Chapter 992: Ao Tanaka Tries to Adapt!

"Hey, hey, no need to be harsh to yourself, Tanaka-san!" Morita said with a worried gaze. "This is just your first day; maybe you are still tired from the journey to this city, right?"

Higo couldn’t help but nod, somehow feeling so concerned about the older boy whom he had only met yesterday.

It was after the training session was over, and instead of going back home, Ao Tanaka decided to hit the gym instantly, trying to fix all the weaknesses that he himself had never known he had before this.

"No, Morita, this cannot do." Tanaka shook his head while he was gritting his teeth, doing a barbell bench press as a thick vein popped on his neck. "You have seen their reaction. They are far from being impressed with me. If I want to gain a foothold in this team, I have to work harder than anyone else, and it starts from now."

Indeed, even though it was just one training session, the weakness was so glaring that some of the players just looked at the boy in pity.

Still, Higo had to admire the boy’s determination. He saw a weakness in his game, and he tried his best to fix it straight away.

Still, doing this after three hours of outdoor training in the middle of the cold winter seemed to be overboard, not a good idea to consider for a professional.

Unfortunately, behind his calm demeanor, Ao Tanaka was stubborn as a mule, as once he set something in his mind, the boy would do it with everything that he had in him.

"No, you cannot do that, Tanaka." Waldoch suddenly appeared, shaking his head quickly. Even though the man didn’t know what they were talking about since they were using Japanese, just from Tanaka’s stubborn face, he could’ve guessed everything in a blink.

This caught everyone off guard, not expecting the assistant coach to watch them like this.

"It is good that you have a determination to fix your weakness, but strength is not something you can fix just with one day of hard work. No, you have to combine it with science as well."

Tanaka had a blank expression on his face. After all, unlike both Higo and Morita, he was not proficient in English yet, and while the boy could still understand one or two words, when the other people started to talk with speed, everything felt like it was flying above his head.

"It doesn’t matter, anyway." Waldoch shook his head quickly. "Put that barbell down and let’s meet some of our best physical trainers here. We will make a program to fix you and make you game-ready in two weeks."

After this, Tanaka was brought by the assistant coach to a meeting with the team’s physical coach, and the next thing Higo knew, the older boy was spending most of his time busy in the gym for the whole week.

Higo himself was so concerned about this. However, when he asked Waldoch about it, the assistant just brushed it off as nothing.

"You see his training session. His vision is excellent, and his run always manages to open up some spaces to his teammates. What he needs is proper physical conditioning so that he can adjust to the Bundesliga’s pace, or he wouldn’t be able to survive the league."

The boy just bit his lip for a moment before finally nodding to the assistant, still feeling frustrated that Ao Tanaka didn’t have a smooth start as he had in the past.

"Eh, don’t worry about him too much, Ryusuke. Adjustment is something common for a new player in this industry." Morita said casually when Higo asked about this. "Don’t you remember that it took three months for me to get into the main roster of this squad?"

Well, when Morita said it like that...

Indeed, compared to Tanaka, who had everyone supporting him, Morita’ state was more pitiful when he first came to the first team.

After all, the boy was called by the team’s former coach so that the man could suppress Frohling in the second team, and in the end, the boy didn’t even get a single minute to showcase why he was not just a pawn and deserved to have a chance as well.

It was only because Frohling took over the squad that he finally gained a chance to show why he deserved to be on the team. Without that, Morita thought that he would probably end up going back to Japan at this point.

When Higo thought about it, he finally sighed, reaching the same conclusion.

After all, even though he was always favored by the head coach, there was a period where the boy had to sit his ass down on the bench for a whole six months to raise Alexander Nubel’s price.

That period was definitely hell, as he didn’t know whether this would be the end of him or not.

So, yeah, in the end, they both knew the best way to understand what it meant was that adjustment needed time and process, not something that could be achieved instantly.

’Yeah, this is normal, no need to overthink about it...’ Higo took a deep breath, shaking his head strongly before focusing on the next training session.

With the arrival of two players on the team, the transfer window was finally over, leaving Frohling with whatever he had in his squad right now.

The man had to say that he was far from being ecstatic, as he still felt like his team was quite weak in some areas and needed some players to reinforce his midfield and frontline.

Still, the arrival of Ao Tanaka and Skhodran Mustafi really helped alleviate the team’s pressure, and it gave them a slight boost of confidence after Omar Mascarell and Nabil Bentaleb had to be sidelined due to their injury.

"Well, at least we are back to being a proper team this time. Now, our next opponent..." His gaze sharpened as the coach saw the team’s next schedule.

"So, the 16th round of the DFB Pokal, huh? Wolfsburg? Man, this is going to be way interesting later; I cannot wait for it!’