Chapter 151: The First Half Part 2
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
In the changing room, the Nottingham Forest players were in a rather good mood at first, since they had managed to equalize the score by the end of the first half. On their way back to the changing room, they were laughing and talking happily. Upon seeing this, Tang En, who was off to the side, scowled at Walker. Walker knew that the players, despite feeling great about themselves, were in for a tongue-lashing.
As expected, once everyone entered the changing room, Tang En’s face turned into a glower as soon as Walker closed the door.
When everyone saw the manager’s face, their idle chatting slowly died down until the room became completely silent. With the manager in such a bad mood, who would dare to keep talking?
“Who still remembers the first thing I told all of you before the match?” Tang En glared at the twelve players in the changing room, but nobody dared to make a sound. Perhaps they had already forgotten, or perhaps they remembered; but they dared not say because they did not know what their manager’s intentions were.
So, Tang En started to call names. “Morgan?”
Morgan hesitated for a split second before answering in an unsure tone, “Well… I think it was about defense, chief.”
“Well… I think it was about defense…”Tang En imitated the tone of his young center back. “Are you doubting your memory?”
“It was defense! Defense! That’s right, it was defense!” Morgan frantically shouted.
Tang En looked at Morgan and grinned, but it managed to make Morgan even more uneasy and frightened. Morgan felt that he had already been made the target for the boss to vent his anger on.
“Very good, Mr. Morgan. You may take a seat now,” Tang En said, waving his hands.
It was only at that moment that Morgan realized that he had stood up from the bench, just like a student who was answering a teacher’s question during class.
Tang En turned around and looked at the rest of the players. After that, he unfolded his hands and once again repeated his words from before the match. “‘Defense, lads, I want you all to know the importance of defense!’ We spent ten minutes talking about how to guard against the opponent’s offenses, and in the end we conceded a goal twelve minutes into the game. Now, I know you guys all want to say that that goal had a certain element of chance involved. But a goal conceded is a goal conceded. I don’t want any excuses for it. Honestly, we played poorly in the first half. Very poorly. We should feel lucky to have tied with Bolton. Ashley Young performed outstandingly, Freddy as well.” Tang En looked at the two players who had contributed significantly to the goal and nodded his head to express his recognition of their efforts. “But this shouldn’t conceal the issue. I admit that I’m also partially responsible for our horrible performance in the first half. My tactics failed and gave the opponent a chance to score. But all of you should also reflect on your performance.”
After that, Tang En walked to the tactics board and drew the actual formation of Bolton and Nottingham Forest during the match. It was derived from what Tang En had observed during the match. Bolton’s was 4312, while Nottingham Forest’s was 4231.
“Rebrov did very well in the midfield, so I want you to continue playing that position.” Tang En drew a circle around the middle of the three midfielders, before drawing another arrow from within the circle, pointing towards the kick-off circle. “But you have to position yourself slightly farther back in the second half. Maintain a sufficient distance away from Wood, but don’t leave his protection range.”
Rebrov nodded his head, showing that he understood.
“And Gunnarsson, very sorry, but you’ll have to rest for the second half. I’m going to let Crouch substitute you. You did pretty well for the first half; you provided effective support behind him. However, there are only eleven people on the field, and we need to go on the offensive in the second half.” Tang En stared at Gunnarsson, trying his best to appear to be as sincere as he could. Being substituted out during half-time was not considered a good thing.
Gunnarsson was slightly unwilling, but he still nodded his head. George Wood’s performance was indeed much better than his, so there was nothing wrong with leaving Wood on the field.
Seeing Gunnarsson nodding, Tang En wiped away the solid circle he drew on the board. Afterwards, he added a symbol beside Eastwood that was meant to symbolize Peter Crouch.
“Crouch, when you’re up on the field, make use of your height and create opportunities for your teammates to score as much as possible. If the opportunity arises, you can try to score yourself. Simply put, you can choose the most appropriate way to deal with the ball according to the situation. Don’t be constrained by my instructions. You got it?”
“Got it, Boss,” Crouch said with a sullen face. This was his first time representing Nottingham Forest in a match. If he played well, his future would be guaranteed. But if he didn’t… He would have to sink yet again into uncertainty. He did not want to return to Aston Villa, as the experience he had had there was like a nightmare. He knew that Nottingham Forest had a loan-to-buy contract with Aston Villa regarding him, but whether he would be bought over by Nottingham Forest would be entirely dependent upon his performance this season. Now was his best chance to prove his worth to his new manager.
Tang En saw Crouch’s expression, and felt that it was too grim. This was not good; it would affect his performance on the field. Tang En smiled and said, “Don’t pull that long face, Peter. Do you like to dance?”
Crouch nodded his head fervently, unsure how the manager knew.
Tang En paid no heed to Crouch’s curious stare. He winked at Crouch and said, “If you score, just dance on the field! Like this…” He imitated Crouch’s robot dance from his memories, which Crouch often did when he scored for the national team. However, Tang En’s imitation was not like it at all. Instead of looking like a robot, he ended up looking more like a marionette puppet. As a result, the changing room erupted into a wave of laughter. The heavy atmosphere from Tang En’s lecturing had gotten livelier.
“Tony, is that a rusty robot man?” Walker eized the opportunity to poke fun at him.
Tang En scratched his head with embarrassment and said, “Anything will do, as long as you guys stop pushing me to the ground. Look, my button…” Tang En pulled on his collar.
This time, even louder laughter erupted within the changing room, and there were even whistling sounds.
Tang En did not interrupt the players’ enjoyment. He smiled and looked at them from the side. After everyone finished laughing, he made a gesture to quiet down the room. “Alright lads, let’s continue. McPhail, your performance in the first half wasn’t good enough. You should be more active later. Where did your imagination go? Dribble past those defensive players. Don’t be afraid to lose possession of the ball. Even if you do, there’s still George!”
Tang En pointed at Wood, who was sitting at the corner of the room expressionlessly. A smattering of laughter resounded throughout the changing room.
“Hey, George, you hear that? Everyone thinks highly of you, so keep on playing like that in the second half!” Tang En took that chance to brief Wood on his task for the second half. “Intercept all the balls that try to get past from your side!”
Upon finishing the player arrangements, Tang En began to talk about the overall tactics to be deployed.
“We managed to equalize the score by the end of the first half. If I were Allardyce, I definitely wouldn’t let the matter rest. I’d search for opportunities to take back the lead as soon as the second half began. So, all the full backs will have to be on high alert for the first ten minutes of the second half, because Bolton will definitely apply pressure and go on the offense. Our formation will have to be more defensive. We’ll need to play counter attack as our strategy. After ten minutes, if Bolton still doesn’t score, they will definitely start to try for a stable game, and hope to maintain this score. They will then play to win back on their home grounds next weekend. We can’t give them that chance! If they retreat, we’ll go on the offense instead! Give them a fatal blow!”
After saying this, Tang En clenched his fists and raised his voice. “Lads, I don’t care whether you transferred over last summer, or if you just joined the team this month; I also don’t care if you were transferred over to the first team from the youth team, or if you’ve been on this team all this time. I don’t care which team you were previously on, which manager you played under, whether you’ve gotten honorable titles or you have nothing to your name… In short, we are now one team, and we trained together. So, I want you all to understand what my football—Tony Twain’s football—is like!” Tang En said, pointing to his own chest.
“I’m sure some of you here already know what happened to Nottingham Forest during last season’s playoffs, so I can tell all of you: what is Tony Twain’s football? It is victory! I hate defeats! Especially those that happen when I’m on the brink of success! I hope that the only thing that you all think about when you’re out there playing, is victory! You must tell yourself, today I must win! Not ‘what if I lose’, or other worthless thoughts like that!”
“Now that we’re already in the semi-finals of the EFL Cup, we’re only one step short of advancing into the finals! Just one month ago, who would have thought that we would be able to accomplish that? At that time, we were ranked fourth from the bottom. Even Crystal Palace ridiculed us, and they were ranked third from the bottom! That match, we showed Crystal Palace how small they are! Now, we have to show Bolton the same thing! Finish them off on our home grounds! Don’t let them have a chance of comeback on their home grounds! It’s ours, and nobody can take it away from us!”
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“What kind of person is Tony Twain? How should I say it…” In the resting room designated for announcers, John Motson was currently discussing Twain with the two people opposite him. “I can’t define him. I really is impossible to say with any certainty what kind of person he really is. The definitive adjectives used to describe him in the past are completely wrong… It’s very complicated. So if you ask me what kind of person he is, I can’t answer you. I’m afraid even Twain himself is unable to do so. Hence, in order to understand what kind of person he is, you will have to see for yourself…”
“Hey, John. Why do I feel like you’re patronizing us?” Gray said, sounding annoyed.
Motson shrugged. “I can only say what kind of person I feel Tony Twain is. He seems to be very rash, one who speaks his mind. He will use any and all means to achieve his goal, and he is someone that bears grudges easily… But this may not necessarily be your evaluation of him. There are a thousand Hamlets in a thousand people’s eyes. The same thing applies to Tony Twain.”
Martin Taylor fell into deep thought for a while before opening his mouth. “Andy, I feel like there’s a need to repeat what I said to you before the match—exactly what kind of person Twain is, we’ll have to see for ourselves.”
Motson agreed with Martin. “That’s right. You two have to see for yourselves during the match’s second half. It will be a good opportunity to do so. According to my experience, Tony Twain’s team tends to always start performing after the half time break…”
