Chapter 348: Chapter 80: Blitzkrieg! The Chronicle of Klopp’s Rise! Suarez: I’m Not as Good as Wang Shuo! The Ill-fated Van Gaal

So, after coming to Ajax, he naturally grew closest to Suarez.

"I watched the highlights," Suarez said with a grin.

Despite his tenacity on the pitch, he was actually a man of few words in the locker room.

"I watched it too. Wang Shuo’s goal was insane!" Lodeiro exclaimed, his face a mask of awe.

Hearing this, Gabriel, who was standing nearby, immediately piped up, "I saw it too! It was all over the major Dutch papers this morning. That goal was seriously incredible."

"The papers said he only decided to go for it himself once he was sure he could make it," the Danish midfielder Christian Eriksen chimed in, full of admiration.

"Definitely. Look at his posture the moment he got the ball. Pure confidence!"

"Let me say something, as a defender." Oleg, the former Barça defender, spoke up.

"If that were me, I’d have thought he was deliberately taunting us. He stopped on purpose, waited for the opponent to get their defense set, and *then* charged. I think the defenders from Germany were too easy on him!"

"If it had been me, I would’ve taken him out!"

"He was in the box, though," Daley Blind said with a laugh. 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

"Yeah, you have to be careful in the box."

"Once the first man couldn’t stop him, the rest were on the back foot. That goal was the same type of play as Messi’s runs where he gets past several players."

"I’m a right-back, and I think that play was meticulously planned. See, before the pass, he said something to Reus, and Reus drew the right-back away."

"If the right-back had been covering the flank of the penalty area and the defensive midfielder had just held his position, Wang Shuo never would have been able to break through."

Van der Wiel was also getting animated, waving his arms as he spoke. He clearly felt for the defenders who had conceded the goal.

"Wang Shuo’s footwork is just so fast."

"Seriously. It looks fast even in slow-motion. Can you imagine how quick it must have been during the actual game?"

"Changing speed and direction continuously for five seconds... it’s just godly!"

"Toby, if you and Jan were defending against him, do you think you could stop him?"

All eyes turned to Toby Alderweireld and Jan Vertonghen.

The two Belgian center-backs glanced at each other, then both shook their heads.

"I don’t know. We’ve never actually faced him, so it’s hard to say," Alderweireld replied.

Vertonghen, however, was eager for the challenge. "If it were me, I’d make sure he went down on the left side, just outside the box. I wouldn’t let him get into the penalty area; that’s too dangerous!"

"The main thing is, his footwork is so fast you might not even have time to commit the foul."

"Yeah, it all comes down to his speed."

The players continued to debate back and forth.

"Luis, could you pull off a goal like that?" Gabriel asked with a sly grin, putting Suarez on the spot.

Although Suarez was Uruguayan, he spoke Spanish. And since his wife often lived in Barcelona, he was very close with the former Barça players like Gabriel and Oleg.

All eyes turned to Suarez again.

It was meant as a joke.

After all, Suarez was currently the most individually skilled player at Ajax, perhaps even in the entire Eredivisie.

But to everyone’s surprise, Suarez actually gave it some serious thought before shaking his head.

"If the defense wasn’t packed so tightly, I think I could do it. But in such a tight space, I’d probably lose the ball by the time I faced the second defender. My feet aren’t fast enough."

When the others heard this, they were all completely stunned.

’Suarez would only get past the first man?’

But they were all players. After a moment’s thought, they immediately understood what Suarez meant.

Suarez and Wang Shuo were actually about the same height. In fact, the Uruguayan was even a bit stronger physically.

The biggest issue, however, was that Wang Shuo’s footwork was much, much quicker than Suarez’s.

If the defenders were more spread out, the slightly slower Suarez could pull it off too.

But under the conditions of that Dortmund-Frankfurt match, Suarez felt he simply couldn’t have done it.

By the time he faced the second defender, he probably wouldn’t have had time to get the ball into the box.

"I think Messi could probably do it. I’m not even sure Ribery could."

The moment Suarez said this, several players in the locker room sucked in a sharp breath.

Now that was high praise!

"Not even Robben?" As a Dutchman, Daley Blind couldn’t accept that.

"If he had space to build up speed, Robben could do it too. But in such a tight area, over such a short distance, there’s no way even Robben could pull it off."

Suarez explained patiently.

"The main thing is the frequency of Wang Shuo’s consecutive touches and changes of direction—it’s just too fast. He doesn’t move like a player who’s 1.8 meters tall; he’s more like someone who’s around 1.7 meters. Plus, he’s incredibly skilled with both feet."

"I’m even thinking that at his peak frequency, he might be able to manage four precise touches and changes of direction in a single second."

"Four times in one second?" Oleg was so shocked he blurted it out.

"That’s impossible. Not even Messi would claim he can manage four touches in a single second."

"It’s just a guess, but his footwork is undeniably fast," Suarez said with a smile, letting the topic drop.

But everyone in the locker room was taken aback.

The number of touches a player can make in a very short time is a measure of their ball control and ability to change direction.

If Wang Shuo could really manage four touches a second, then no one at Ajax would be able to stop him!

But was that even possible?

The video of that goal from the Dortmund vs. Frankfurt match had already gone completely viral.