This was the 2004-2005 season that Tang En was familiar with. But now, because of his and Nottingham Forest's participation, there were bound to be some changes in the future. As for whether the changes were big or small, it would depend on the strength of his and the Forest team's participation.
Tang En certainly did not want to end the season empty-handed. He did not have the ideological awareness to sacrifice himself to maintain the consistency of history.
On November 4th, Nottingham Forest faced their second opponent in the UEFA Europa League group stage, Serie A powerhouse Lazio, at their home ground, the City Ground Stadium. This was the City Ground Stadium's first European competition after eight years. On the day of the game, not only was the stadium full, but even the bars throughout the city were packed.
Nottingham Forest's fans let the Italians, who came from afar, witness their fanaticism. From the start of the game to the end, the Forest fans' singing and various shouts did not stop. The City Ground Stadium was a standard football stadium. There was no running track separating the stadium from the stands. Such a small stadium naturally could not be compared to Rome's Olympic Stadium in terms of scale, but it had one advantage — it allowed the visiting team to feel the home fans' imposing manner, giving them a huge sense of oppression.
Coupled with the almost unique English style of fans, playing away here could almost give people a heart attack.
Since it was their home ground, Tang En's tactics here were not conservative at all. His oppressive style of play made Lazio feel suffocated. The Italians did not expect this newly promoted team from England to be so strong, and they were beaten to the point of not being able to fight back.
When the game finally ended, the score was fixed at 2: 0. Nottingham Forest defeated Italy's Lazio with the momentum of their home ground.
When the visiting team had already left the City Ground Stadium by bus, the Forest fans were still gathered in the square outside the stadium, waving their fists at the visiting team's bus and singing the song "The World in Our Hands." Back then, this song had accompanied Clough's Forest team and spread throughout Europe. Now, the familiar melody in Europe had returned!
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With their UEFA Europa League home victory over Lazio, Nottingham Forest achieved two consecutive victories in the group stage. There were still two games left, an away challenge against Villarreal and a home game against Partizan Belgrade. As long as they did not make any big mistakes, their chances of advancing out of the group stage were very good.
The Forest team, who had won this game, seemed to be suddenly discouraged. It was as if even though there was still more than half of the journey left, they suddenly lost their spirit after being afraid of a peak.
Three days later, on November 7th, Nottingham Forest faced an away game against a poor Liverpool. It should have been a good opportunity to grab points in the away game. However, the Forest team's play was completely incomprehensible.
The motivation that Tang En was best at was useless in this match. The spirit of never giving up in competition that he had always emphasized was also useless. In terms of tactics, he was firmly suppressed by the master tactician from Spain, Benítez. He had no chance at all. Benítez would be the other party's decision. no matter what arrangements he made, there would not able to escape. could not with the substitution.
He could only watch helplessly as his team lost 1: 4 at Anfield — Nottingham Forest's second defeat in the league this season, and it was also the biggest defeat.
As the manager of the team, it was painful to see such a scene. The greater pain was not that he had lost badly, but that Tang En felt that he had no way of winning. In terms of tactical ability, he was far inferior to the Spaniard. Liverpool's ability to overturn AC Milan in the second half this season and win the UEFA Champions League title was not a stroke of luck.
In the past, when he was a fan, Tang En did not have a deep impression of that reversal. But after really going up against Benítez, he realized that he was still far from being a world-class manager.
In the post-match press conference, the media were all waiting to see how Tang En, who had lost the match, would reclaim his advantage with words. They did not expect Tang En's first words to disappoint the reporters, who were eager to see the world in chaos.
"There's nothing to complain about. We lost. He didn't want to find excuses for failure, such as poor stamina, too much pressure, the opponent's strength was too strong, they were playing away … etc. There's no excuse. A loss is a loss, "Twain said to himself as he sat next to Benítez. "The only reason we lost was because we did not do well enough. Congratulations to Benítez and his team. Liverpool performed better than us in today's game. They deserved to win."
As soon as he finished speaking, someone raised his hand impatiently. "Manager Tang En, what's your evaluation of your team's performance?"
Tang En glanced at the other person. "I never evaluate my team and players at press conferences." Of course, he was talking nonsense. He had praised his players on such occasions before after games. He refused to evaluate them after today's loss.
The other reporter also knew that Tang En's words were unreasonable, but the other party refused to say it. What could he do? He could only sit down gloomily.
Another reporter then stood up and asked, "May I ask, Manager Tang En, since you're not willing to evaluate your own players, can you evaluate Liverpool's players? What do you think of their performance in this game? "
Tang En felt that the reporter was clearly bickering with him, so he asked, "Are you a reporter from Liverpool Media?" Seeing the other person nod, he continued, "Very good. I think some of Liverpool's players performed very well in this game, while others performed very well. Now, this is a fill-in-the-blank question. You can replace 'some of the players' above with the name of any Liverpool player. You can fill in the first and second 'some of the players' however you want. "He spread his hands.
Even though Tang En said at the beginning that there was nothing to complain about, it did not mean that he could still smile and chat with the reporters here after losing the game. After answering a few questions in a perfunctory manner with a gloomy face, he got up and left the press conference venue. He left the position of the protagonist to the winner, Rafa Benítez. No matter how he evaluated his opponent in this game, Tang En did not care.
No one knew how many times Tony Twain had left a press conference early, but they knew it would definitely not be the last.
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