Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
While The Football Kid talent show’s grand finale was in full swing in China, Tony Twain had not been idle either.
In January, he went to the draw ceremony for the UEFA Champions League’s second knockout stage, which once again reaffirmed his thinking that the UEFA draw was manipulated — his team was drawn together in the round of 16 with AC Milan.
The Italian media excitedly clamored to make Nottingham Forest pay ten times over.
But what kind of payback did they want?
The media eagerly imitated Twain when he led his team to defeat Barcelona last season, saying, “In May last year, we lost but we’re going to win it back this time from Nottingham Forest!”
Indeed, Nottingham Forest crushed their previous opponent in the Champions League final and were unstoppable throughout the competition to win last season’s title. It was also possible for AC Milan to repeat the scene and beat their opponent in the final to charge all the way to the final and pick up the UEFA Champions League trophy.
After the draw, Twain was surrounded by reporters who insisted on asking him to discuss his views on the opponent.
Everyone wanted to see Twain give an arrogant speech to stir up a war of words, which the media liked. However, Twain was naturally a disagreeable person, and he would not let people get what they wanted.
“There’s nothing to talk about. AC Milan is a strong team. It’s normal for teams to win and lose. Of course, I don’t want my team to lose, and I’m sure Mr. Ancelotti thinks the same. So that’s it… a defending champion? The label is meaningless. What benefit can a defending champion get besides making us a target?” Twain shrugged, “From the looks of the draw, apparently it does not.”
In the end, he did not hold back and aired his grievances against at the UEFA.
Yes, to encounter such a strong opponent in the round of 16 would make games in the future more difficult. And the matches were held at home first and then away. The last two years were away games first and then home games. The advantage of away game first and then home game was that he did not have to use all his aces at once and could leave a hand to beat the opponent at home. For a manager who liked to play defense, it was the most appropriate game schedule: achieve the results he wanted in the first leg in away games by relying on defensive counterattack. It did not matter if it was a draw. If he could win, it was even better. Even if he lost, it would not be a major loss. He could wait until the second leg and make use of the home-field advantage and determine specific countermeasures based on the results of the first leg.
When it was first a home game and then an away game, it was tantamount to giving power to the opponent. If something unexpected happened in the first leg, they might not have the strength to reverse the situation in the second leg.
Twain did not like the feeling of losing control.
Furthermore, AC Milan was indeed a powerful team. Despite Twain’s apparent arrogance, he never underestimated an opponent.
His coaching unit was going to take a hard look at AC Milan’s current strengths and weaknesses and come up with countermeasures.
Fortunately, Dunn was back.
※※※
Twain was relieved that Dunn came back on time. The Champions League was about to start, and several teams in the league tournament were close on their heels. If something unexpected happened, their efforts over more than half a season might be wiped out.
People placed high hopes on the current Nottingham Forest, and victories and championships seemed to be a matter of course for them. Twain had a heavy responsibility on his shoulders.
With Dunn by his side, the pressure was shared. The coaching staff shared the load, but Dunn took on more because he and Twain were the closest.
Everyone knew that Tony liked the young Chinese man, and he did not offer any explanation. He just let Dunn go work for the youth team, and everyone slowly saw his capabilities. After that, no one questioned why Twain had so much trust in the Chinese man and if he was capable or not.
Dunn showed a level of capability that did not match the country he was from. He was very young, but also very talented — he had the talent to be a coach.
Twain hung out with Dunn all the time, and made some people wonder if they were gay — they had not openly acknowledged a girlfriend or lover yet — but the people on the Forest team understood that Twain and Dunn were together just for work reasons, and that Twain was an Englishman who loved Chinese culture, and Dunn happened to be Chinese.
How many of the strategies used by the Forest team were devised by Dunn? No one knew, but it did not matter. They knew Dunn’s place in this club: he was the person that Tony Twain trusted the most.
Dunn and Twain went back to their usual work after Twain finished watching the story about Chen Jian.
The young players selected from the talent show would not come until March. Before then, there was nothing Twain had to worry about . In fact, even when the kids arrived, he still had nothing to be busy with. At most, he would go and meet the lucky contestants to say a few nice words of encouragement. He might not have to see their faces more than once every few months. According to the agreement, the young Chinese players would be sent to Nottingham Forest’s youth team and be assigned to the different age groups for their training.
※※※
In addition to Dunn’s return, the return of another person put Twain in a good mood.
Pepe was given permission to play by the medical team. He could proudly return to Twain and rightfully ask to play in the next league game.
As he did last season, when he returned to the field after his injury, he was like a football being kicked back and forth by the manager, Tony Twain, and the team doctor, Fleming.
Twain insisted that he would only consider putting Pepe back in the squad list if the team doctor issued a written certificate. Fleming told Pepe that his written approval depended on Twain.
Finally, Twain and Fleming studied Pepe’s physical examination report together. After they ran various tests on him, they thought Pepe’s physical condition had returned to his previous level. Only then did Fleming wrote a written certificate for Pepe.
Looking at Pepe’s smiling face, Twain was happy, too. For more than three seasons, Pepe had been the Forest team’s well-deserved core defender. He was the mainstay of the rear defensive line. His talent and skills were maximized to the fullest under a manager like Twain, who placed great emphasis on defense.
His excellent physical fitness, striker-like speed and explosive power, ability to make judgement calls in advance, steady self-confidence in one-on-one face-offs, the surety in his kicks, and the various honors the Forest team earned had made him one of the best center-backs in the world.
At the moment, Nottingham Forest’s rear defensive line was in need of Pepe’s return. Therefore, as he watched Pepe return triumphantly, Twain did not hold back the smile on his face. The fierce and stern expression he previously wore vanished.
“All right.” When he saw Pepe run over, he pointed to the training ground.
“Do you see over there, Pepe?”
Although he did not know why Twain wanted him to look at the training ground, Pepe turned his head to look and nodde., “I see it, boss.”
“The weeds over there are growing to be taller than a man.”
The smile on Pepe’s face widened when he heard Twain’s words. He understood the boss’s answer and did not need to ask any more.
After he arrived in England from Portugal, the media was skeptical of the unknown kid for using the club’s “exceptional talent clause” spot, which was only used once a season. They thought Twain made a poor judgement call and it was a waste to use it for such a boy.
But Pepe soon convinced the picky English media with his performance.
No one criticized him as a subpar foreign import any more. The Sun even gave him a nickname: the “Grass Mower.”
Twain had heard the nickname before his transmigration, but the meaning was not quite the same as this one. In the world before his transmigration, Pepe got the nickname when he played in Portugal because the team was used to playing with three center-backs, he needed to take on more and faster “mowing” jobs.
Now the place where he became famous was changed to England, the nickname that the Sun gave him was a metaphor. Pepe’s performance on the field was like an unfaltering grass mower, cleaning up the Forest team’s rear defensive area, completely free of weeds.
Therefore, when Twain said it, Pepe knew he had agreed to let him return to the tournament.
“Don’t you have something else to add, boss?”
“What else do I want to say?” Twain chuckled. “Just go to your training. Be careful not to hurt your feet because you are excited. Other than that, I’m glad you’re back.”
Pepe made a sound in response and turned to run onto the training ground.
For Twain, Pepe’s return was the best news he had heard lately. The Forest team needed Pepe. The reason Twain was so obsessive about making sure that Pepe was healed before letting him back in the game was because Twain was terrified by Pepe’s injury during the winter of the last two seasons. He did not want to let the defensive genius that he had discovered become “injury-prone” because of frequent injuries. A defensive player with technical awareness was the world’s best, but if his body could not keep up, then having the world’s top skills and awareness would be of little use.
Twain was afraid of Pepe becoming a second Nesta, so he acted cautiously.
During the period when Pepe was frequently injured, Twain would worry for Pepe’s knees whenever he saw Pepe ran and made sudden stops at the training ground. The good thing was that those days of fear and being on the edge were over.
The center-backs with the best physical fitness in FM 2007 were not fabricated by Sports Interactive’s game development unit. As the Forest team’s collaborative partner, they had the advantage of benefitting from intimacy with the team. The Nottingham Forest player data was the closest to the truth.
In the English Premier League, with intense physically contact, Pepe was rarely at a disadvantage in a number of direct matchups with his opponents.
With such a good defender like Pepe and a defensive monster like George Wood, the Forest team was able to achieve such brilliant results in three years. Twain proved to the world that in today’s football, defense was really the primary factor to win championships. No matter how sharp the offense was or how strong the midfield was, they were nothing if there was no solid defense. Defense was the foundation of a team and the basis of the offense and midfield. Without the foundation, it did not matter how beautiful or artistic the attack was, it would be building like trying castles in midair.
Barcelona was a good example. During the mid-season of the league tournament, the more pragmatic Real Madrid team was in front of them by seven points and they also lost their most critical national derby at home. The artistic and offensive football that Rijkaard was most proud of was yesterday’s news.
As a fan, Twain liked to watch beautiful football, but as a manager, he would never sacrifice results to pursue the illusory “art of football.” He was well aware of the difference between work and personal interest.
※※※
With Dunn and Pepe’s impending return, Nottingham Forest went away to challenge Sunderland on February 9th in the 26th round of the league tournament.
With the same opponent in another away game but otherwise completely different from January’s FA Cup, Twain would no longer use the Second Team to make up the numbers. He also would not be playing against Sunderland with the idea to use the game to train the team. Similarly, the Sunderland manager, Roy Keane, would not assume that the current Nottingham Forest team would allow his players to “find confidence.”
He laid out a tight defensive formation on his home ground and intended to hold fast to defense in exchange for at least one point.
If it had been a season earlier, his tactic might have been a real success, but not this time.
Nottingham Forest’s offense no longer relied on counterattacking to quickly break through the two flanks and attack the opponent’s back. Now that they were equipped with many positional play experts, they were not afraid that their opponents would cling to defense.
Sunderland lost 1:2.
Nottingham Forest scored three points, as expected. With the win, they overtook Manchester United, who lost the “Manchester Derby” that round. The game between Arsenal and Blackburn Rovers would be played on the 12th, so Nottingham Forest was at the top of the rankings with sixty points, for the time being.
Pepe took the stage as a substitute in the second half of the game, replacing Ayala. Sunderland’s only goal happened after that. Having been away from the competition for long, he lacked some rapport with his teammates, which allowed the opponent to score a goal. The goal gave Sunderland a glimpse of hope. Luckily, Pepe quickly adapted to the pace and guarded the middle with Wood and Piqué. Together with Twain’s adjustment, they managed to hold on to the three points.
Because of his performance, Twain believed Pepe’s form was not yet stable and needed to be adjusted through further training.
The good news was they still had plenty of time. The next round of the league tournament would not be until February 23rd, and the first leg of the round of 16 games would not be until February 19th. That period was the international games for the national teams.
Pepe’s injury was fine, and Twain did not feel that there was anything wrong with him playing for his country, not to mention Pepe did not need a break, but needed to play more games to find his competitive pace and his feel of the game as soon as possible. It was better to use the national team games as a “testing ground” than risk Nottingham Forest’s results in the league tournament and the Champions League.
Defense remained crucial in the home game against AC Milan, while the comeback core player, Pepe, was the crux of the crucial point. His play had a direct impact on the results of the Forest team’s game.
Twain hoped to be able to gain a good enough “Grass Mower” in the game against AC Milan.
He wanted to cut off AC Milan’s legs with his well-fortified defense and fierce counterattacks.
