A week after the Community Shield, the 04-05 season of the English Premier League officially kicked off.
The team that the whole of England was currently concerned about was Arsenal. They were only two league games away from the dusty record that had been sealed for 25 years. Starting from May 7, 2003, when they beat Southampton 6: 1 at home in a make-up match of the 02-03 season, Wenger's team was constantly breaking all kinds of English football records: Preston North End was undefeated in the 1888-89 season, even though there were only 22 games in a season at that time, it was still an untouchable success at that time; Burnley was undefeated in 30 consecutive games in the 1920-21 season, they only lost three games at the start of the league season, then regained their morale and maintained their undefeated record until the end of the season, thus winning the first league title in the club's history; Leeds United was undefeated in 29 consecutive games in the 1973-74 season; Liverpool was undefeated in 29 consecutive games in the 1987-88 season.
At the start of the new season, Arsenal had already achieved an impressive record of 40 consecutive league games without a defeat. Now, there was only one record left in front of them: Nottingham Forest, led by Brian Clough, set a record of 42 consecutive league games without a defeat between the 1977-78 season and the 1978-79 season!
As long as they won the first two league games of the season, Arsenal would tie this record. After that, they did not lose a single game and set a new undefeated record.
Arsenal was now in a very good state. Even if they had to go to an away game against Everton in the first round of the league, not many people would be worried about it.
Indeed, Arsenal easily beat Everton 4: 1 in the away game, 41 consecutive games without a defeat!
On the other side, Tony Twain's Forest team seemed to have encountered some trouble …
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During the summer transfer period, Nottingham Forest made frequent moves and were on par with the Russian tycoon Chelsea in the transfer market. For a while, they were in the limelight. This made people look forward to Twain's team, and the local media in Nottingham were also optimistic about this brand new Forest team.
In the first round of the league, Forest challenged Blackburn Rovers in an away game. Before the game, Twain put in a lot of effort to study their first opponent. He did research and analysis on the team, the players, and the coach. He thought he was already very familiar with Blackburn Rovers, so as usual, he confidently led his team onto the Ewood Park stadium of Blackburn Rovers.
Ninety minutes later, the Forest team, which was full of hope for the new season, lost 0: 1 to the home team, Blackburn Rovers.
Judging from the score, a newly promoted team against a traditional team in the English Premier League was considered good for them to only lose by one goal. However, the process of the match was completely different. The score could never faithfully reflect the gap between the two sides.
For this match, Tang En arranged for the 4-4-2 formation that had been practiced the most in training. He sent out the eleven people he thought were in the best condition: the goalkeeper was Darren Ward, the center backs were Hierro and Matthew Upson respectively, and the right back was the French youngster Chimbonda. His performance in training had completely outshone John Thompson. The left-back was Leighton Baines, who had been the main force in the second half of last season. The midfield was in a parallel formation with the Frenchman Franck Ribery on the left and Ashley Young on the right. George Wood and Albertini were in the middle. Up front were Freddie Eastwood and Mark Viduka.
Also on the bench were the goalkeeper, Paul Gerrard, the defenders, Wes Morgan and Gerard Piqué, the midfielder, Chris Commons, and the striker, Peter Crouch.
This lineup could already be considered the strongest lineup that Tang En could bring out. In the pre-season training, it was also a stable starting lineup. Tang En did not think that it would be much worse than Blackburn Rovers.
However, Blackburn Rovers, who had only been ranked 15th in the league at the end of last season, taught the Forest team a lesson: don't think that by buying a lot of players in the summer, you can be considered a strong English Premier League team. The English Premier League and the English Football League Championship were two completely different worlds!
Playing in the English Premier League with the mentality of playing in the English Football League Championship (formerly League One), failure was inevitable.
Many newly promoted teams did not perform as expected after their promotion. Other than the lack of investment in the transfer market, it also had a lot to do with their mentality.
Looking at the scene of the match, the Forest team's problem lay in the transition from defense to offense. Albertini was clearly still not very used to the fast and intense style of English football, and his control of the rhythm was on the slow side. As for Wood … other than defense, there was no need to count on him to do anything else for a period of time.
Tang En was aware of these problems, so he let the two side midfielders be more active in the match. They had more breakthroughs with the ball in an attempt to open up the situation from the flanks. At the same time, he asked the two strikers to frequently change positions during the match and constantly pull out to head up to attract the attention of Blackburn Rovers' defense and create space for their teammates to break through from the flanks.
The idea was not bad. In the opening ten minutes or so, the Forest team's flanks did indeed create a lot of trouble for Blackburn Rovers. However, Blackburn Rovers' head coach, Mark Hughes, quickly discovered Tang En's intentions. This Forest team's biggest threat came from the flanks. Due to the allocation of personnel in the middle, they could not directly threaten Blackburn Rovers' goal. As a result, he simply arranged the defense heavily on the flanks. In this way, after Ribéry and Ashley Young tried several times to break through without success and could not even turn around after receiving the ball with their backs to them, they were completely silenced.
The Forest team's offense mainly relied on the two flanks. Tang En saw that Ribéry and Ashley Young were closely marked by their opponents and agreed to activate the second layer of the offensive system — the insertion of the full backs to assist. Chimbonda and Leighton Baines were both full backs who liked and were good at assisting. In their usual training, Tang En also consciously asked the two full backs to actively participate in assisting, so that the Forest team's offense would have a more layered feeling.
The insertion of the two full backs from the back revitalized the Forest team's offense. Both sides went back and forth on the field, and the offense and defense were extremely lively. However, the score was 0: 0. In the second half, after Mark Hughes familiarized himself with all of the Forest team's offensive routines, he also found a way to completely paralyze the Forest team's flanks. He asked the team to strengthen the offense on the flanks and launched a head-on contest with the Forest team on the two flanks, using offense to replace defense. The Forest team's two flanks, which lacked experience and tacit cooperation, were gradually pressed back by their opponents. Then … Blackburn Rovers scored.
When the home team's veteran defender, Craig Short, used a corner kick to score the only goal of the game, the Ewood Park stadium was in an uproar. Blackburn Rovers got off to a good start, but the Forest team tasted the bitter fruit.
Despite losing the first round of the league tournament, Tang En did not treat the players angrily like the impression he gave people. In the post-match press conference, he admitted that his team's performance was not very good, but that was because "you can't expect a team that has changed nearly half of its main players in the summer to immediately play an amazing combination and a smooth attack. I'm very satisfied that we only lost one away goal. "
That's right. Tang En did not lose his temper at the players after the game. Losing was within his plan. Even if he had paid the tuition for his first Premier League season, he would still have to continue paying the tuition from time to time if nothing unexpected happened. Nottingham Forest was not Arsenal, and Tony Twain was not Wenger. He had no interest in carrying forward the record set by his team 25 years ago. Those who wanted to continue undefeated should continue undefeated, and those who wanted to win the championship should work hard towards the championship trophy. Tang En's goal was simple: to stand firm in the Premier League and survive.
Rather than pushing the blame to the players who did not perform well after a loss, it was better to think about what the team had not done well. He still had a week's time to improve in training with all his colleagues in the coaching team.
After the first round of games had ended, the media commented on the performance of each team. The evaluation that the Forest team received was "disappointing." They felt that the Forest team, which had spent 12 million pounds on 11 players in the summer, had not played anything that could make people's eyes shine. The monotonous and unchanging side offense had instead led them to a dead end.
Tang En insisted that the direction of the side offense was not wrong. They only needed to solve the specific details such as the coordination and positioning of the side in the process of attack. At the same time, he looked forward to Albertini adapting to the Premier League as soon as possible. Even if he only played at half the level of his peak at AC Milan, it would be enough to revitalize the Forest team's midfield.
Seven days later, on the 22nd of August, the City Ground Stadium welcomed the Forest team's first home game of the season. It was also the first time in four years that the stadium hosted a Premier League match. For many Forest fans, it was a memorable day.
On the day of the game, the City Ground Stadium, which could only hold 27,000 people, was filled to the brim. Although the fans were disappointed that the team had lost the first round of games, they still firmly supported this young team. From the moment they entered the stadium, the rising and falling singing in the stadium had not stopped.
When Tang En was still a fan, he often watched La Liga, mainly the games between Real Madrid and Barcelona. Seeing this scene, he could not help but lament the difference in football culture between England and Spain. To be able to coach in such an environment was practically every coach's dream.
For the sake of those loyal and devoted fans, they could not lose this game no matter what!
(To be continued. If you wish to know what happened next, please log on to WWW. CMFU. com. More chapters. Support the author. Support original reading!)
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