Chapter 761: Anyone and Us
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
When team leader George Wood announced the extension of the contract, the team easily triumphed over Man City on away ground 2:0. These two matters combined to inflate Nottingham Forest’s morale, boosting their confidence.
Upon facing the Celtics in the Champions League group match, the Nottingham Forest players expressed that there was no problem in winning on home ground. Twain took from Dunn a list of the names of people who either expressed similar sentiments to the media or were overconfident in their usual training. Then, on the starting roster of this starting group match, none of these people were on it.Overconfidence was the most serious problem in the middle and backcourt. Shahin, Bostock, Bentley, Kompany and Rafinha were on that list.
Therefore, the Celtics saw another version of Nottingham Forest on the road: goalkeeper Akinfeev, central defenders Pepe and Woodgate, left back Joe Mattock, and right back Nkoulou. For the midfield position, eternal captain St. George Woodley continued to start and he was untouchable. The person who partnered with him was Tiago. The right avant-garde was Lennon and the left avant-garde was Cohen. The forward line comprised partners van Nistelrooy and Agbonlahor. Not letting Ibišević start out was a tactic to protect him and relieve him of pressure.
The Celtics were absolutely afraid to say that they could easily win over such a version of Nottingham Forest. In fact, because Twain had always liked rotating frequently, each line up did not vary much in terms of strength. Any one could be said to be the main lineup, and sometimes under his ingenious words, the lineup that was not an optimal one could bring immense energy to the field.
This was deeply felt in 07-08. At the Portsmouth season, they thought that the Nottingham Forest, which had a major rotation of the main lineup, could be easily bullied. He had planned to beat this incomparable team and the incomparable head coach at home. They almost succeeded, but in the end the outraged Nottingham Forest dominated with seven goals.After that, no one dared to look down on the second lineup of Nottingham Forest.
The Celtics used a lineup which prioritized defensive counterattacks on the road, striving for a steal by securing a point. Twain expected that the opponent would do this, but the Nottingham Forest of today was no longer a team that only defended counterattacks. Although his lineup lacked a midfield organizer like Shahin, George Wood’s progress in offense was enough to make Twain feel relieved.
There was also a benefit to this midfield configuration: the midfielder had two defensive midfielders who cut off the route the opponent intended to use in his counterattack. In the formation of the two, the two people stood side by side, and the two side avant-garde positions were very forward. They were almost to the position of the winger and seemed to be far away. This was not the case during the actual competition, because Wood and Tiago always took turns to intercept and the two frontiers would also retreat, so there was no danger that the distance would be too far to be cut off.
Twain had always asked the players to be flexible, so his lineup did not represent actual results. On defense, he required everyone to strictly abide by tactical discipline, and things that should not be done were not done. But on offense, he gave the players the greatest freedom to play freely under a big tactical frame. As long as one could score, he did not care how they did it.
Now back to the game.
The Celtics laid many men in the middle and backcourt, just like a web weaved by a spider, waiting for the stupid bird which was Nottingham Forest to slam into the net, and then used the counterattack to kill them.
Twain was no fool. He asked the team to team press properly, but the defense line would not move. One of the benefits of getting Joe Mattock and Nkoulou to start was that they were more obedient than those old sticks in the mud – yes, Bale had evolved into an old fritter, so he knew how to be sly and play tricks.
Twain did not ask for the full-back to assist the offense, but he asked for the midfielder to plug in. Originally, there were two midfielders, but they continued to take turns in the game to inset, causing the Celtics’ defensive line to be cautious.
Especially Wood, whose speed and body made him extremely threatening when he was plugging in, moreover his through pass was getting more clean and accurate. After playing for 30 minutes, Wood already had two direct passes to penetrate the Celtics’ heavy defense. Unfortunately, neither Van Nistelrooy nor Agbonlahor could receive his ball.
But the Celtics were also smart and immediately adjusted their defenses. The back line shrunk back further, not giving Wood any space for a straight pass.
After seeing it on the sidelines, Twain got up from the coaching seat and made his first adjustment in this game. He let Van Nistelrooy get to the top, Agbonlahor to the side, emptied the middle, and then strengthened the long shot.George Wood, Tiago, Lennon, Cohen, Agbonlahor, and even Van Nistelrooy would try to shoot long shots whenever they had the chance.
Although the long-range scoring rate might be the lowest of all scoring methods, the Celtics created such a good opportunity for Twain that he did not have to be too violent. After the Celtics’ backline contracted, there was a big gap in the forefront of the penalty area. There were several times when Wood was there to take the position but none of the Celtics players would to the defensive in the first place, giving the players in Nottingham Forest too many adjustment opportunities.
What would you do if you could not shoot?
The Celtics were also unlucky. Wood, who usually had a poor aim, made two long-range shots hitting the door frame. Although there was no goal, stands of the city stadium cheered loudly.
The Celtics reacted too slowly, hence they still did not rush forward to control Wood’s long shots. So on the third shot long shot, Wood scored.
“Hey, George Wood!! Beautiful long-range shot! Fast, powerful, angled! His shot is getting better! Nottingham Forest leads at 1:0 at home!”
After the goal, George Wood was surrounded by teammates and rushed to the side of the field to enjoy the cheers of him.
“This is the best gift he gave to the club after he renewed his contract! He’s always played a stable state and constantly made his opponents feel despair… Such a person renewing his contract in the team for another five years, Tony Twain must be the happiest person in the world!”
Twain stood up and applauded Wood’s goaland he smiled from the side of Dunn. “Your efforts paid off. His long shot today and from when I first time I met him are worlds apart.”
Dunn also applauded. “It’s his efforts, I didn’t do anything. Demi was right; Wood’s a genius even in this regard.”
Speaking of Demi, Twain is a little lost. If Albertini was among the people around him, the Italian would probably be elated. ※※※
After scoring the goal, playing the match felt more manageable for Twain and his team. The core of his tactics was to let himself lead and then launch counter attacks against the opponent. This tactic was very cumbersome, but it worked best.
Now, he had to look at the opponent’s mentality. If the Celtics felt that there was nothing to lose a goal on the road, then they would continue to wait for the opportunity to counterattack. Maybe they could tie the score at the final moment of the game which would be ideal. This was more uncomfortable for Twain. 1:0 was the world’s most unsafe score, so he had to keep the team vigilant for the rest of the time, cautiously and constantly besieging the Celtics. At the same time, they had to beware of their counterattacks. This type of contest would be too tiring for the players. If he had the choice, he also would not want to play like this for the remaining of the contest.
Another possibility was that the Celtics were not willing to lose on the road. They would want at least a draw. Then they would try to attack in the rest of the game.
This was Twain’s favorite coping style. He could come and go with the opponent on the court. Of course, it was not a counterattack. Only a fool would launch attacks on a team which wanted to score. He wanted to defend those counter attacks. The two roles of the teams would then switch. It was in his blood to play dirty like this.
This time the Celtics did not do what he wanted. They chose to continue defending and waited for an attack, so Twain had to stand on the sidelines and supervise the war, asking his players not to relax their vigilance.
During the intermission, Twain repeated this request to everyone. He analyzed the current situation and asked them not to underestimate the enemy. They should not be taken lightly and should not relax. The defensive line was still not allowed to attack, they had to continue defending the opponent’s quick counter attacks.
In this game, he put all the self-confident and conceited players on the bench. From the player’s mentality, he was not worried about anything.
Now he just had to pray that there would not be any inexplicable accidents on the court. At the beginning of the second half of the game, the Celtics intend to attack fiercely the moment the game started while the other party was still not completely focused, to equalize the score. However, as Tony Twain had already expected, Nottingham Forest was not inattentive at all and they played against that instead. They made several counter attacks against the Celtics and almost scored.
This time the Celtics were a lot more honest. They retracted and no longer came out. The second half of the game was quite dull. Nottingham Forest was indiscriminately bombarded by the Celtics’ restricted area. Due to lack of luck, it was impossible to score. And the Celtics’ few counterattack opportunities could not threaten Akinfeev’s goal.
Nottingham Forest finally won against the Celtics at 1:0 at home and gave them a good start on the Champions League death group match tour.
At the post-match press conference, Celtics coach Rod Strickland said with some helplessness, “This is football, I think a draw was a fair and reasonable result…”
Twain almost laughed out loudly. What did he mean “fair and reasonable”? He then responded sarcastically, “I’m not very satisfied, because we only won by one ball.”
A reporter later asked, “Group C was the recognized group of death. Can the victory on the Celtics explain that Nottingham Forest has taken the lead on the group’s exit road?”
“I never thought about this issue. As long as we can continue to win, we will definitely be able to qualify. I prefer to focus on the opponents in the quarterfinals.”
Scottish reporters might still be a little too unaccustomed to Tony Twain’s habitual madness, but the English reporters were accustomed to this. They rephrased their question, “What two teams do you think would come out of the group?”
Twain looked at the reporter with a sigh of relief, “If I said that everyone has the potential to qualify, are you sure you are very dissatisfied? Thinking I am suffocating you guys?”
This sentence was very true. To Tony Twain’s character, he almost never said anything that would be satisfying. So he went on to say his own answer, “Nottingham Forest and any other team.”
What a great tone! The three teams of the death team have become his foil.
No one was surprised. It would be more unsettling if Tony Twain were not arrogant. What their reporters liked to see was this Tony Twain. A group of people were excited to prepare the title of the next day’s report:
Tony Twain sees nobody but himself
Twain looks down on Juventus!
Twain pre-registers in the form for the team leaving group matches
And many more.
Of course, Twain could be very arrogant in front of the media, but that was a means for him to confuse his opponent. There was a quote from Sun Tzu’s The Art of War: All’s fair in war. This was also the case for football.
In fact, his real idea was that any opponent in this group was a threat to the team, but there were three or six things in it. the most threatening team was Juventus, followed by Atletico Madrid, and the third was the Celtics he had just defeated.
However, Twain was not too worried about the team’s morale and state of Juventus. The only team that had not won in the European Champions League two years ago must win this time! Everyone must have thought this way.
Playing Atletico Madrid was a challenge for the team. This was an opponent they had never encountered before, not to mention the team’s silver boots shooter Aguero in the World Cup in South Africa.
As for the Celtics, returning to play at home was also the final round of the group stage. If the forest team’s qualifying situation had been fixed, how the results would go was not a concern to Twain. If the Celtics want to qualify or fight for a League Cup entry, they would inevitably launch a storm at home, then Nottingham Forest would just deploy their best tactic to defend against counterattacks.
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After the game, the media’s attitude towards this game was mixed. The local media in Nottingham unanimously praised the performance of Nottingham Forest, saying they won a key victory and made a good start for the qualifying group. Although the score is not high, the scene is not good, but the three points are the most crucial.
This game has strengthened their confidence, they can once again smash the team’s taste at the top of Europe…
Of course, there are also a lot of media sneer at Tony Twain’s “habitual arrogance”. Just because of this Nottingham Forest team, it was not necessarily possible to qualify from the group stage, let alone things that were further away. Playing the Celtics, who is the weakest team in the group, and only won a 1:0 at home, how could they even say, “The teams that will qualify will be Nottingham Forest and any other one?”
Public opinion was generally not optimistic about Nottingham Forest qualifying from this group, they are more optimistic about Juventus and Atletico Madrid. As if to cite their ideas, Juventus and Atletico Madrid scored a 0-0 level at the Alpi Stadium – it seems that they are all ready to qualify from the group together and without conflict.
