novelraw Chapter 630 - 435: The Brand-New Tang Long Is Born! Manchester City’s Major Overhaul Starts with Him!
Chapter 630 - 435: The Brand-New Tang Long Is Born! Manchester City’s Major Overhaul Starts with Him!
On June 10, 2016, the 15th European Cup kicked off in France as scheduled.
Although one could cross the narrow English Channel to reach France, Tang Long chose to watch on television instead to save time and avoid the fatigue of travel.
He spent most of his time in Manchester, either training at the AI Cloud Training Ground or working with his personal trainer to lose weight following Guardiola’s advice.
With Dilata and her team heading to France for event coverage, Tang Long wasn’t distracted by women, allowing for maximum recovery of his physical fitness.
During this period, Guardiola was discussing summer transfers with Manchester City management while closely watching the performance of several players participating in the European Cup, hoping they wouldn’t get injured.
In the blink of an eye, a month had passed.
On July 10, Portugal defeated host France 1-0 to win the European Cup for the first time in history.
Meanwhile, Mancini’s England national team suffered a shocking 1-2 defeat to Iceland in the Round of 16, stopping at the quarterfinals.
During this month, Tang Long allocated all 100 hours of special training time and plunged into deep training in other projects.
As Tang Long was set to shift from an attacking midfielder to a left winger next season to align with Guardiola’s tactical changes, he focused his main efforts on forward training.
"Special training time has been used up!"
"Please check the training results!"
"Shooting accuracy improved!"
"86——91!"
"Shooting power improved!"
"83——88!"
"Heading improved!"
"79——85!"
"Jumping improved!"
"80——85!"
"Speed improved!"
"86——90!"
Shooting accuracy, shooting power, heading, and speed are areas Tang Long has focused on improving.
Especially in heading ability, there was a qualitative improvement from 79 to 85.
Due to limited high-efficiency special training time available, Tang Long did not spend much time on jumping.
However, with the meticulous guidance of his personal trainer, Tang Long’s weight reduced from 79KG to 77KG, losing 2KG, resulting in a corresponding improvement in jumping.
The side effect is that strength decreased by one point.
Host: Tang Long
Age: 19
Height: 182
Weight: 77KG
Position: Left winger, attacking midfielder, support striker, defensive midfielder.
Shooting accuracy: 91
Shooting power: 88
Heading: 85
Dribbling: 90
Long pass: 85
Short pass: 91
Set pieces: 81
Speed: 90
Stamina: 85
Strength: 84
Jumping: 85
Defense: 77
Overall rating: 89
Although winning the League Champion broke the 90-point data threshold, Tang Long found that once any data exceeds 90, further improvement requires several times the time and energy as weaker data points.
The effect of diminishing marginal returns begins to show.
Shooting accuracy is also one of the most important attributes for a forward player.
Tang Long spent almost half of the 100 hours of special training time on shooting practice.
Training covered all kinds: volleys, one-touch shots, breakaway shots, long shots outside the box, all taken on the AI Cloud Training Ground, but he only improved to 91.
Though they can’t break through the barrier now, Tang Long’s stats are already impressive!
His shooting accuracy is now on par with Agüero, and his dribbling is just as good, although he falls a bit behind in jumping and speed.
Of course, Tang Long possesses passing skills that Agüero could never master even after three lifetimes of practice, allowing him to both shoot and pass in the position of left forward, drawing more defensive players’ attention and becoming the main initiation point in the team’s attack.
...
"Ah well...I’m back..."
On July 10, Ranocchia returned disheartened, lugging his bag to the Manchester training base.
He was the first Manchester City player participating in this year’s European Cup finals to report back.
His mood was extremely downcast; he didn’t even bother watching the Portugal vs. France final~
This European Cup was the first time 28-year-old Ranocchia participated as a main player in an international competition in his life.
If defeating Spain 2-0 in the Round of 16 and shutting out the defending champions had given center-back Ranocchia confidence that Italy could win the championship;
Then losing to Germany in the quarterfinals after a 1-1 draw in 120 minutes and a 5-6 defeat in the penalty shootout was personally hard for Ranocchia to accept.
"Why are you back instead of resting for a few days?," Tang Long asked.
"I’ve been resting for a week already; sigh! Italy is best at penalties. We won the 2006 World Cup final against France by penalties. Who’d have thought we’d lose to Germany!" said Ranocchia.
In the clubhouse gym.
Tang Long and Ranocchia rode two bicycles side by side, chatting casually.
Other players were also in the gym, like Caballero, Agüero, Kolarov, and Joe Hart, none of whom participated in the European Cup, and came for the camp two days ago.
Many teammates had not returned, so there weren’t many people in the gym, and the tense atmosphere of formal summer training had not yet begun.
"Have you met Guardiola? What’s your impression of him? Is he easy-going?" Ranocchia asked after taking a sip of water.
Ranocchia, who never dreamed he’d play under this tactical master known for possession play, asked.
"I really look forward to our tactics this season. In my opinion, our possession play was already strong under Pellegrini last season. Now that Guardiola is here, how can he improve it? I can’t imagine it. Tang, can you think of anything?"
Tang Long smiled, saying, "Andrei, you might have to adjust from center back to midfield this season. The task is challenging. If you don’t play well, you’ll be killed by the fans!"
Ranocchia couldn’t hold his mouth full of water, spraying it all over Tang Long.
"Midfield? You’re kidding, Tang! Don’t fool me! I’ve been playing center back since debut, for ten years. I’m 28 now and have never played midfield!"
He thought Tang Long was joking, laughing and grabbing his neck, shaking him.
"Who said you hadn’t? You played midfield at Perugia when you were 13 and center forward before age 10."
A low voice suddenly spoke behind Ranocchia, startling him when he turned around.
Guardiola stood behind them with a smiling face, listening to their conversation.
"Ah, Mr. Guardiola, hello! Hahaha, I never thought our first meeting would be in the gym." Ranocchia candidly gave Guardiola a hug.
Others in the gym were startled too, stopping their training and standing up.
Everyone wondered when he had come in.
The summer training wasn’t fully assembled, so the folks in the gym weren’t focused, mixing chatting with exercise. They hadn’t noticed when the head coach arrived.
Bony felt anxious, lowered his head, and hid behind the crowd.
He was chatting with Kolarov just now, saying Guardiola’s possession play is sometimes boring, passing, passing, many times without raising the ball; was that really football?
Bony said this because he was a traditional English forward, not adept at foot play, fearing Guardiola’s arrival would mean tactics wouldn’t suit him.
"Why did this Spanish bald guy walk without making any noise? I hope he didn’t hear my words," Bony silently prayed, worrying about making a bad impression on the head coach.
It’s said that whatever you fear comes; if it’s not a blessing, it’s a curse, and you can’t escape a curse.
With the arrival of one new sovereign, comes the purge of old courtiers.
After Guardiola came to Manchester City, he immediately prepared for a large-scale purge...