Chapter 155: Chapter 154: Ou Shao’s Race Rewards, Personal Data Greatly Improved
"Ding! You’ve won a victory, and your rating for this game is SSS!"
"You’ve obtained Super Training Stakes... Donglong Special Drink... White Medicine OK Bandage..."
"You’ve received an item slot."
"You’ve received a tactical slot."
"You’ve gained a blue player skill, Midfield Commander, Pressing Defense."
"You’ve gained a purple star skill, Marseille Turn, Bicycle Kick Youth."
"You’ve received a star drop, Arteta’s Tactical Board."
The rewards from the European Youth Tournament were quite generous.
With an additional item slot, it meant that Deng Kai could now add new items to his already full kit.
Cech’s hockey stick was now one step further from being thrown away.
And the tactical slot was something new. At first, Deng Kai had no clue what it was for.
Not until he saw Arteta’s Tactical Board.
Gotta say, as a Barça star, Arteta was even more valuable than Iniesta.
It seemed that lesser players were indeed more likely to drop loot.
The worse they played, the more they dropped.
So far, the player who supplied Deng Kai with the most loot was... ahem, Ronaldo.
"Arteta’s Tactical Board: Occupies a tactical slot. Offensive movement +2, defensive movement +2, interception +2, short passing +1, long passing +1. You and your teammates can adapt to possession tactics and positioning defense more quickly through training."
A round of applause for understanding!
Deng Kai was genuinely shocked by this tactical board.
It was no wonder that Guardiola, who later became the manager of Manchester City, said of his assistant Arteta, ’I learned more from him than he did from me.’
And after Arteta took over Arsenal for a few years, the Gunners really improved, even topping the Premier League leaderboard for a time during the first half of the 2022-2023 season.
Not to mention the basic attribute increases of the tactical board, which were impressive.
But the key was that it was one of the rare skills that could improve teammates as well.
What’s this called?
This is called a self-contained system!
Who has a self-contained system?
The core of the team!
And this core isn’t just any publicly acknowledged star player or captain or highest-paid player, but an absolute tactical core.
A self-contained system isn’t scary in itself; what’s terrifying is being able to make teammates quickly adapt to your system.
Many top midfielders are labeled flops when they change environments, and a big reason isn’t that they have issues, but because the system they bring to the new environment doesn’t mesh with their teammates.
Mendieta, the absolute core of Valencia, the Bat Brigade, is the most typical example.
At one point in La Liga, he was twice named the best midfielder in Europe, and two years later, he joined Lazio in Serie A for 48 million euros and was never the same, partly due to adaptation issues.
Back to the tactical board, "possession tactics" and "drop-in defense" are two different concepts.
There has always been a lot of debate about what exactly possession football is.
But at this point in time, possession football essentially meant using good technique and teamwork to compensate for, or mask, players’ physical and ability deficiencies.
The most common issue for possession-based teams is "a beacon of strength when united, a mess when dispersed."
Because of high ball possession, their tactics solved the opponent’s tactical offense problems. The opponent, without the ball, naturally couldn’t attack, thus nipping the losing problem at the root.
Of course, apart from tactical offense, there’s also transitional offense, which is the counterattack after a possession team loses the ball.
To address this, teams might choose different approaches like high pressing or rapid defence retreat.
Arsenal prefers retreating, while Barça likes high pressing.
Each has its merits.
Deng Kai’s newly acquired Arteta’s Tactical Board came with a complete set of tactics.
Frankly, with this tactical board, Deng Kai was qualified enough to be a tactical coach at a smaller club.
"Midfield Commander: Short passing +1. Increases the success rate at which your teammates pass the ball to you."
"Pressing Defense: When applying pressure on the opponent in your own half, your movement and combat abilities are slightly enhanced."
Perfect!
These two player skills fit seamlessly with the tactical board.
The former further strengthened Deng Kai’s role as the core.
The latter, in combination with the drop-in defense, allowed Deng Kai to shine defensively as well."
"Marseille Turn: Initially known as the Zidane Turn, this is a beautiful and practical technique to break free. Dribbling +2. After performing the Marseille Turn, your speed will be momentarily boosted. A smooth Marseille Turn is equivalent to two spins."
Purple skills indeed have more effects.
Not only does it have escape ability, but it also increases speed, and its twofold effectiveness makes it a perfect match with the most expensive spinner."
Pfft!
Deng Kai couldn’t help but laugh out loud at the last skill.
"Bicycle Kick Youth: This is the first technical move most football youth aspire to master — it’s stylish and agile. Dribbling +2. Pedaling the bicycle three times or less confuses the opponent slightly, resulting in a small boost to shooting. Pedaling between three and five times adds to confusion and grants a small boost to speed. Pedaling six times or more increases confusion continuously but also makes it easier to get tackled by defenders."
"Under the influence of Ronaldo, your technique morphs, and you comprehend the Electrified Bicycle skill! Your rate of executing a bicycle move increases. Though it loses its flamboyance and confusion effects, it grants a significant boost to shooting and speed! The chance of slipping while pedaling on the football, leading to a bicycle fail, also greatly increases. You can only successfully perform the Electrified Bicycle once per game."
Can’t hold it in.
They’re trolling Ronaldo again!
But to be fair, the effects of the Electrified Bicycle are quite impressive.
It significantly boosts both speed and shooting, definitely a divine skill for raw power shots.
It just comes with some risks.
If you slip on a football once, that’s embarrassing.
Moreover, according to the skill’s description, you can fail the "Electric Bicycle" many times in one game, but you can only succeed once.
This is too much of a gamble.
If you slip on the ball several times in one game, that’s really lame.
And even if used successfully, the "Electric Bicycle" is not as aesthetically pleasing as the regular bicycle.
It’s really a dilemma.
In the future, should you choose an electric scooter or a bicycle to dribble past someone?
After receiving his reward, Deng Kai proceeded to check his personal data.
Because of an abundance of training and competition, Deng Kai’s personal data would change every month.
This month a few points would be added to this stat, next month a few points to that stat.
All year round, the improvement is objective.
Especially when you get honors such as champion, MVP, assist king, top scorer, and best team, they can also help you grow further.
Players with the same talent and amount of training and competition vary in their growth each season based on their personal data and honors.
Over the past year, Deng Kai’s growth was almost maxed out.
Because he really won all the championships in the competitions he participated in that year, and he also received multiple individual honors.
=
Overall Technical Rating: 59.929
Offensive Positioning: 68
Ball Control: 76
Dribbling: 67
Shooting: 60
Set Pieces: 61
Long Passes: 64
Short Passes: 76
Defensive Positioning: 63
Interceptions: 61
Tackling: 49
Blocking: 40
Clearances: 45
Heading: 51
Curl: 58
=
Overall Physical Rating: 62.625
Speed: 61
Explosiveness: 65
Step Frequency: 73
Underfoot Strength: 58
Jumping: 55
Strength: 55
Agility: 73
Stamina: 61
=
Vision: 8
Left Foot: 3
Right Foot: 7
Injury Resistance: 3
Condition Persistence: 5
=
Overall Composite Rating: 61.277
=
Compared to a year ago, Deng Kai’s progress is nothing short of a metamorphosis.
At this rate of growth, he will be able to reach the ceiling of personal footballing ability before he turns twenty.
Also, these data points are not yet complete.
In a month or two, Deng Kai’s overall physical rating should surge again.
Because he has just had a growth spurt.
He hasn’t yet done the accompanying weight gain and physical training.
Many players need time to adapt after a sudden increase in height.
After they adapt, their physical limit data will see a leap from before.
In sports, you may train hard for several years and only improve by one or two hundredths of a second.
But once the body develops again, the improvement is often by a tenth or two or three tenths of a second.
The latter is what they call a talent crush over the former.
