super storm

Chapter 190 Playing the Ball as a Central Defender

In the next few days, Yang Yang was still on the line at three o'clock.

Every morning when I get up early, I invite Su Ye to go for a run in the Summer Palace, and sometimes Su Wenhong will go with me.

Don't look at Yang Yang running with the ball bouncing, but if he really has to fight for speed, he won't lose to Su Ye and his daughter at all.

But Su Ye also has her strengths, that is, she knows everything about the Summer Palace like the back of the hand, from the major attractions of the Summer Palace to historical allusions, she is familiar with it, and introduces them to Yang Yang one by one, which not only benefits Yang Yang, but also admires him very much.

He really didn't know before, that every part of the Summer Palace has a story, and every name has an allusion and source.

Apart from admiration, he was somewhat ashamed, after all, his previous play was more like swallowing jujubes and peonies.

Especially at the end of June, the lotus is in full bloom, and Kunming Lake is so beautiful that Yang Yang never wants to leave.

After morning training, he usually trains alone in Su Wenhong's school. In addition to shopping at night, he usually stays at home and enters the super training ground for special training to improve [Bergkamp's stop].

He is now smug and wants to perform in the Asian Cup. At the very least, he doesn't want to disappoint the domestic fans who like him.

While Yang Yang was training hard in retreat, several short video clips about him playing football in middle school caused more and more repercussions on the domestic Internet, and even many football professionals expressed their opinions one after another.

Since Yang Yang performed well in the Champions League and the Toulon Cup and was determined to represent the national team in the local Asian Cup, how to use him has become a problem faced by Alihan and other national team coaches.

In the past, the national team has been playing four-four-two, and the position of full-back cannot fully exert the threat of Yang Yang, but if Yang Yang is pushed to the front line like the National Youth Team, this is of course okay. After all, the current weakness of the national football front line is well known.

Although Hao Dong is old and strong, his condition has been unstable at the end of his age. Li Jinyu and Li Yi are playing in their prime, but their scoring efficiency has not been satisfactory, so Alihan recruited 20-year-old Zhang Shuo.

Although Li Jinyu doesn't score many goals, he is good at connecting and interspersing. He has always been the main force of the national team. The other striker partners are Hao Dong and Li Yi. If Yang Yang goes to the striker, who will win is also a problem.

Moreover, he is only 17 years old, even if calculated according to the age in China, he is only [-] years old, far from the time when he can be alone.

But after watching the short videos of Yang Yang playing football, fans, media reporters, and professionals all marveled at Yang Yang's thinking and vision of passing the ball. They found that Yang Yang's passing balls are often quite threatening and thoughtful.

"The passing footwork is still lacking, and the stability is slightly insufficient, but the creativity and passing vision are rare among domestic players."

This is a comment made by a famous football veteran when he was interviewed by a media reporter on the Internet.

Soon, there will be frying pans on the Internet.

Many people have appealed that if Yang Yang cannot be the striker, then let him play the core of the midfield.

"In fact, judging from his performance in the Toulon Cup, Yang Yang is indeed very good, and his passing is quite threatening. Four goals and four assists are enough to prove his strength."

A football professional commented, "Of course, it depends on how Alihan positions him. Is he a wing assaulter? A striker? Or a midfield playmaker? It depends on the positioning of the coaching staff."

But no matter what, Yang Yang's position has become a hot topic among netizens before he reported to the national team.

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At the end of June, Yang Yang finally received a call from Team Leader Zhu of the national team.

On the [-]th, he showed up at the Capital Airport on time, and flew from Beijing to the mountain city of Chongqing together with national team coach Ali Han and many international players including Shao Jiayi, officially starting the pre-Asian Cup training camp.

Due to the flight, the national team coaching staff, staff and many international players basically took the same flight. Ali Han took the time to communicate with Yang Yang on the plane, mainly talking about his thoughts on the current national team.

He told Yang Yang frankly that he hoped to adopt a four-three-three formation, but the current international players have not fully understood his tactical intentions. Yang Yang has been immersed in four-three-three in the Netherlands for a long time and is very familiar with this set of tactics. He hopes that Yang Yang can play a role.

Judging from what Alihan revealed, he wants to adopt a four-three-three formation, mainly to play Yan Song and Yang Yang on the two wings, hoping to activate the team's offensive power.

But the premise is that the team's defense must be stable.

He also sees this very clearly. The national football team's personal ability and overall technical and tactical level are not top-notch in Asia. There is still a gap with Japan, South Korea, and even Iran and Saudi Arabia. They can only rely on overall and defense.

According to the Dutch coach, even in the face of opponents in the group stage such as Bahrain, Indonesia and Qatar, he did not dare to be careless in the slightest, for fear that he would capsize in the gutter if he was not careful.

In this regard, Yang Yang also gave understanding.

To put it bluntly, what Alihan needs now is grades, and he can only talk about other things if he keeps his position.

In addition to Ali Han, Yang Yang also had a chat with Shao Jiayi, who plays football in Munich, Germany. The latter spoke highly of Yang Yang, saying that the Champions League final had aroused great repercussions in Germany, and Yang Yang's outstanding performance brought glory to the Chinese.

Regarding the praise from his seniors, Yang Yang modestly stated that he was just doing his best.

Shao Jiayi expressed the hope that he would have the opportunity to travel more in the future, after all, there are not many Chinese players studying abroad.

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The flight arrived in Chongqing at [-]:[-] pm.

When Alihan led the international players out of the airport, many media reporters and fans gathered at the scene, including many female fans. As soon as they saw the national team come out, they immediately flocked to it.

What is surprising is that they are not chasing the national team coach Ali Han, nor are they chasing many famous international players in the team, but they are targeting the national team recruiter Yang Yang, and directly coldly met other members of the national team.

Yang Yang was also flattered by the praise from media reporters and fans, but their favoritism made him a little embarrassed, after all, he was just a rookie.

As for Yang Yang's high popularity, the coaching staff is happy to see the results, while the international players have different reactions.

Finally got out of the airport, got on the bus, went directly to the hotel, and met the international players who had already checked into the hotel earlier.

The room has already been allocated properly, and Yang Yang and Zheng Zhi, the international footballer from Shenzhen, were assigned to the same room.

This time, the national team will stay in Chongqing for five days, play a warm-up match against Lebanon on the third day, fly to Beijing on July [-]th, go to the Xianghe base for closed training, fly to Hohhot on the ninth day, play another game against the United Arab Emirates, and then return to Beijing.

If there is no accident, Yang Yang's roommate will be Zheng Zhi during the entire training process and the Asian Cup.

According to Zheng Zhi, Yang Yang's roommate should be Zhou Haibin, but after Zhang Shuo joined the team, the two used to be roommates, so it continued logically, so that Yang Yang's roommate became Zheng Zhi.

The arrangement of the coaching staff is not random, but Alihan personally requested.

Zheng Zhi played as a midfielder in the club, and he was also a core midfielder, but in the national team, Alihan wanted him to play as a central defender.

"The old man told me a lot about Dutch football, including the responsibilities of the central defender. I was confused. Tell me, how does the central defender of your team play football?"

Zheng Zhi watched Yang Yang pack up his things, and the two of them sat together. Before they could say a few words, they directly talked about football.

The term center back is still unfamiliar in China, no wonder Zheng Zhi is not clear about it, but in the Netherlands, it is not surprising at all.

Heitinga, Vermaelen, Escuder and others all have a strong ability to play the ball.

Just like last season, Ajax's central defender was Heitinga. He is a very comprehensive player who can play midfield, right back and central defender.

Yang Yang has heard Ronald Koeman talk about this issue more than once. He believes that the central defender is very important in the entire tactical system of Ajax, and even in Dutch football is becoming more and more important.

Heitinga, Escuder, and Vermaelen are not high center defenders. The reason why Ajax prefers to use them at the risk of defending high is because of the team's midfield play.

It was rare for Zheng Zhi to take the initiative to ask, but Yang Yang certainly knew everything and said everything.

And his laptop still has a lot of videos and records, so he combined the videos and analysis materials to try his best to explain to Zheng Zhi the on-field responsibilities of the center back and how Heitinga and others play football.

The materials Yang Yang had on hand were all accumulated during his time at Ajax, not even Ali Han’s national team, and it happened to be counterpoint analysis, which made Zheng Zhi very useful, and many things that were originally confusing were gradually cleared up.

But if you want to play a role on the court, you have to go through actual combat tests and the cooperation of your teammates.

After this exchange, the relationship between the two immediately became closer.

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That night, the national team organized the first dinner party, and team leader Zhu also introduced Yang Yang to all the international players at the dinner party.

To this new recruit, the reactions of the international players are also different. After all, everyone knows that this young man has risen too fast, and this time he joined the team probably for the main position.

Who can look at their competitors without any grievances?
Of course, it's not enough to show Yang Yang's face. Everyone competes fairly, and each should rely on his own ability.

It was also at this gathering that Team Leader Zhu announced that the prize money for winning the Asian Cup this time would be as high as 50. This is the highest prize money in the history of the national team.

However, Yang Yang could see that the international players didn't care about the amount of bonuses, they all obviously cared more about the results.

Although the popularity of the national football team is sluggish in China, the football association is also controversial, and the league is also full of problems, but after wearing the national team jersey, they are not playing for the football association, but representing China.

The strength of the ability, the outcome of the game, these are hard to say, but this sense of honor is still cherished by the international players.

(End of this chapter)