The God of Football Starts With Passive Skills-Chapter 247 - 65: The Wang Shuo Effect! New Skill: Inverted Foot! I Will Dominate the Bundesliga’s Two-Footed Freaks! What a Grand Dream
The team’s tactics were, without a doubt, what everyone was most interested in, and also most worried about.
Klopp’s tactics were advanced, but to the Dortmund players, they were also completely new.
In fact, last season under Dom’s management, they had used a 4-4-2 formation with two strikers.
And Klopp?
He wanted to implement a 4-2-3-1 or a 4-3-3 formation.
This represented a massive change.
More importantly, Klopp’s tactics placed a heavy emphasis on a high-pressing game and immediate counter-pressing upon losing possession.
Dortmund truly didn’t have much time to prepare.
The UEFA Europa League qualifying rounds were two-legged ties.
Then came the DFB-Pokal, and after that, the Bundesliga season.
The first round was a home game against newly-promoted Cologne, followed by an away match against Hamburg, then a home game against Stuttgart, and an away game at Frankfurt.
After a two-week international break, Matchday 5 of the Bundesliga would be a home game against Bayern Munich.
Sandwiched in between all of this would be UEFA Europa League and DFB-Pokal matches.
For Dortmund, the schedule was absolutely brutal!
Klopp had no choice but to take things one step at a time.
He scheduled a total of five preseason friendlies, all to be played in and around Germany.
After those matches, they would have just enough time for a few days of rest before the UEFA Europa League third qualifying round at the end of July.
As for the tactics, Klopp’s vision was very clear.
The attack would be built around the striker, Wang Shuo.
On a related note, Valdes had finally relented, "voluntarily" offering to change his number and handing the team’s No. 9 shirt over to Wang Shuo.
Wang Shuo’s incredible range of movement was Dortmund’s greatest asset up front and a crucial component of Klopp’s entire tactical system.
In terms of both their squad and overall quality, Dortmund was a clear step above Mainz.
Therefore, Klopp was building upon and upgrading the tactical system he had used at Mainz.
"We’re going to build an iron-willed army that will be the strongest in the Bundesliga, and perhaps in all of Europe!"
With Wang Shuo as the spearhead, he would be supported by three attackers who were excellent on the ball and quite fast.
Kuba was on the right wing; that position was more or less fixed.
The central role was originally intended for Zidane, but the club had failed to sign him. So, for now, the most likely candidate was Foyelner.
On the left wing, both Reus and Grosskreutz had an opportunity to play.
These three players would operate around Wang Shuo, using quick runs and one-two passing combinations—along with a disciplined press upon losing the ball—to rapidly overwhelm their opponents.
Meanwhile, in the double pivot, Kael would be the holding midfielder, while Shahin was responsible for distributing the ball and making forward runs from deep.
Add to that the full-backs on both flanks.
This system would create numerous attacking outlets across the midfield and forward line, maximizing opportunities to create numerical superiority.
With the full-backs making aggressive overlapping runs, the right and left wingers would actually tuck inside, closer to the half-spaces.
As a result, Wang Shuo would receive much more support.
It was only now that Wang Shuo truly began to understand the kind of football Klopp wanted to build.
At Mainz, limited by personnel and resources, Klopp hadn’t been able to fully implement his vision.
For example, on the right flank, if Schürrle hadn’t emerged later on, Mainz’s right wing would have been practically non-functional.
And Foyelner on the left wasn’t exactly known for his pace or ability to beat defenders.
But at Dortmund, Reus was incredibly fast, and Kuba was also explosive once he started sprinting.
Even Grosskreutz, while perhaps not as quick as the other two, had incredible stamina and work rate.
For Wang Shuo, this was like a fish finding water. It was the perfect environment to fully leverage his strengths and unique qualities.
Of course, Wang Shuo also understood more clearly why Klopp had always wanted a tall center-forward with a phenomenal work rate.
His system demanded that the center-forward be a complete player, and above all, have a massive engine.
But looking across the entire European football scene, how many players could actually do both?
Wang Shuo’s only weaknesses were his physical presence and heading ability; everything else was more than adequate.
Especially when the team reconvened for training, Klopp and the others discovered that after more than a year of grueling practice, Wang Shuo’s ability with his left foot had improved immensely.
This was a fantastic surprise, as it would vastly expand the variety of Dortmund’s attacking combinations.
Another factor was that Dortmund’s midfield possessed far greater creativity, distribution, and ball control than Mainz’s.
It wasn’t just players like Shahin and Foyelner; even midfielders like Kael, Tinga, and Sven Bender had solid passing skills and an innate understanding of link-up play.
This would be a massive upgrade, shoring up the weakness that had plagued Mainz’s central midfield!
All in all, Wang Shuo was filled with anticipation for Dortmund’s upcoming season.
As long as his teammates could adapt to Klopp’s tactics and the squad gelled quickly, Wang Shuo was confident that Dortmund would take everyone by surprise this season, just as Mainz had the last.
As for himself, he was determined to leverage the strength of his teammates to once again deliver a stellar performance!
He was confident they could go toe-to-toe with Bayern!
Speaking of which, Bayern had just signed Robben from Real Madrid for a fee of 25 million euros, pairing him with Ribery to form a truly terrifying duo on the wings.
With the addition of stars like Mario Gomez, Olic, and Tymoshchuk, all under the management of world-class coach Van Gaal, the new season’s Bayern Munich looked more formidable than ever before!
