The God of Football Starts With Passive Skills

However, an authoritative German magazine revealed that as Wang Shuo’s performances grew increasingly outstanding, he first broke Gerd Müller’s legendary record in the Bundesliga by scoring five goals in nine minutes. Now, he has also tied the all-time goal-scoring record in the Champions League...

Any one of these achievements would be considered astonishing for another player over the course of an entire season.

But now, Wang Shuo has accomplished them all in quick succession.

This has made him an even hotter commodity, the European Football Scene’s deadliest assassin in every sense of the word!

"Dortmund must already regret signing Wang Shuo to a contract with a €60 million release clause."

"Without that clause, given Wang Shuo’s current stellar performance, any top club wanting to pry him away from Dortmund would have to start the bidding at over a hundred million."

Finally, Kicker Magazine stated, "Wang Shuo’s goals always come at the most crucial moments."

"He has led Dortmund’s resurgence, making the Westfalen Stadium roar for him!"

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It wasn’t just the German media that was singing Wang Shuo’s praises.

In the United Kingdom, following the match against Premier League side Chelsea, The Times declared, "Wang Shuo is the perfect striker in the European Football Scene today!"

The paper lavished the Dortmund hero with the highest of praise.

At the same time, it also gave high marks to Dortmund’s tactics.

"The Dortmund storm forged by Klopp has swept away the aging Blue Army at Stanford Bridge!"

The Times believed that Dortmund’s first-half performance was average, "but that wasn’t the real Dortmund."

"The Bumblebee team that emerged in the second half—that was the real Dortmund!"

"Their fast and incisive attacks, especially their ability to immediately counter-press after losing possession and then quickly launch a counter-attack, left Chelsea completely unable to find any rhythm or direction."

It wasn’t just The Times. The Guardian Newspaper also commented after the match that the Bundesliga is in the midst of a new football trend, led by Dortmund.

Ever since the rise of Guardiola’s dream team at Barça, their possession-based style of play has made huge waves in world football.

Countless teams have hoped to learn and replicate Guardiola’s tactics.

But not every team is Barça!

In fact, long before Guardiola’s rise, back when Klopp was still managing Mainz, his high-pressing, aggressive style of play had already made a huge splash in the German Football Scene.

Renowned German managers like Hoffenheim’s Rangnick, Labbadia—who previously managed both Bayer Leverkusen and Hamburg—and even the current Bayer Leverkusen head coach Heynckes are now all employing tactics with a similar style.

Compared to Guardiola’s Barça, this trend in the Bundesliga is actually far more accessible.

That’s because Barça’s possession game is built upon a foundation of exceptionally brilliant passers and technical geniuses.

But the style championed by Klopp and this new wave in the German Football Scene doesn’t require that.

Take Dortmund, for example. Besides Wang Shuo up front, can you name a single other household name, a European prodigy?

This is a tactical style that nearly any team has a chance to learn!

More importantly, Dortmund’s financial situation is a classic case of an ant swallowing an elephant.

What does that mean?

To date, Dortmund’s biggest signing has been the €20 million they spent to bring Wang Shuo over from Mainz.

The club’s entire transfer budget and wage bill are far, far lower than their Bundesliga rivals, Bayern Munich.

And yet, for the past two seasons, Dortmund has dominated Bayern.

Piszczek was a free transfer.

Hummels came from Bayern.

Subotic, Sven Bender, and Gundogan were all acquired for next to nothing.

That’s not to mention homegrown talents from their own youth academy like Reus, Götze, Grosskreutz, and Schmelzer.

Low transfer fees, a low team wage bill, yet the results have been incredibly bountiful.

Klopp’s tenure at Dortmund is practically a textbook on how to engineer an underdog success story!

There’s no shortage of such stories in the European Football Scene.

For example, there was Pellegrini’s Villarreal team from back in the day.

Therefore, after the 3-1 home victory against Chelsea, media outlets like The Times and the Guardian Newspaper all suggested that Dortmund has a great chance to make a valiant run to the Champions League semi-finals, just like the Yellow Submarine did back then.

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However, not all media outlets were so optimistic about Dortmund’s chances.

The British Daily Mail, for instance, published an article arguing that while Dortmund certainly held all the advantages and was likely to advance to the semi-finals, Ancelotti wasn’t completely out of it yet.

Why?

Because there was precedent!

A precedent set by Chelsea, no less.

In the 03/04 season—the same season Mourinho led Porto to a treble victory—Chelsea’s manager was still "the Tinkerman," Claudio Ranieri.

In the Champions League semi-final that year, Chelsea lost the first leg 3-1 away to a Monaco side managed by Deschamps.

But upon returning to Stamford Bridge Stadium, two first-half goals from Glenn Helder and Lampard briefly put Chelsea in a position to advance, with one foot already in the final.

"If Ranieri’s team had been able to withstand the pressure and hold on to that 2-0 lead, perhaps Mourinho’s legendary treble would never have happened!"

It’s worth remembering that the Chelsea squad back then was a formidable team, boasting a roster of powerful, big-name players like Crespo, Hasselbaink, Glenn Helder, and Gallas.

Of course, Chelsea ultimately failed to fend off Monaco’s comeback and missed their chance to advance.

But the Daily Mail specifically interviewed Terry and Lampard for the article.

Both Chelsea stars had played in that historic match, and both insisted that the current squad is in a better position than they were back then.