Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Tony Twain had forged an indissoluble bond with Chelsea since he became the manager of the Forest team. The Chelsea manager, Mourinho and he were considered the two most idiosyncratic managers still active in the current football world. Although the media exaggerated a bit, it was pretty spot on.
Subsequently, as soon as the two of them appeared together in the Premier League, they would be brought together for comparison. Under such circumstances, it was difficult to avoid any relationship even if they wanted to.
The outside world said Twain and Mourinho were archenemies. They assumed that from the way they both ground their teeth every time they played against each other. But if that was truly the case, how would one explain the fact that Mourinho came forward to help Tony Twain’s player testify in court to solve his work permit issue?
Twain never gave much consideration to his relationship with Mourinho because thinking about it would not help him win a game. It was not as if their relationship was so good that he could call Mourinho to throw a game. And why would he be afraid of Mourinho even if he were an enemy?
Besides, Mourinho was not a beautiful woman. What was the point of him killing his brain cells over worrying about his relationship with him?
He did not care what he and Mourinho really were. He only cared about his team’s record against Chelsea.
Since Nottingham Forest’s return to the English Premier League, it had maintained an unbeaten record against Chelsea, which gave the Forest team a psychological advantage. Last season at this home ground, the Forest team did not lose even under such difficult and risky circumstances. They eventually relied on Bale’s brilliant free kick to break through and score, which turned the tide.
Mourinho’s team rampaged through the English Premier League. No matter what game they played, there were no longer any rivals who had not been beaten by him before. His only sore point was Nottingham Forest under Tony Twain’s command.
This was a good opportunity for him. Since the Forest team’s main defensive midfielder, George Wood, was banned, and thus the midfield barrier was missing, Chelsea’s attacking lineup was unhindered.
Lampard was finally able to play undisturbed. His plug-ins and long shots were quite menacing.
Twain was aware that his team’s weak point was the defensive midfielder. No matter how hard Sun Jihai played, he could not make up for a weakness in ability. If Wenger knew how to make use of that, then Mourinho definitely also knew. Twain decided to give Sun Jihai a break.
However, Twain did not want to his opponent to know. The team had a few days of closed-door training at the last minute. Luckily, the outside world did not think about Twain’s semi-annual “date” with Mourinho.
It was not until an hour before the game, when the media received each team’s list of starters, that everyone was surprised.
John Motson picked up a piece of paper and fluttered it at the camera. “We’ve just received the starting list for both teams. What were we just analyzing just now? Mark?” He looked next to him at the commentator, Mark Lawrenson, who was doing game commentary with him.
Mark Lawrenson touched the newly smooth skin above his lip, having just lost his mustache in a bet against Motson, and said, “I think Twain will stick to his defensive strategy in this game on the home ground. After all, his team is in a bad situation now. Without George Wood, the Forest team’s midfield will struggle to stop Chelsea’s Lampard and others from attacking. Making the young defensive line — made up of Piqué and Kompany — directly confront the Chelsea’s attacking players is just too much pressure.”
Motson nodded. “You’re correct based on the analysis of the pre-match situation, Mark. But if Tony Twain didn’t pull some kind of surprise, he wouldn’t be Tony Twain. We don’t know his specific tactics yet, but from this starting list, we can see that defense is definitely not what he wants.” Motson picked up the list. “The goalkeeper, Edwin van der Sar, center-backs, Piqué and Kompany, left-back Gareth Bale, right-back, Chimbonda.” He stopped to glance at Mark Lawrenson. “In the midfield, Franck Ribéry, Ashley Young, as well as Albertini and van der Vaart!”
Lawrenson raised an eyebrow.
“The forwards are van Nistelrooy and Eastwood,” Motson continued.
“Gareth Bale is an offensive full-back. His defense is not as good as Leighton Baines’. The defensive midfielder, Sun, was not listed, but rather the Dutchman who is far stronger in offense than defense,” Lawrenson analyzed. “Tony Twain wants to attack Chelsea on his own home ground? Gosh, this game will be a record. This is the first time Manager Twain chose to attack in a game against Chelsea! Furthermore, it’s on his home ground!” Lawrenson mocked.
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“What’s going on here?” Mourinho frowned as he took the other team’s starting list from his assistant. “I thought that coward would be playing defensive tactics again.”
“Evidently Twain wants to play offense with us on his home ground,” His assistant manager, Steve Clarke, said.
Mourinho glanced at him. Any fool could see that Twain was going to attack.
But was the problem that simple?
“Twain is a very cunning man. Something’s not quite right.” Baltemar Brito, another assistant manager, frowned. “Would he deliberately make us think they are going to attack to make us let our guard down?”
This time, Mourinho glanced at the Brazilian. Do they think we’d assume they’re going to attack so we’d let our guard down?
However, Brito was right about one thing: Twain was a very cunning man. Things should not be so simple.
“In any case, we were prepared to use offense to deal with their tight defense. It’s nothing if they decide to press ahead and play. If they want to go head to head with us, they will only have more loopholes.” Mourinho threw the Forest team’s starting list aside and turned to walk into the locker room. It was time to prepare the players for the game.
※※※
On the other side of the field, Twain was already giving his men the day’s task.
“We always retreat to the back of the field, wait for our opponent to attack, and then wait for an opportunity for a sneak attack when we play at home. Does that frustrate you?”
There was a silence as the team processed the boss’s random question. Eventually, Eastwood stood and shook his head. “We’re not frustrated, chief. We enjoy winning.”
“Don’t be ridiculous.” Twain waved his hand. “I was very displeased whenever I saw our opponents strutting around and pressing on us on our own ground. How could energetic lads like yourselves bear it?”
Someone laughed mischievously.
“We should look and behave like a home team on our home ground. We’re not afraid of Chelsea because they have never won against us. Your job in this game is to score goals and score more goals. Let those Chelsea boys see that we can remain unbeaten by them without relying on defense alone! Attack! And attack! Other than the f**king offense, it’s still offense!”
※※※
While the players of both teams lined up on the sidelines for the media to photograph, Twain and his coaching staff were already seated in the coaches’ seats.
“Tony, do you think depending on offense alone can stop Chelsea?” Kerslake asked..
“Don’t tell me there’s another way we can do it? Defense?” Twain asked.
Beside them, Dunn helped Twain answer, “Attack is the only solution to resolve the crisis. I don’t think Chelsea’s offense is that powerful. We’re not necessarily going to lose by competing in scoring goals.”
Twain smiled at Kerslake. “I’m on the same page too. Assimilating Shevchenko and Ballack with the team did not go well. Mourinho went around a circle before he realized that last season’s lineup could be trusted. Now all of England is saying that without George Wood, our defense is a weak spot for everyone to exploit. I want to show those people why ‘offense is the best defense.’ Hey, David, aren’t you looking forward to it?”
“Looking forward to what?”
“Looking forward to the scene where we press all out and go crazy on offense.”
Kerslake looked up at the sky, as if such a scene was presented in the blue sky.
“It’s really a little hard to imagine. We always seem to be repeatedly on defensive counterattack”
“Then you’d better take a good look at this game today.”
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Just like the analysis from the starting list, Nottingham Forest did not intend to continue with defensive counterattack at its own home ground.
The team captain, Albertini beat out the Chelsea’s captain, Terry in the coin toss. Nottingham Forest made use of their ball possession and began an attack on Chelsea after the kick-off.
Unlike in the past, the Forest team did not launch a quick counterattack. Instead, they kept the football under their feet for a while, looking for a weakness in the opponent’s defensive line.
It was rare for the Forest team to control the ball like this.
After the Forest team moved the ball around for a while, they suddenly launched an offensive. Albertini passed the ball straight to van der Vaart when he had the chance to receive the ball in the middle. However, with his back against the Chelsea player, Essien, van der Vaart found that it was not easy to turn around, so he returned the football to Albertini.
Just as everyone thought Albertini would pass the ball again, he suddenly kicked for a long shot from nearly thirty meters away from the goal.
“Demetrio Albertini!”
Thought the ball was a little far from the goal, Čech did not ignore it. His intuition told him that the shot was dangerous.
“Petr Čech! Beautiful save!”
The Czech Republic national goalkeeper flew to the right and used a single punch to strike out the football.
However, it did not go out. The football did not fly toward the sidelines or straight out of the end line. The ball flew towards the flank after Čech hit it. Ashley Young stepped in front of Ashley Cole and intercepted the ball. Cole was smart enough to choose not to pounce on the ball, but to stay ahead of Young’s way forward, instead.
Everyone knew Ashley Young was king of assists in the English Premier League last season and players like Cole did not dare to be careless. His passing ability was excellent. If there was a slightest bit of inattention, he would pass the football into the penalty area.
Even though Cole was already being careful, Ashley Young still managed to catch a chance. Instead of breaking through with the ball, he directly passed the ball. He kicked quickly and covertly. Before Ashley Cole could even react, the football had flown past his face.
“Head it out!”Čech had not finished speaking and Terry had already jumped up and headed the football away from van Nistelrooy.
When van der Vaart saw the football fly toward him, he did not hesitate to widen his stance, take aim, kick his left leg, and level his body to volley.
It was clever of the Dutchman to choose to shoot directly because the shot was sudden enough to be hidden. The penalty area was filled with players. If the ball accidentally brushed against someone, it was likely to change direction. It could go out of the end line or directly into the goal. Furthermore, with Čech’s showing off in the crowd, his line of sight was bound to be blocked, which would affect his judgment on the direction of the ball.
As long as it held down, it would be…
There was an eruption of loud cheers at the City Ground stadium, as if they had already seen the football hit the net. But this time, they were wrong. Čech still made the right call under such difficult circumstances.
Van der Vaart’s shot did not touch anyone and flew straight to the goal. After Čech stepped slightly to the left, he found that the football had appeared in his field of vision. He immediately leapt out without any hesitation. At a height of 1.97 meters, the goliath stuck his hands out and firmly grasped the flying football from the air.
“He pressed it on the goal line! Nottingham Forest fans were joyous for nothing!”
Van der Vaart held his head in regret when he saw that Čech had stopped his shot through the cracks in the crowd.
“He’s indeed a world-class goalkeeper, comparable to Buffon!” Motson exclaimed. He did not know what else he could say. Čech’s performance with this shot was perfection itself.
Twain saw the scene off the field and considered what could have happened to the Czech Republic goalkeeper. But I had sacrificed Paul Gerrard and saved him instead.
He does not have to wear a tank helmet to goalkeep now and he does not have to worry about his form slipping due to injury.
I’m really the living Lei Feng of the new era, a selfless model citizen.
※※※
“Even though they did not score, Nottingham Forest’s offense has made the Chelsea players nervous. They’ve gotten used to the opponent pulling back in the back half of the field and counter-attacking. Now it’s time to change the impression.”
Mourinho turned his head from his seat to look at Twain, who was also seated in the coaches’ bench.
The Forest team had changed a lot this season. He could no longer look at his opponent in the same way as before.
“José, Twain wants to play offense with us.” His assistant coach, Clarke, could see it.
“Then let’s play.” Mourinho shrugged his shoulders. He did not care.
“Do we want to pull back for our defense and play their counterattack?”
Mourinho glanced at him. “What for? Did we ever withdraw to defend when we played against this opponent?”
Clarke shook his head, “Never.”
“That’s right. Our original plan is to attack, and it just so happens that they want to attack us. I know what that bastard Twain has in mind. They can’t defend against our offense, so they want to attack instead. If we pull back due to their offense, then we would have fallen for his ploy. We are not going to withdraw. If they attack, then we will attack. We’ll see whose offense is stronger!” Mourinho absolutely could not stand to be pressed back by Twain and let this sort of thing happen. Tony Twain was not simply an ordinary league opponent to him.
He didn’t just want to win this game. He wanted to win it beautifully. Otherwise, it would give this foul-mouthed guy an excuse.
※※※
Twain was not worried at all by the clash between Chelsea and Nottingham Forest. He simply relaxed on the coaching bench.
“Coach Twain doesn’t seem worried about his team’s fragile defense.” Motson lamented, after seeing Twain cross and swing his legs.
“John, you’re right. He does not consider at all whether he can hang on with any of his defenses because it would be useless even if he did. He chose, unexpectedly, to attack in this game and put pressure on Chelsea with offense to make his opponent pull back. This would achieve his purpose for defense.” Mark Lawrenson froze for a moment, suddenly realizing something. “At the end of the day, this man still wants to defend deep down! He’s still a conservative utilitarian coach!”
Lawrenson made no secret of his dislike of this man.
Motson, who also had no intention of improving his perception of Twain, laughed. “But for now, he has succeeded, hasn’t he?”
“Succeeded? Other than an EFL Cup title, has he ever won any of the other tournaments? He did not even win a friendly tournament like the Amsterdam Tournament. John, I don’t know where you get the word ‘success’ from.”
Motson shrugged and did not continue to tangle with this topic.
Bringing a once magnificent team that was close to demotion to England’s third-tier league and plagued by a financial crisis back to the English Premier League, getting to the top in their first season of the UEFA Europa League, and becoming the Champions League runner-up the second season; if these did not count as successes, then countless professional managers in the world would be considered useless.
The BBC’s arrangement was also very interesting. Whenever there was a Nottingham Forest game, and the BBC had the right to broadcast at the same time, the pairing of the commentators would always be “pro-Twain” John Motson and “anti-Twain” Mark Lawrenson. Gary Lineker and Alan Hansen would occasionally come on as guests, but only rarely.
If Twain were to hear Mark Lawrenson’s evaluation of him, he would agree with the evaluation of him by his “enemy.”
He did not think that he was successful now. The reason was simple. He already had experienced four seasons, and all he had gotten was an EFL Cup title, which was of dubious worth. On top of that, he was always one step away from real success. In Twain’s heart, evaluating his success was definitely not based the tactical accomplishments, the discovery of young players, and the affinity with his players. He valued these as results. Only a championship title would prove his success.
