed very confident, but he immediately changed the subject.

"However... your performance in training these past few days has been unsatisfactory. If this is all you've shown, we might not even be able to win the first two games, let alone wait until the third."

"Well, I might have exaggerated a bit, but I think I've pretty much expressed my meaning."

It seems that the training was indeed not effective; Tang Ye could tell that Lippi's complexion was not very good.

Three fingers: "We need to ensure a good performance in every game. Of course, I won't ask you to win all three games, because that's indeed difficult, I admit that. We absolutely must win the first two games, at least the first two."

China's group in this Asian Cup is not bad.

If China beats Kyrgyzstan, the Philippines, and South Korea, they will likely qualify even if they lose to South Korea.

"Just like the World Cup, it's three matches, so we can't afford to make any mistakes. Guys, do you understand what I mean?"

Mr. Marcello repeatedly emphasized the number "3".

Tang Ye discovered something strange.

That is, Lippi was even more nervous at this time than he was during the World Cup.

The World Cup is clearly more important than the Asian Cup!
The two coaches of the national football team know the reasons behind this best.

The Chinese team has no specific goals for the World Cup; even if they fail to reach the knockout stage, Lippi will not face any criticism.

But the Asian Cup is different.

Judging from the comments section of Dongqiudi, fans expect the Chinese team to at least reach the quarterfinals of the Asian Cup, or even the semifinals, to satisfy their expectations.

What if we don't achieve the most basic goal?
Well, there's no need to think about what to do. With his decades of coaching experience, Marcello can pretty much guess what Chinese fans will say.

[With a team like GGBond, they couldn't even make it to the Asian Cup quarterfinals. Are the Italians just good at surrendering?]

He's under a lot of pressure.

Zhang Yuning leaned closer to Tang Ye, pointing in the direction Lippi was: "He even got the abbreviation for Kyrgyzstan wrong..."

"Well?"

Tang Ye's eyes lit up.

He would never have noticed if Zhang Yuning hadn't pointed it out, because he had no idea what the three-letter abbreviation for Kyrgyzstan was.

"Actually, I'm under a lot of pressure too."

Tang Ye suddenly spoke, then pinched his calf with his hand.

To be honest, Tang Ye started looking forward to the Asian Cup when he heard about it in October. His physical condition was too poor during the World Cup, and he ultimately couldn't lead his national team teammates to victory against Brazil.

GGBond was even cursed at by Ronaldo in his dream because of this.

but!

Now the situation is different.

Offseason training in Los Angeles and club training for the new season have allowed GGBond to develop significant muscle mass.

With a physical strength rating of 85, he's already quite strong even in the Premier League.

So……

What would it be like if we look at it from the perspective of Asia?

……

"Hurry up, hurry up!"

Madaloni urged the players, who had formed a circle, to increase the frequency of their passing.

Tang Ye and Zhang Yuning, who are responsible for grabbing the ball in the middle, also need to speed up!
Snapped!
clap clap clap!
The pass is very fast, so it's not an easy thing to intercept it.

Fortunately, Tang Ye and Zhang Yuning cooperated quite well.

"Eh!"

Tang Ye suddenly sat down and successfully blocked Zhang Linpeng's pass, leaving the latter still a bit dazed.

Because he didn't expect Tang Ye to guess his passing intention.

"It's awesome!"

Zhang Yuning pulled Tang Ye up from the ground, and Zhang Linpeng came up and switched places with Tang Ye.

Zhang Yuning and Zhang Linpeng are currently vying for the ball.

The others are responsible for passing the ball!
"Two touches at most, and the ball must be passed within those two touches!"

Madaloni reminded the players again.

"It's open, it's open!"

Wu Lei quickly passed the ball to Tang Ye.

Zhang Linpeng rushed over!
!

Tang Ye pulled the ball down towards himself with his right foot, and then passed it to Feng Xiaoting next to him.

Snapped!
clap clap!

The passing frequency is getting faster and faster.

"Tang Ye!"

Wang Shenchao lobbed the ball to Tang Ye.

This is a ball made of knives!

Tang Ye bit down on his chewing gum, his expression serious.

"Brother Lei!"

When Tang Ye called out Wu Lei's name, he suddenly kicked the ball to the ground, and the bounced ball went straight through Zhang Yuning's legs.

"Wow!!"

"Yu Ning! What happened, Yu Ning!"

"Zhang, concentrate!"

Madaloni pointed to his temple and shouted at Zhang Yuning.

"Ha ha"

Tang Ye walked up and clapped hands with Zhang Yuning.

……

The coaching staff had the players practice rondo for a long time today.

We've been practicing laps for 30 minutes since the warm-up ended, but it doesn't seem to be over yet.

Lippi, who had been silent until now, finally spoke up.

"One kick, then another to pass the ball."

The passing rhythm quickened again, switching from two-touch passing to one-touch passing.

"I rely on!"

Wang Shenchao made a mistake immediately after the ball was passed to him with his first touch.

"It's okay, Brother Chao, it's okay."

Tang Ye patted Wang Shenchao's shoulder: "Observe first before catching the ball, just observe first."

"..."

"I feel the training camp time was still not enough."

Madaloni let out a long breath.

Both coaches of the Chinese national football team looked preoccupied.

"So I should have asked them to start training a week earlier? That wouldn't have worked; they need a break."

Lippi is not the kind of coach who would ask players to do extra training; otherwise, he would have agreed when the Football Association proposed a training camp in early December.

Marcello's easygoing personality led to a less than ideal outcome.

For the Chinese team, which aims to reach the semi-finals of the Asian Cup, 20 days of training time seems a bit insufficient.

Lippi offered his own explanation: "An extra week doesn't really make a difference in terms of what we want. Our advancement to the semi-finals was based on our form."

Lippi adjusted his glasses: "If we can find the form we had in the World Cup group stage, then I think reaching the semi-finals won't be a problem for us."

"and……"

Lippi glanced at Tang Ye on the field, who was instructing his teammates on quick passing, his gaze following Tang Ye's movements: "I've watched Manchester United's match videos this season, and Tom has changed a bit."

"Well……"

After standing and listening for a few minutes, Madaloni suddenly stopped talking.

The Chinese team's assistant coach is now filled with images of Tang Ye's long-range shots in the Premier League.

"Marcello, I've suddenly realized something."

"what happened?"

Madaloni rummaged in his shirt pocket for a while and finally pulled out his phone.

A file was found with the title "[2018-19, Tom, Long Shot]".

Open the file; it contains more than 20 videos collected by Madaloni.

Open any one and take a look.

“Marcello, you said…”

"Are there any goalkeepers in Asia who can save shots like that?"

"Forehead……"

Lippi adjusted his glasses again, but didn't say anything.

……

January 2nd was the day of the friendly match between the Chinese national football team and Abu Dhabi.

According to the official schedule released by the Chinese national football team, this should be the last warm-up match before the game against Kyrgyzstan.

Fans are eagerly anticipating how well the Chinese team has gelled since Tang Ye's return, and whether they can replicate the phenomenal performance they displayed during the World Cup.

Unfortunately, today's training match was closed to the public, so fans couldn't see the details.

With half an hour to go before the match, the Chinese team players warmed up while listening to Madaloni speak.

"Don't worry too much about the score in today's game. Just keep passing the ball around and gradually increase the pace. Remember, don't rush!"

Madaloni shouted.

The Chinese team players haven't performed very well in the previous training matches, so let's see if there's any improvement in today's game.

Tang Ye listened attentively to Madaloni, but his eyes were darting around.

"Um, sir, I have a question, but I'm not sure whether I should say it or not."

Tang Ye carefully raised his hand.

"Hmm? Tom, just say it, it's okay."

Madaloni grinned.

In principle, players should not be able to influence tactical decisions before a match.

But if it's Tom, that's acceptable.

"Okay, that's it..."

Suddenly, Tang Ye raised his right arm and pointed his right index finger at the open space outside the training field: "There are two people hiding in that tree. They both have cameras. Should we make them leave?"

"Ok?"

Madaloni turned around abruptly.

……

(End of this chapter)