Chapter 173: The time for sprinting is here (Part 1)

When the whole team of Nottingham Forest flew back to London from Lisbon on a plane, the smiles on the players' faces had not appeared yet. The same was a away defeat, which was completely different from the away loss to Villarreal. Losing to Villarreal, no matter what, they knew that this did not prevent the team from qualifying from the group stage. Therefore, after one night, the players quickly returned to their former anger and chatted and laughed on the plane.

This time it's different.

Losing to Sporting Lisbon means losing the League Cup this season completely. A championship this season... has no hope. So no one can laugh on the plane.

There are many young people in this forest team, some of them are participating in the top league for the first time and participating in European competitions for the first time. There is one advantage of such a team - they will be impressed by a failure. They will not take it seriously, and such failures will continue to affect them in the future.

Tang En was still stern. He was different from the players, not entirely because he lost a game or a League Cup, but because he felt that he was stupid. A little bit of a tailwind made him flutter, and he didn't know why. He wanted to win the League Cup championship... he didn't look at the current team and his own strength. Now that I think about it, I feel how ridiculous he was bragging in front of Tang at that time. I wonder if Tang thinks so too.

In his opinion, it was not that the players did not do well, but that he, as the head coach, had made the wrong direction, and he was a little unaware that the sky was high and the earth was thick.

Tang En was in a bad mood, so no one was willing to pay attention to him. Chris Lak, who was next to him, looked at him several times, but he wanted to say something, but in the end he could only sigh and said nothing.

The team flew back to England in this silence and returned to Nottingham.

Their European competitions this season are all over.

When the team arrived in Nottingham, Tang En announced that it would be disbanded on the spot. The whole team had a half-day vacation and started training again the next morning. Although there was a league game three days later, Tang En was not in a hurry to gather the team to train immediately. After a big battle, he thought about giving the players a little longer to rest and restore their strength.

Of course this is a reason, and another reason is... Tang En himself also needs to think carefully about where the Forest team will go in the next time this season...

When Tang En was thinking about this kind of thing in the past, he went back to the bar. He was drinking while thinking. Later, after Tang came, he had a partner to talk to, so Tang En was more willing to discuss with Tang at home.

This time is no exception.

Tang quietly listened to Tang En's doubts and asked: "How many points are the Forest Team now?"

"Forty-seven, Liverpool forty-four." Don remembers these data very clearly. "But they play one less game."

Don nodded. Now he said much more than when he first arrived in England. Don was very pleased that he could change someone, even if it was just a little bit. "Where is Everton?"

"Fifty-one points. There is a four-point gap with us. The third in the league is Arsenal, with 61 points, and there is also a ten-point gap with Everton."

"The top four in the league can be eligible for the Champions League." Tang said, "The four-point gap is not too much for you, right?"

Donne lowered his head and thought for a while, nodded: "I understand. The next nine rounds of the league will be a contest between us and Liverpool and Everton."

"Don't forget Charlton, Middlesbrough..." Tang reminded

Tang En waved his hand: "I haven't taken them seriously yet."

Tang pursed his lips and smiled.

Don Eun stared at him strangely: "Why are you laughing at?"

"Nothing." Tang shook his head, and the smile on his face disappeared. But Tang En refused to give in and continued to stare at his face. Finally, Tang raised his hand to surrender. "I just thought that you just lost an important game, and now you are so confident..."

Hearing Tang say this, Tang En scratched his head: "I thought about it for a long time on the plane... No, to be precise, I thought about it for a long time since I lost the game. You were right at the beginning, Tang. But you didn't continue to persuade me, do you want me to fall into this by myself, right?"

Tang's lips twitched for a moment, but he still said nothing.

"I think I was stupid now. Fortunately, we lost early. If I lost in the semi-finals, I would have been empty-handed this season." Tang En sat at the dining table, looking at the knife and fork in his hand, and the silver metal flashed under the light. Then he raised his head and found that Tang was looking at him, smiling self-deprecatingly, "What's the saying? Is there a thing I said? It's not too late."

Tang nodded to show that he knew. Then he shook his head: "There is something you said very well. Football cannot be planned."

Don En was confident in his efforts to perform, but in the next 30th round of the league, the physical and mentally exhausted Forest team was completely out of shape, losing 0:2 to Tottenham Hotspur. He lost a great opportunity to reap the benefits...

In this round, two competitors of Tony Donn had a direct conversation. The Liverpool derby started at Anfield Stadium.

Regardless of the performance and ranking of these two teams in the league, those things have no reference value for the Liverpool Derby.

After ninety minutes of fierce fighting, Benitez's Red Army defeated Everton led by Moyes.

After selling Graveson, Everton, who had not made much money in winter, was not Liverpool's opponent away, and was beaten 0:2 in the first half. In the second half, Everton launched a crazy counterattack. They may no longer care whether the game was so fierce and would affect the entire season. For Derby opponents, this game is far higher than a season of league.

Red and blue are the most traditional colors in English football. These two colors can almost be regarded as arch rivals in any city, such as red Manchester United and blue Manchester City, such as red Arsenal and blue Chelsea, such as red Liverpool and blue Everton.

Although Liverpool Club has a brilliant performance, in fact, in the city of Liverpool, Everton's history is earlier than Liverpool Club. Everton is naturally unwilling to lose to Liverpool, and they are not willing to do so even on the away game.

In the second half, Everton launched a crazy counterattack that Liverpool people felt unbearable. They scored a goal in the middle, but their luck was a little bad. At the last moment, they shot and bounced out.

When the referee blew the final whistle, the score on the electronic big screen was frozen at 2:1, and Liverpool won at home.

As a result, the points gap between Forest and Everton did not change, and Liverpool caught up, and accumulated 47 points with Forest, and then relied on a weak goal difference advantage to overwhelm the Forest, ranking fifth, and Forest fell to sixth.

Charlton is ranked seventh in 43 points, and there are still four points from the Forests.

This is indeed the situation where the three teams fought for a Champions League spot.

The match against Tottenham was a little earlier than the Liverpool derby.   When the Liverpool derby came out, Don was very depressed.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

It's too late to say anything now, so I let it go. Besides, the team is in a bad state, and I can't compete with Tottenham Hotspur, who is waiting for it...

The defeat in this game has caused the media to start hyping up the theme of "the doomsday of young coaches". Sports media may be the most ruthless and utilitarian among all media in the world. Because sports competitions themselves judge heroes by victory or defeat. If you perform well, everyone will praise you, and no matter how stingy the praises they can put on you. But once you lose, no matter how good you performed before, there will definitely be a large number of people who stand up to blame you and demean you for not being worthless.

This world is so cruel - if you win, you win, if you lose, you lose, and the draw is the most inconspicuous result and the most meaningless.

Two years ago, Tang En has seen many such things in the media. The winner is the king, and the loser is the bandit. After he became the head coach and experienced these things personally, he would no longer feel angry about it. Instead, he can use the media to achieve some of his goals.

For example this time...

The Forest team was eliminated in the League Cup, lost two consecutive leagues, and failed to win in three rounds. These achievements were described as the Forest team's end of the journey under the wonderful life of media reporters.

Tang En unexpectedly did not write an article in his column to fight back on these "bad" remarks.

There are twelve days between the next league round, and the national team event will be held during this period. For those big clubs, this is the time for the spread of the Fifa virus, but for small clubs like Nottingham Forest, it is a good time to rest and take action.

Compared with Liverpool and even Everton, the Forest team has few international players. Van der Sar is still the main goalkeeper of the Dutch national team. He will compete with the Netherlands in the qualifiers for next year's World Cup. With four main players in the defense, Yero has retired from the national team long ago, Matthew Epson and Leiden Barnes have not been selected for the England national team, let alone Zimbonda, the French national team does not have his place yet.
Chapter completed!