The God of Football Starts With Passive Skills

Chapter 556: Chapter 110: Dribbling Past 4! Retrograde Domain, Activate! A Great Legend! Forward Frenzy in the Winter Transfer Market

In the thunderous Westfalen Stadium, Klopp stood before the home team’s bench, shouting at his players on the pitch.

Uncle Mustache raised his right hand high and gave them a thumbs-up.

It was a gesture of affirmation and encouragement for his players.

It was the 83rd minute of the match.

Stuttgart had just been awarded an indirect free kick in the attacking half.

This put everyone on the Dortmund side on high alert, as if facing a formidable enemy.

’Damn Labbadia, he’s always so tough to deal with!’

Klopp paced anxiously along the sideline.

If this match ended in a draw, Dortmund’s winning streak would halt at 18 games.

That was, of course, a rather impressive achievement.

But who would be satisfied with that?

Especially when it was his old rival, Labbadia, who was forcing the draw!

Klopp had known Labbadia since back when they were both players.

Later, they both went on to coach teams in the 2nd Bundesliga, and both achieved excellent results.

He remembered the year Mainz returned to the Bundesliga. There was his Mainz team, Rangnick’s Hoffenheim, and Labbadia, who had moved from Fuerth to Bayer Leverkusen.

The three of them had occupied the top three spots on the Bundesliga table for a long time back then, turning quite a few heads.

And they had all employed high-pressing, high-pressure tactics.

Two or three years had passed, and the three of them had gone down different paths.

Klopp had moved from Mainz to Dortmund. Rangnick was still at Hoffenheim, but there were rumors that if Schalke 04 fired Magat, Rangnick was the head coach they wanted to hire.

Labbadia had the worst temper of the lot. After leaving Fuerth to coach Bayer Leverkusen, he went to Hamburg, and now he had taken over Stuttgart mid-season, moving between three different teams in three seasons.

Klopp knew, of course, that Labbadia’s coaching ability was by no means poor.

’But the thing is, coaching a Bundesliga team isn’t just about your skill as a coach.’

’The most important thing is the people!’

’All tactics exist to serve the players!’

But many coaches held the opposite view. They believed players should exist to serve the tactics.

’Who’s right and who’s wrong? It’s hard to say. The pitch is where you find the truth!’

Right now, Dortmund and Stuttgart were tied 1-1.

And heading into the final stages of the match, Dortmund was even at a disadvantage on the pitch.

"The players on both teams have reached their physical limits," Krawietz said, a little worried.

He could see the players’ match data.

In the last few minutes, the Dortmund players’ performance had fallen off a cliff.

The back line was also teetering on the brink of collapse. It was as if Stuttgart had them pinned in their own half, running offensive drills.

Why was Shahin’s back-pass to Hummels intercepted?

Because his stamina was drained, his technique was breaking down, and there wasn’t enough power on the pass.

Could you blame Shahin?

No, you couldn’t.

Their two dedicated defensive midfielders, Sven Bender and Kael, were both injured.

Now they were working their technical players to the bone. Shahin and Gundogan had started two consecutive matches in four days and played the full 90 minutes in both.

It was a wonder they were still on their feet!

Klopp’s shouts from the sideline were to get his players to stay focused and cut down on mistakes.

When players were this exhausted, their concentration became a very serious problem.

Others might not know, but as former players themselves, Klopp and Buvac knew it all too well.

Once your stamina dropped to a certain point, your legs felt like they were filled with lead.

Every step, not even sprinting or accelerating, was accompanied by aching muscles, as if a cramp could strike at any second.

Every breath felt like it was tearing at your lungs, bringing a burning pain.

At times like these, it was sheer willpower driving your body forward.

But you couldn’t change the laws of physics.

"Hold on! You have to hold on!"

Wang Shuo’s voice echoed from the pitch.

He was likely the only starting player for Dortmund who could still run, aside from the three substitutes who had come on—Reus, Foyelner, and Antonio Da Silva—and the goalkeeper.

He had played three matches in just seven days, and they were all tough battles.

At that moment, Wang Shuo was positioned outside the penalty area, loudly shouting to his teammates and organizing the defense.

"It’s a shame that kid isn’t the captain!" Buvac said, full of admiration.

Klopp nodded. "He’s already run 13 kilometers in this match. His energy consumption has been massive, too."

Many people said Wang Shuo could only run, that he just ran around blindly.

But everyone at Dortmund knew very well just how important Wang Shuo’s off-the-ball movement was to the team.

Why was Dortmund a completely different team with him versus without him?

Scoring goals was just the result!

Otherwise, how could you explain that when you replaced Wang Shuo with Lewandowski, Dortmund struggled to score?

It was because Wang Shuo’s movement and support play were crucial to Dortmund’s ability to organize and structure their attacks.

He was like a lighthouse.

Just as Shahin and Hummels had said.

Whenever they couldn’t find a direction for the attack or a passing lane, they just had to look for Wang Shuo.

It wasn’t about forcing a pass to Wang Shuo, but about seeing where he was and passing in his direction and into his space.

Or they could pass according to his hand signals.

It was never the wrong decision.

If you looked at Wang Shuo’s passing and his positioning heat map, you would see he covered almost the entire midfield and attacking third.

He was everywhere.

And his pass completion rate was extremely high.

This season, Wang Shuo was averaging an incredible 61 passes per game with a completion rate of 83%.

Many people might not have a good concept of what that meant.

For comparison, Shahin, Dortmund’s core playmaker in midfield, averaged 59 passes per game with a 76% completion rate.