Chapter 991: Ao Tanaka’s Weakness?!

"Okay, the name is Ao Tanaka, and you know the other one, Skhodran Mustafi. They are going to be a part of our team from now on, so be nice and let them adapt quickly, okay?!"

The next day, during training, Frohling introduced the two new players to the whole team.

The contrast was real here.

Skhrodan Mustafi was someone local, and he was also a part of the legendary German team that won the World Cup in 2014, even though he had spent most of his time as a bench warmer at that time.

For him, he was here to come back home after working abroad for so many years, so it was clear that he was calmer than ever when the coach introduced him to the team.

Compared to him, Ao Tanaka was just a boy who was still green in the football world. He came from Japan at such a young age, 22, and this was also his first time playing on a team where the majority of the players didn’t use his mother tongue.

The midfielder was still at the peak of his spirit and ambition, so it was clear why he was so excited as he was introduced by the coach.

"Hello, everyone! My name is Ao Tanaka! Naisu tu mitu yuu!"

No one truly reacted to the heavy accent that the boy had when speaking. The football world had already reached the point where any casual racism could be punished, and since they all came from so many different backgrounds, a little bit of an accent was never a problem inside the team.

The only two people who couldn’t help but show a little bit of a reaction were Ao Tanaka’s countrymen.

Higo couldn’t help but choke, while Morita was trying his best to hold back a laugh from escaping his mouth.

Hell, Frohling even noticed this, narrowing his eyes dangerously at the latter before shouting, "There is nothing funny here, Morita! One set of push-ups!"

This time, it was him who choked, and in the next second, the boy was grumbling while doing another set of push-ups as a punishment for his cheekiness.

Ao Tanaka was a player that he had a big hope to fill up the gap that Omar and Nabil left due to their injury, so there was no way Frohling would let the boy get bullied at his very first day in the team.

However, he froze instantly the moment the training session began, as Ao Tanaka was far from what the man was hoping for.

Somehow, Ao Tanaka wasn’t as game-ready as Frohling initially thought.

The boy couldn’t adjust to his teammates on the first day, with him always being out of position and not knowing where his teammates were trying to run. So many basic mistakes were made that sometimes even stopped the team’s progress abruptly.

Still, that was not the worst.

No, Frohling wouldn’t really mind if this was the only thing that Ao Tanaka had a problem with, as the man knew that adjustment would always take time, especially for a midfielder who always had to connect with all the players on the pitch.

The man was still willing to wait for Ao Tanaka to adjust, believing that the boy would be able to do that sooner or later since his partner was Morita, who was also from Japan.

No, the bigger problem here was the fact that Ao Tanaka was somehow so... Weak.

Yeah, weak was the correct word, as the boy always failed to win a clash duel against the other midfielders in the team. It was as if his body was so frail, and one push was enough to make him fly a few meters away just in a blink.

This wasn’t a problem for any other position, but as a midfielder, especially one who had to fight a lot for the ball in the most central area on the pitch, having no strength was a sin there.

Even though Tanaka tried to cover it up with his work rate, always willing to run till death threatened to take his breath away, this was still far from being enough for him to convince the head coach that the boy was ready for a Bundesliga game.

"How could we not know about this beforehand?" Frohling clicked his tongue in annoyance.

"Well, to Marius’s credit, he has already told you that his strength is just decent even in the J-League." Waldoch shrugged.

"His strength lies in his smart running, positioning skill that always sees where the best place to go is, his work rate, and sometimes even his finishing as a midfielder who can run into the box to help the team’s offensive line. Other than that, he still has a lot of work to do."

Once again, Frohling felt the corner of his lips twitching madly at that.

Indeed, Marius Draxler had already warned him about it, but since the coach’s only reference was Morita and Higo, he still felt that a decent level of strength would be at the same level as those two the first time they were here, and that was more than enough for him to be used on the team immediately.

"Tch! This is troublesome..." He murmured with a big frown on his face. "Waldoch, schedule him a gym session with our physical conditioning team. I want him to be ready for the league in the next two weeks; is that possible?"

"That depends on the overall situation, so let’s discuss it with the team first." The assistant replied while also taking a note on his phone.

Once again, Frohling sighed deeply as he watched the training session in front of him. Inwardly, he couldn’t help but clench his fist, finding himself with a headache when he thought about the future.

’Let’s hope that he can adapt to the intensity as quickly as possible... Our target is the UCL next year, so we will need every single player to take a role in this whirlwind shit!’