Goalkeepers: Darren Ward (1), Barry Roche (12), Paul Gerrard (25).
Defenders: David Oyer (2), John Thompson (3), Clint Hill (16), Wes Morgan (5), Leighton Baines (22), Pascal Chimbonda (23), Gerard Piqué (24), Matthew Upson (33), Fernando Hierro (6).
Midfielders: George Wood (13), Demetrio Albertini (4), Branja Gunnarsson (8), Eugen Bopp (31), Kris Commons (20), Ashley Young (18), Aaron Lennon (17), Franck Ribéry (7).
Forwards: Freddie Eastwood (11), Nicklas Bendtner (21), Peter Crouch (9), Mark Viduka (10), David Johnson (30).
These were Nottingham Forest's final squad list for the season. Their jersey numbers were in parentheses. When the name list was announced, everyone's attention was focused on Franck Ribry. This young man, who could not even play in the French Third Division and was in danger of losing his job, actually wore the number 7 jersey at Nottingham Forest!
One had to know that the smaller the number in a team, the closer it was to the main position. What did it mean for Twain to give the number 7 to Ribéry? It meant that he thought highly of this Frenchman, Scarface. Tony Twain's eye for people had never disappointed anyone. So what was so great about this Ribéry?
The doubts of the outside world stemmed from their lack of understanding of Ribéry's ability, but the team had no objections to the arrangement of this number. This was because from the first day he joined the team, Ribéry had demonstrated his ability on the flanks in training. His dribbling and speed were all weapons that allowed him to run freely on the flanks. Other than that, his shooting was also very good.
Even his direct competitor, Kris Commons, had to admit that the Frenchman was better than him after a week of training. "Is this the standard of the French Third Division?"
Twain smiled and replied, "No, Franck is an exception."
When Scarface first joined the team, he was quiet and did not like to talk. He seemed to be worried that his teammates would laugh at his looks. In fact, although the players were indeed surprised by the shocking scar on Ribéry's face, no one laughed at or humiliated him because of it. This would not happen to Tony Twain's team.
Tang En intentionally let Ribéry explain the origin of his scar in the locker room so that everyone would sympathize with him.
Seeing that his teammates didn't look down on him, Ribéry's nervous heart finally calmed down. He gradually became more talkative and soon returned to his lively nature. Although he still could not speak English, he was working hard to learn, hoping to integrate into the team as soon as possible.
He knew how hard it was for him to get his current job. Not everyone was "fortunate" to experience a life where they could not even afford to pay their rent with only 150 euros a month. He knew how difficult his life had been in the past, so much so that he had a special liking for money. Now, his weekly salary at Nottingham Forest was 6,500 pounds. In the team, this was not considered a high salary. At most, it was mid-range. But for Ribéry, who was afraid of being poor, this was much more than he had earned when he played for any of the previous clubs. Moreover, he knew that as long as he performed well, better treatment would come sooner or later. The better he performed on the field, the sooner that day would come.
The manager valued him, and he was satisfied with the treatment. He had a good relationship with his teammates. It was a brand new environment, a brand new league … What else did he have to worry about? Now, he just wanted the English Premier League to start quickly and prove to everyone that even though Franck Ribéry came from the French Third Division, he was worthy of the salary given by the team and the manager's trust!
Tang En did not know what Ribéry was thinking, but he could see that the Frenchman was working very hard in training. He had seen this kind of drive in George Wood before. For people who had been poor before, they would especially cherish the opportunity to make money now. They had no right to slack off.
There were many successful people, but they all had one thing in common — the successful worked a thousand times harder than the unsuccessful. It did not matter if the effort was voluntary or forced by life.
George Wood had succeeded. His debut was still very impressive. Tang En believed that Ribéry could also succeed … What a joke! During the World Cup in Germany, the manager of the French national team, Domenech, would definitely recruit people from here! With the development of the British media, Ribéry would definitely become famous earlier than when he played in France. Now, he only hoped that Ribéry would not forget his current heart after becoming famous.
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After confirming the First Team lineup, Tang En cleared out some of the players that the team did not need. They were either sent to the reserve team, or chosen to be loaned or sold to other interested clubs.
Unlike the sense of accomplishment from buying players, Tang En still had a lot of feelings for the team that he had led for half a year. He had no choice but to see these people, who had fought together for the championship and promotion spots last season, have to leave. If the team wanted to develop, then those who could not keep up could only go down the road of elimination. Many of the players in the original Forest lineup were already unable to adapt to the English Premier League. Their abilities were limited, and the Forest team could not pay them for nothing and let them waste their days in the team.
Although professional football had a warm side, it was still very cruel in general. If you could not meet the requirements, you would be eliminated. At that time, no one would sympathize with you, because it was because you were not good enough.
Fortunately, everyone knew this. No one would have any illusions about staying in the team. After seeing the signings that the Forest team made this summer, many people understood their situation — there was no place for them in the Forest team. Instead of staying in the team and playing in the reserve team, grinding away their form and reputation, it was better to find another way out while there were still people who remembered them.
Rebrov was gone, Ian Jess was gone, Gareth Taylor was gone, Chris Doig was gone, Mathieu Louis Jean was gone, George Roberson was gone, Danny Sauna was loaned out, Gareth Williams was also gone … The team that Tang En had taken over was completely different from the current one.
The ones who should come had come, and the ones who should go had left. Faced with a stable team, Tang En and David Kerslake could finally devote themselves to the team's tactical training.
He had realized what he had thought during the UEFA European Championship.
The success of the Greek team had given him a lot of inspiration. Although the Forest team appeared to be high-profile in the transfer market, Tang En knew that defense was the key to establishing a foothold in the first English Premier League season. If there were no surprises, the Forest team would maintain the configuration from last season in the midfield — two defensive midfielders and two side midfielders with outstanding individual abilities. The main task of the defensive midfielders was to defend and build a wall in front of the rear defensive line. The task of attacking was not heavy. Tang En had higher requirements for the two side midfielders. He required them to not only actively return to defend, but also to be able to plug in and participate in the offense in time. Moreover, they had to fight alone with the opponent many times, so individual skills were particularly important. They were not only side midfielders who could pass the ball to assist, but they also had to be side midfielders who could shoot and score on their own to settle the battle.
Kris Commons, Franck Ribéry, Ashley Young, and Aaron Lennon. Tang En believed that these four players could completely meet his requirements. Otherwise, there was no need to buy them.
Unlike the EFL Cup final against Middlesbrough, Tang En's defense emphasized the importance of controlling the midfield. It would not easily give the midfield to the opponent and then let the opponent besiege their own goal. That would be too dangerous.
Regardless of whether the Forest team was attacking or defending, the midfield was a place that Tang En had to take down. The chain reaction of the midfield going out of control was terrifying. That was why he put far more effort into the midfield than the front line.
George Wood and Albertini should occupy the two starting midfield positions. Wood was young and had outstanding physical strength, so the defense could be handed over to him. Albertini would assist Wood in defense, mainly relying on his own experience and passing to control the operation of the midfield. He had done this when he was in the Italian national team and AC Milan. Tang En believed that he would not have any problems in the Forest team.
On the rear defensive line, one of the confirmed candidates for the main position was Hiero. Even though he was already 36 years old, Tang En believed that he was completely competent for this position. His experience was what the team needed the most on the field. As for his shortcomings such as slow turning, there was Wood. What was there to be afraid of?
The person to partner with Hiero should be Matthew Upson. Wes Morgan and Piqué were still too inexperienced. Clint Hill's defensive positioning problems meant that he could only be a substitute. The good news for Piqué was that although a center back could not be the main force, Tang En planned to let him try to be a right back. In the history that he remembered, when Piqué was loaned to Zaragoza, he could not play at all in the beginning. Later, when Diogo was injured, he was arranged by the manager to be a guest right back. In the end, he did well in his new position. At the beginning of that season, in order to make up for Piqué's requirement of 20 games, Zaragoza often used Piqué as a utility player. He played as a center back, a full back, and even as a defensive midfielder. Moreover, Piqué had performed quite well in these positions. Tang En also recognized Piqué's all-roundedness because of this. Although he would not deliberately nurture Piqué into a jack of all trades just to fulfill his previous promise, which manager would not like to have a few all-rounders in the team?
When the team lost players due to injuries, an additional all-rounder meant an additional opportunity to choose and buffer time. Of course, Tang En still had to focus on training Piqué to play as a center back. It was also his favorite and best position.
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During Forest's summer training, they went through a few warm-up matches. Most of their opponents were English teams. Forest's reputation was not enough to get overseas clubs to invite them to play warm-up matches.
There were wins and losses in the matches. At this time, Tang En did not care about the results. Warm-Up matches were not set up for the pursuit of victory. For coaches, warm-up matches generally had two main purposes:
First, to let the team's coaches inspect the players' competitive state and physical condition after returning to the team after their vacation and start training. If any problems were discovered, they would solve them in a timely manner.
Second, to let the coaches inspect the compatibility problems of the old and new players, test the actual effects of various tactics during training, and find the most suitable one for the team's current personnel configuration to continue.
Warm-Up matches were a classic example of "the process is more important than the result." In the warm-up matches, Tang En paid attention to the performance of a few new players to see if their integration into the team was optimistic. From there, he would decide whether to give them more opportunities at the start of the league tournament.
Although Forest was competing in multiple tournaments, Tang En did not plan to use a rotation system. The stability of the lineup was more important than anything else. Moreover, his team was not extravagant to the point where they could rotate. He needed to determine the main lineup for the new season through the warm-up matches, and then make some minor adjustments on it.
It was impossible for Hierro to last for a full season. He would be the main force at the beginning of the season, but later on, Tang En considered gradually increasing Piqué's appearances. In the future, he could still rely on the youngsters.
Albertini's situation was different. Judging from his age and competitive state, it was not a big problem for him to be the main force in the midfield for a season … unless he was injured. Tang En planned to stabilize the middle of the midfield, which was George Wood and Albertini's partnership. He had been constantly cultivating the tacit understanding between the two since training. Even though one spoke Italian and the other spoke English, they still had a common language: football.
The feedback from training filled Tang En with confidence in his plan. Albertini and Hierro were very, very outstanding players. At the same time, they were very, very good big brothers. Tang En hoped that they would teach the children in the team, and they would do their best to do so.
Even though Piqué came from Barcelona and Hierro from Real Madrid, they were both players who wore the red Forest jersey in Forest. Many times, Tang En had seen Hierro take the initiative to stay behind and lead Piqué in extra training, sharing his successful experiences with the young lad, telling him when to snatch, when to drag back, and how to block.
And Albertini and George Wood were almost a match made in heaven. George Wood was somewhat taciturn, and he was also somewhat arrogant because of his inferiority complex. Such people were generally not liked. But Albertini was able to get along with Wood, who had such an eccentric personality. Tang En had even pretended to casually ask Albertini in private what he thought of his partner in the midfield. Albertini liked Wood very much, and the reason was that he was very serious, hardworking, and did not slack off.
When Albertini was playing in the AC Milan team, he was not a high-profile person. He was approachable and willing to help others, which earned him the respect of his teammates. Otherwise, how could he have become AC Milan's vice-captain?
So, Tang En, who understood all this, handed the captain's armband to Albertini on the second day he joined the team. The media found it inconceivable that a player who had just joined the team and did not know how to speak English would be the team captain.
Tang En insisted on his own opinion, and the results were really good.
Albertini's performance after wearing the captain's armband became more proactive. He always took the initiative to help the others in the team, whether it was the old players or the newcomers who had just joined the Forest team. He did not feel that it was inappropriate for him to do such a thing right after joining the team. Perhaps this was someone who was born to be a leader.
When Tang En asked Wood to learn more from Albertini, Wood asked him, "What exactly do you want to learn?"
At first, Tang En had wanted to list out many of Albertini's good points to make Wood pay attention to learning. But after thinking for a while, he realized that it would be too troublesome to list them one by one, because the Italian had a lot of good points. So, he simply said, "Learn everything about him, whether it's on or off the field."
Since Tang En had said so, George Wood naturally did as he said.
Tang En did not expect that he had found an experienced veteran for the team to strengthen the personnel allocation in the midfield. He did not expect to find Wood a very good teacher. Now, he decided to deliberately nurture George Wood's leadership skills.
As a manager, he also needed to nurture his own people among the players. Otherwise, when he was in deep trouble in the future, who would be willing to stand up for him?
George Wood, whom he had brought into the professional football world, was the best candidate.
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As Tang En led the First Team in their final preparations for the upcoming new season, Dunn's work in the Youth Team was also slowly getting on track. Unlike Tang En, when Tang En first entered the Forest Youth Team, his colleagues did not seem to trust him too much. But very quickly, Dunn used his own efforts to make others look at him in a different light. After all, to him, these tasks were all a walk in the park.
He could speak fluent English and was familiar with everything in this country. He was familiar with the Forest Team like it was his own home. He could practically call out everyone in the Youth Team immediately. When he was brought back to Nottingham Forest by Tang En, he felt the memories that had been sleeping deep in his heart begin to awaken.
To him, being brought back to the Forest Team by Tang En was an opportunity. His inner passion for football and his pursuit to become an outstanding manager had never died.
The Youth Team was just his first step.
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As I have something to do tomorrow morning, I'm sending this along with tomorrow's portion. Please forgive me. (To be continued, if you want to know what happens next, please log on to WWW. CMFU. com. More chapters. Support the author. Support original reading!)
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