AZ Alkmaar training base, manager's office.

Louis van Gaal and three members of the coaching staff were sitting on the couch, looking intently at the TV on the opposite wall.

The TV was playing last night's Eredivisie 23rd round, Ajax's away game against Roda JC.

This weekend, Louis van Gaal will take his AZ Alkmaar to the Amsterdam Arena to take on Ajax for the first time since stepping down as Ajax's technical director.

Van Gaal takes this game very seriously.

Roda JC's strength is not strong, and he can barely hold on to the first 30 minutes, but in the 33rd minute, Yang Yang created a killing opportunity on the right side, and crossed to assist Charlie Steas to score with a header.

Just eight minutes later, Sneijder went straight behind him, and Yang Yang easily reversed the offside position to form a single goal, 2-0.

It wasn't until the 84th minute that Roda JC relied on Cristiano to score a face-saving goal.

In the end, Ajax beat Roda JC 2-1 away.

Yang Yang made one pass and one shot, pushing his goal tally this season to eighteen.

With PSV Eindhoven, AZ Alkmaar and Feyenoord all winning, the top four in the league remain unchanged.

Kuyt scored another goal in this round and successfully pushed his total number of goals to 22.

But now, the video that AZ Alkmaar's coaching staff has studied is different from the regular game footage, which has been carefully edited by the club's video analyst Max Rex, which is more conducive to analysing Ajax's technical and tactical characteristics.

Among them, Van Gaal attaches the most importance to Ajax's right winger Yang Yang.

"The winter break this season should be a watershed moment, before that, Ronald Koeman mainly used Sneijder and Pienaar to build the midfield, and Wesley Sonke, Charlie Steas and Yang Yang up front.

"But after the winter break, Ronald Koeman changed his tactical play, Pienaar was pushed to the left winger position, Galasek and De Jong formed a double midfield, which is also the most commonly used midfield formation for Ajax at present, after the change, Yang Yang has become the most threatening attack point for Ajax."

Twenty-three rounds, eighteen goals, twelve assists, and thirty goals, Yang Yang's performance this season can be described as explosive growth, not to mention the outside media and fans, even Van Gaal himself finds it unbelievable.

Van Gaal still clearly remembers that when he left Ajax, Yang Yang was a serious partial student, with very sharp breakthroughs and crosses, but weak in other aspects, but in just over half a year, he improved by leaps and bounds, especially when he stopped the ball.

Now he is no longer the same as half a year ago.

In addition to stopping the ball, Yang Yang's physical confrontation has also improved significantly, which can be seen from his original thin body and gradually becoming stronger, which is definitely the result of long-term strength training.

In recent times, Yang Yang's shots have also started to become more threatening, and according to information received by Louis van Gaal, he has been training on goal for three months.

The rapid progress of stopping the ball, power confrontation and shooting, these three major items, have made Yang Yang's performance improve by leaps and bounds this season.

At the beginning of the season, there were still many people who expected Yang Yang to grow into the most threatening winger in the Eredivisie after Robben this season, but now, no one will compare Yang Yang with Robben anymore.

The reason is very simple, Yang Yang's scoring ability has long surpassed Robben, and he is more comprehensive than Robben.

How to limit Yang Yang has become a difficult problem that all teams must face when facing Ajax.

The same goes for Louis van Gaal.

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The more people in the coaching room analyzed, the more surprised they became.

Yang Yang is only eighteen years old, but the strength he shows on the court is beyond the reach of everyone as an adult, and even famous stars, especially in the recent year, it is more like a sudden burst of amazing energy.

"It wasn't a sudden outbreak." Van Gaal shook his head, denying the judgment of his aides, "It's a lot of accumulation. ”

"Accumulation?"

Van Gaal nodded, "You will think that he has a sudden outburst because you don't know him at all, if you know firsthand the high demand he has demanded of himself over the past few years, and the intensity of his training, you will not be surprised at the progress he has made so far." ”

The coaching staff listened and looked at each other.

They are indeed unfamiliar with Yang Yang, but they are very familiar with Van Gaal.

The Dutch coach has always been arrogant, even when facing Rivaldo in Barcelona back then, he didn't give the other party a good face, and even many people said that he was above the top, so there are very few players who can be favored by him.

And like Yang Yang, it is even more rare to be so respected by him.

"I know this kid very well, he has a lot of running ability, he has excellent physical fitness, and now that the physical strength is up, one-on-one defense is useless for him, but it will affect our defensive position."

Van Gaal vetoed an option for many teams, which was to arrange a special person to defend Yang Yang.

But facts have proved that one-on-one, no one can guard Yang Yang.

"Our passing ability is definitely not as good as Ajax's, and our overall strength is not as good as Ajax's, so we can only defend and counterattack." Match analyst Marcel Powter analyzed.

"I think we should still stick to the original defensive system, shrink appropriately, and strengthen the middle, especially the defense at the front of the penalty area and in the ribs, which is the most threatening area of Yangyang."

Louis van Gaal's tactical system is very rigorous and meticulous.

AZ Alkmaar's players were not strong enough to possess the ball and not play the kind of dominant football Van Gaal wanted, so they had to cut out possession and add more off-ball movements.

It's also very much in line with AZ Alkmaar's usual style, which has always been known for its hard work and teamwork.

If the predecessor Adrianse was too aggressive, then Van Gaal's arrival has injected sanity into this team.

That's why AZ Alkmaar have soared this season.

However, this team is still very problematic in the strong dialogue, such as the 1-5 defeat away to PSV Eindhoven.

However, it was already the second round at the beginning of the season, and after most of the season, Van Gaal believes that the team still has the strength to fight against Ajax away.

It's just that Yang Yang's henchman must be solved first.

"Yang Yang is a very smart, very good thinker, and very flexible player, we have to pay more attention to him, on the premise of maintaining the stability of the overall defensive formation, we must pay attention to his defense as much as possible, and in the next week, we have to arrange a special training session, we have to freeze him completely at the Amsterdam Athletic Stadium!"

Van Gaal spoke loudly, his tone and expression didn't seem like a joke at all, and then he explained how to restrain Yang Yang and how to arrange a tight defense, which made the assistants next to him a little strange.

This Yang Yang is not Van Gaal's New Year's friend?

How do you feel that when you touch Ajax and Yang Yang, Van Gaal is more ruthless than anyone else?

"What? Questions? Van Gaal noticed the expressions of his assistants and asked with a frown.

"Louis, ...... you with Yang Yang," Marcel Powter asked tentatively.

Van Gaal was such a smart man that he immediately understood what his assistants meant.

"That's right, I do have a relationship with Yang Yang, but I have to put some pressure on him in both public and private affairs."

Seeing that everyone was looking puzzled, Van Gaal smiled.

"He's had such a good season, I should give him a head start, and by the way, let him feel the pressure, people grow the fastest under pressure."

Once again, the aides looked at each other helplessly, but they felt that this should be more like a quirk of Van Gaal.

After sending off his assistant, Van Gaal smiled and took out his mobile phone, found Yang Yang's phone, and called.

He guessed that Yang Yang should have finished practicing at this time and was going home.

This kid's daily routine is almost monotonous.

Sure enough, as soon as the call went out, it was answered immediately.

"Boy, eighteen goals, congratulations."

"Ha, Louis, you're starting to be hypocritical and polite, it's not like you." Yang Yang directly dismantled Van Gaal's "mask".

Van Gaal also laughed, he would only laugh out loud in front of a very small number of friends, Yang Yang was one.

"I want to tell you that I just got you a gift for the weekend at the Amsterdam Arena."

"Really?" Yang Yang also smiled, "So polite? It's not going to give me a few goals and catch up with Kuyt, right? ”

"Okay, can you take it?" Van Gaal asked defiantly.

Yang Yang smiled again, "You know what? I've asked Raiola to help me prepare the gifts. ”

"Gifts? Give it to me? ”

"Kill you!" Yang Yang scolded with a smile, "I said before that if there are more than 20 goals, I will give a gift to the coaches, staff and all the players of the first team in De Tokmost. ”

Van Gaal was stunned for a moment, and he was generous, "You are so willing?" ”

"There's nothing to be reluctant to, although the ball was scored by me, but it is also the credit of everyone in the team, before the Toyota Cup won the best player, didn't you get a car? I've cashed it in, plus the goal bonus in my contract, and it's enough to make a gift that I can get my hands on, and I'm going to give it over the weekend. ”

Van Gaal understood when he heard this, this kid was fighting back.

He has scored eighteen goals now, and he said that he would give a gift only if he scored twenty goals, and it was given on the weekend, which means that Yang Yang intends to score twice in this game at the weekend?

"Good, good, good, ambitious, I'll wait, I hope you don't let me down."

"Don't worry, Louis, didn't you say that? I've never let you down. ”

Van Gaarden was speechless.

This is what he said when he was the technical director of Ajax, and it is completely different from his current status, okay?

But how does it sound like you're setting yourself up?

"Okay, then we'll see you at the weekend!"

"Okay, see you over the weekend!"

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In midweek, the quarterfinals of the Dutch Cup.

Ajax played with a half-main and half-substitute line-up as they beat The Hague 2-0 away.

Yang Yang didn't make the squad, recuperating and stunned the weekend's top spot game against AZ Alkmaar.