Chapter 84: Goal: League Cup (Part 1)

On February 7, Nottingham Forest re-emerged in the First Division. After more than ten days of rest, they defeated Coventry 1:0 at home.   The pause for more than ten days gave Tang En the time to adjust the team's tactics and prepare for the game again, but also interrupted the Forest's rhythm.   They played very hard at home in this game, and finally defeated their opponents with a goal suspected of offside.        The head coach of Coventry kept talking about the penalty and believed that his team should be the winner.   When Tang En got the advantage, he insisted that the referee was right and did not want to mention the goal.

For Don and the Forests, it doesn't matter whether the ball is offside. The one who gets stubborn on this issue should be the head coach of Coventry, not him. He just needs to know that his team has another valuable three-pointer.

Victory is the most important thing, the process... is just a road to victory. No matter what method you take, you just need to reach the end.

A week later, Nottingham Forest's winning streak finally stopped. In the 31st round of the league, they were tied 1:1 by Walshal at home. Because of one less game, they were still ranked 14th, and it didn't affect much if they drew one game, after all, they did not lose.

This shows the correctness of Tang En's insistence on "If you can't win, don't lose."

On February 17, in the 24th round of the make-up match, Nottingham Forest challenged Gillingham away. Judging from the scene, the Forest team was still at a disadvantage, and the young players' unstable performance was fully exposed. They can win in a row or fail in a row. The final score was 0:0. Tang En relied on his defensive tactics to score a point in the away game, but still did not lose. This was the result he felt most gratified.

He has increasingly realized the pressure of being a coach... Every time he sees the opponent bombarding around his goal, his heart will be raised to his throat, and every time he goes out of the goal, his heart will stop beating. The feeling is not good at all.

February 29th is the League Cup final, but the Nottingham Forest team had three games a day: three games on the 14th, 17th, and 21st. This is a bit of complaints that Tang En was quite complaining when he was interviewed. He complained that the league committee did not know how to adapt and arranged such intensive events before such an important game, so that his team had no time to rest.

In fact, the league committee arranged this way, because one of the three games was a supplementary match, and they also postponed the 33rd round of the Forest and Blatford. If it was done as usual, the kickoff time for that game was February 28th...

On February 21, the 32nd round of the league, Nottingham Forest continued their away journey. This time their opponent was Rotherham, and the final score was 1:1. Another draw, the Forest team ushered in a row after winning streak, but finally did not lose in a row...

Tang En breathed a little relieved.  It was time to prepare for the League Cup final against Middlesbrough.   There are eight days left before the final, and the media reports have gradually increased.

Because Forest team is a Class A team and returns to the finals in twelve years, it has received more attention. Looking at the media reporters who have been wandering outside the training ground all day long, even Tang En felt a little nervous. But this kind of tension cannot be expressed in front of outsiders. Because he is the leader of these people, the leader cannot be nervous, hesitate, and cannot disappoint them.

Des Walker gave the new training schedule to Donn. Today is February 23, and they still have six days to conduct targeted training. Before this training session, the coaching staff members will come together to discuss the schedule.

Tang En looked and deleted all the offensive trainings above except the "offensive set-piece drill". Then he handed them to everyone present.

Walker and the coaches looked at the "new plan" and looked at each other.

Seeing their puzzled expressions, Don Eun smiled: "It's very simple. We won't attack them in the game against Middlesbrough. We defend and let them attack. Not only that, there is also a training plan in this table - increasing the number of penalties training times, and practicing for twenty minutes at the last training ground every day."

"Tony, are you going to bet on a penalty kick?" Walker asked.

Donn nodded: "Yes. The opening time for the training team's media and fans is shortened to half an hour from tomorrow. This week, we have been practicing defense constantly. Middlesbrough looks similar to Bolton, who was injured in the semi-finals. He relies on loan or buying balloon stars to support the team. But their attacking ability is stronger. If we push out like Bolton, McLaren (Middlesbrough head coach) will be very happy. Has anyone ever followed the media reports in Middlesbrough?"

Everyone shook their heads. Obviously few people would care about those things. But Done cares, "I have paid attention to collecting various news over there recently. Although we can't go directly to their team training ground to see clearly. But from these media reports, I can see that the Middlesbrough team is generally optimistic. I think that when I know that the opponent in the final is a team that is ranked in the middle of the second-level league, the Middlesbrough people must be very happy."

The coaches all understand what Donn means, and Middlesbrough believes that there is greater hope of winning against the A-level team.

"If they think so, they're very wrong!" Tang En smiled wickedly, "When they were full of hope to end the battle with offense, we'll let them hit a wall!" He punched his fist into his left palm.

After this coaching routine meeting, the entire coaching team started the "wall building project" in accordance with Don En's requirements. Even Eastwood, where he didn't usually need to participate in the defensive position, this time Walker asked him to counter-rob, if he lost the ball, he would fight back and chase him immediately if he failed to succeed, or hand over the target to the midfielder who was on the defensive position and run back to replace the midfield position.

This is not only a single request for Eastwood, but all offensive players must follow this requirement. If someone just stretches his feet symbolically after losing the ball and is spread out his hands, he will immediately hear a sharp whistle and Walker's scolding.

Especially for the full-back, they are almost used as the second full-back. They are pressed to the opponent's bottom line when attacking, and retreat to their own bottom line when defense.

In addition, Don Ng is determined not to practice offside tactics. For Nottingham Forest, which faces the extremely fast wing speed of Middlesbrough, offside is tantamount to suicide.

The key to defense is to compress the opponent's ball control, pass space and time, and creating offside is not an ideal choice. The Forest team must maintain a tight distance in the game, so it is not surprising that the forwards will return to defend to the center circle.

For the current world football world, requiring the team to defend so much is equivalent to negative games, which is very annoying. But Tang En knew in his heart that after this summer, the whole world would recognize the benefits of this compressed defense. Why? Because the Greek team won the championship. In the German World Cup two years later, the Italian team, which was also better in defense, had the last laugh. Although the teams that refused to compress defense but opened and opened big, they all died miserably in the end.

The players don’t understand. Don Eun will tell them during the training interval that this is the only way to win the championship trophy. Those who want championships and honors will do what they don’t want... Are you still professional players? Are you still men?

Des Walker fully understood the true meaning of Donne's "no constant tactics, as long as he can win, I don't care whether he defends or counterattacks or offensive football." In order to enter the finals, he could decisively abandon his plan and defensive idea of ​​conceding a goal first, and fight against Bolton at home and away games to score goals. Finally, he relied on a valuable away goal to get the ticket to Cardiff Millennium Stadium.

Once he entered a final of a certain victory or defeat, he threw the "offensive" thing out of the sky and defended with all his strength. He would rather drag the penalty shootout with half the chance than fight with his opponent in ninety minutes. Because that was "a greater risk" for him.

Tangen once said to Walker: "Ders, you know I am obsessed with Chinese culture, their diet, their traditional customs, their history... and even their art of war. Do you know "The Art of War"?"

Seeing Walker shook his head, Tang En expressed his understanding and then explained, "That is a very famous military strategy in China, which specializes in how to fight. It has gathered more than three thousand years of wisdom, and now it is not just a military strategy. I think football can also be used. Football is war. There is a saying in it: 'Water flows according to the ground, and soldiers win because of the enemy. Therefore, soldiers have no constant momentum, and water has no constant shape'."

Walker was confused by Tang En's Chinese language that suddenly appeared. Tang En explained with a smile, "Translation means 'flowing water will change its flow due to the terrain, and the use of troops should decide the winning strategy based on different enemies. Therefore, there is no fixed single situation in using troops to fight, and the flow of water will not be unchanged.'. War is the same as football matches. I always avoid being seen through by our opponents. Defence or offense, it depends on what kind of opponents we face, what kind of game, and what kind of situation we face... I know that this requirement may be a bit high for the team now. But..."

He pointed to the players who were training on the court and said proudly: "We train them and they can do it when they need them to do it."
Chapter completed!