Chapter 87: Wall (Part 1)

In the VIP box at Millennium Stadium, a blonde beauty dressed up couldn't help but yawn and changed her sitting position with some excitement. She is not a very professional fan, she is not even a fan. She believes that the more important the game is, the more exciting it should be. But the final of the English League Cup lasted for ten minutes, but the dull scene disappointed her. This game was boring in the eyes of the beauties.

Not only this beauty feels bored, but the fans in the stands and in front of the TV also think so.

This is the final of an important cup, and conservative and dullness are the main theme. Martin Taylor and Andy Gray, who are in charge of the commentary, know this well and do not complain in the commentary. Gray asked questions about the Forest's style of defensive play from the beginning - from the first minute of the game, when can Tang's team defend? Forty-five minutes, ninety minutes? Or... one hundred and twenty minutes?

"Massimo_maccarone tried long shots! It hit the Forest players and bounced out of the baseline. This was a corner kick. The Italian seemed very excited after the start of the game. In just 11 minutes, he had two shots!"

Middlesbrough lined up a strong attack lineup in this game. It is obvious that the person who believes that the key game should be conservative is not McLaren, or when facing Nottingham Forest, McLaren did not choose to be conservative.

In fact, since Robson coached this team, Middlesbrough’s tradition is technical offensive football. They have the title of “giant killer” in the Premier League and have a lot of experience in playing strong teams. But playing against teams that are good at pressing and have excellent players is a little overwhelmed.

Their biggest characteristics are that they are strong offensive and weak. McLaren doesn't know what Tangen planned. Anyway, he decided to launch a fierce attack at the beginning of the game, hoping to use this momentum to establish a leading advantage first. The remaining game is easier for Middlesbrough, who has better skills.   The opposite of Tangen's pre-match plan, he does not intend to strengthen his defense in the game, but maximize his offensive advantage.   Breaking open the goal of Nottingham Forest with one successive goals and knocking down the fighting spirit of this Class A team.

Therefore, in this game, he arranged the strongest attack lineup he could take. The front line consists of Italian forward Massimo Macaroni and Cameroonian Joseph Job. The former shot accurately and the latter had excellent dribbling.

The four midfielders are from left to right, the star of Middlesbrough's Hope, the 19-year-old talented player Stuart Downing, who is only 1.65 meters tall. But the skilled Brazilian midfielder Juninho is fierce in defense, fast speed, and is not afraid of physical collision. He is also a Dutch midfielder George Boateng, who is loaned from Lazio, and the Spanish avant-garde gaizka_mendieta.

There is no change in the arrangements on the back line, and there is not much room for McLaren to choose from.

Left back, Frenchman Frank Quedrue, is a player who is very threatening to Donne, and he can be at ease in both defense and offense. Although he is only 1.83 meters tall, he has excellent heading skills and free kick shooting skills. He is one of the best left-backs in the Premier League. The right back is England international Danny Mills who came on loan from Leeds United, and the two centre-backs are 31-year-old veteran Ugo Ehiogu and 23-year-old Chris Riggott.

The goalkeeper is Australian goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer.

In addition to the big Juinionho, such a lineup is basically Middlesbrough’s main lineup in the Premier League. Among these four midfielders, only Boaton is defensive, while the other three are all stronger than defense. McLaren’s intention is very obvious - it is offense!

Defense has never been a familiar way of playing football. They like to play beautifully through and through crossing and smooth offensive football.

And today... they don't know that their most proud attack is about to hit the wall.

The Great Ruininho took the corner kick, but Quidrew, who was focused on defense by Forest players, did not hit the ball. Middlesbrough's offense ended in vain.

Soon, Middlesbrough, wearing a yellow away jersey, came again, because the Forest basically had no counterattack power in front, only one Crouch, the goalkeeper drove over with his big foot, and even if he could win the first point by relying on his height advantage, the second landing point could only be given to the opponent.

Although the Forest team reported a formation of 442 before the game, in fact, there was only one Crouch in the front. In the past, Donn would arrange Eastwood to wander around Gao Lao. Looking for the second place, today he did not ask for such a request, but asked the Gypsies to pull back to defend.

Nottingham Forest almost gave up the attack, doing so in order to build a high wall in front of its own goal to completely block all Middlesbrough's attacks.

Italy has a tradition of "chain defense", which means that the team pays attention to assisting defense as a whole, one link after another. And Tang En spent more than a week to build a defensive system for the Forest team before this game. He called it himself "wall defense". It is a comprehensive reinforced concrete defense system.

The back line will never be pushed up. Never create offside. The three lines maintain a close distance and a complete formation. A small situation of more and less is formed within the 30-meter area of ​​your goal. The team is required to assist in defense and compress the opponent's offensive space. You can use your superb ball control ability to make horizontal transfers outside our defense line, but my players will not be impatient to pounce because you pass from right to left, and from left to right. No! No! No matter how you pass horizontally, as long as you don't pass directly, I will watch you play ball control behind the defense line. Even if you control the ball 80% in one game, it doesn't matter.

But if you plan to turn the offensive direction from horizontal to vertical, and want to pass through my defensive area directly... Then I'm sorry. You can't get what you want. Fierce shovels, two to three people, and airtight penalty area... are the situation you have to face.

The forest team's defense range is like a muddy swamp, and there is no problem if you don't step into it. Once you enter, it will make your offense difficult to move forward!

In most people's concepts, defense seems to be just the job of the back line and defensive midfielder. Forwards and midfielders can stand in front and wait for the opportunity to counterattack when their team is defending. This kind of defense is like a triple board, which looks like a shelter from the wind and rain. In fact, with a little force, you can break it with one stab. Why? Because you do not have enough strategic depth, and a delicate straight pass is enough to tear the paper tiger-like defense line.

But this is not the case with Tang En's defensive philosophy.

What is a "wall"?

It has height, length, thickness, and cannot be easily crossed by walls made of huge stones.

Height - George Wood is 1.86 meters tall and has excellent bounce. He is not weak in heading. Robert Hutt is 1.90 meters tall and has a height, and is good at heading. Wes Mogan is 1.88 meters tall. He has excellent air defense ability.

There are lengths - from the left side of the court to the right side of the court, it is all the overall defense control range of Donn. The two starting full-time forwards, Chris Commons and Ashley Young, play the role of not passing the ball to Crouch in this game, but acting as a fullback.

Is there a thickness - can a one-centimeter-thick wooden board be called a wall? Nottingham Forest, a moving city wall, is a defensive area from the forward to the defender. Starting from Crouch and Eastwood's attack against Middlesbrough. The Forest's defensive system has begun to operate.

This is a real ground wall that is two meters high, sixty meters long and thirty meters wide!

Middlesbrough's offensive gradually weakened after fifteen minutes. It was not that they didn't want to attack anymore, but that they had consumed twice as much energy as usual in the defensive confrontation with the Forest.

Tang En asked the team to dare to play in defense, speed, move fast, and move vigorously, and do not stop close-fitting small movements. Even if they cannot shovel the opponent's earth, they must do their best, because it will affect the opponent's every catch and pass. Over time, when their active mistakes in the offense begin to increase, the Forest's defensive purpose will be achieved.

Don't believe that no matter how skilled Middlesbrough is, their personal skills and team cooperation cannot be compared with teams of Real Madrid. Real Madrid is at a loss when facing teams that are crazy pressing and shrinking defense. Don't talk about Middlesbrough, the middle-class Premier League place.

Such a defense makes Middlesbrough difficult to play. Whether it is their head coach Steve McLaren or the player himself. Before the game, they did think that the weaker Nottingham Forest might adopt a defensive strategy to deal with Premier League team Middlesbrough, but none of them expected the Forest to defend so thoroughly. So... crazy.

The big Ruininho is a player with excellent skills, but he came to Middlesbrough three times before and after. In addition to his first performance, he was deeply influential, but unfortunately Middlesbrough was eventually relegated. The next two times he returned to this team, his condition was not as good as before, especially after he was kicked and his leg broke, his performance was even more slumped.

McLaren let him play, originally intended to use his personal skills to cause trouble for the Forests' defense. He watched the two semi-finals of the Forests and Bolton, especially the first one. He believed that Bolton coach Allardyce's biggest mistake was that he did not fully utilize Okocha's personal skills. George Wood performed very actively in that game, but McLaren believed that he lacked experience in how to deal with various changes temporarily. If Allardyce gave Okocha's full freedom from the beginning and let him disrupt the Forests' defense, then Bolton would completely smash the newcomer Wood's debut.
Chapter completed!