In the rear defensive line, there was an old acquaintance from Tang En's memories — Joseph Yobo, the man who had squeezed Li Weifeng out back then. He was considered a capable defender in the English Premier League, but his reputation had never been great.
Overall, Everton was a team that lacked star players compared to the Forest team, but they were very strong as a whole. From this point of view, it clearly showed the standard of Moyes as a manager. To be able to mold a group of seemingly mediocre and ordinary players into a "strong team" that had hopes of participating in next season's Champions League, there was no other reason other than the fact that the manager was good enough.
Sometimes, Tang En still admired Moyes. After all, he did not have his advanced memories and awareness. He had completely relied on his own ability to get to where he was today, step by step. But it was a pity. Admiration was admiration, but Tang En did not have the excellent moral character to be an adult. If he let Moyes be successful, he would be left with nothing.
This season should have been Moyes' season to shine. But it's a pity that I'm here …
※ ※ ※
Yobo was ordered to defend against Bendtner. In the rain, it increased the difficulty of defending. But the Nigerian continued to follow Bendtner tenaciously, not letting the Danish kid take the ball comfortably.
Moyes could see that Tang En was going to play long balls, so he let Yobo, who was the best at headers among the center backs, defend against Bendtner, who was also the best at headers in Forest's offensive line. Forest immediately switched the focus of the long balls to Crouch, relying on his height to make up for his weakness in headers.
Both sides countered each other's moves, going back and forth for a few rounds. Neither side could do anything to the other.
The match fell into a deadlock. The score was fixed at 0: 0, and it did not move for half an hour.
Tang En shook his head gently and said to Kerslake, "Long balls won't work. Our opponent is also an English team. Change formation!"
Kerslake understood Tang En's meaning. He got up and walked to the side of the field, making a gesture to change formation. Forest quickly changed to a 4-4-2 formation in a diamond formation. George Wood remained at the back as a lone defensive midfielder, responsible for the defense in the midfield. Arteta was further liberated. Although he went to the front, it did not mean that he could only stay there. He could run back and forth in any corner of the midfield and appear anywhere.
The Forest team had practiced this set of tactics many times during the twelve days of closed-door training. This was also the first time Forest had used a 4-4-2 formation in the Premier League. Tang En believed that they could completely catch Moyes off guard! Previously, everyone thought that the 4-4-2 parallel formation was the only formation that the Forest team could use well. This was actually a common problem for most English teams — they had played the 4-4-2 parallel formation for forty years and had never changed, nor did they want to change — because English football always regarded itself as the "originator of modern football" and always wanted to maintain its ridiculous "tradition."
But it turned out that in England, the teams that dared to reform and take a new step ended up well. A classic example — Arsène Wenger's Arsenal.
Moyes did not expect the Forest team to suddenly change the formation when there were five minutes left in the first half and they entered injury stoppage time. Arteta became the attacking midfielder while George Wood played as the lone defensive midfielder. Such an adjustment allowed the Forest team's offensive line to be closer to Everton's goal. The threat was greater, and there were more opportunities.
Faced with the aggressive Forest team, Everton did not adjust their defensive deployment in time. How could it not be a problem to use the set that dealt with long passes to defend against Nottingham Forest's ground attack?
Arteta controlled the ball in Everton's half of the field. Everton's defensive midfielder, Lee Carsley, was defending against him, but it was a little strenuous. The Spaniard's footwork was excellent. It was already very difficult for Carsley to stop him from advancing forward. Intercept the ball? He could not think about it for the time being, unless he committed a foul. But to commit a foul in such a sensitive area … If this person scored a direct free kick, he would still fail.
He might as well delay their attack and summon more teammates to help at the same time.
Two Everton players rushed up. It looked like the Forest team's attack this time was hopeless. Arteta had no choice but to turn his back to the direction of the attack and continue to protect the ball.
Then, under the pincer defense of the two players, Arteta finally lost possession of the ball. Everton took the opportunity to quickly counterattack, and it was a fatal goal!
Everton's people must have hoped that things would go this way. But?
"Arteta distributes the ball to the flank, and Ribéry follows up … A beautiful breakthrough! The French kid is like a razor, cutting through Everton's defense! A cross!! It's — GOOOOAL!! Peter Crouch! England's highest ranked player is using his actions to tell Eriksson how unfair it is not to call him up for the national team! "
Of course, these were the opinions fabricated by the commentator, Andy Gray. Crouch had no intention of demonstrating to the national team manager, even though Eriksson was sitting in the private room above the City Ground stadium's main grandstand.
After the goal, Crouch just opened his arms and ran to the camera position at the corner flag. At the same time, he waved for his teammates to keep up. Then he lifted up his jersey, which had a message written on the white vest inside:
Freddy, we're waiting for you!
The other Forest players all pointed to the message on Crouch's chest and signaled to the television camera: Don't film the person, film the message!
At the same time, a banner was put up in the stands of the City Ground stadium:
Eastwood, we're with you!
His teammates rushed to the front of the camera and clustered around Crouch, who had scored the goal. No one pounced on him to push him down, but just surrounded him to make space so that the camera could clearly capture the words on Crouch's chest.
Under such circumstances, George Wood stood outside the circle, not knowing if he should go in or escape. He raised his hand and finally put it down while scratching his head. Then, he hid in a corner where the camera could not find him.
The revelers did not notice this one person's abnormality. Cheers rose and fell in the stands of the City Ground stadium and on the green field. Nottingham Forest finally made a good start to their sprint phase after three consecutive losses in the league tournament.
Although it was still raining, all the Forest fans felt that the rain had stopped.
※ ※ ※
Off the field, Tang En looked at Kerslake in surprise. His assistant also looked at him with the same expression. "I didn't ask them to do this. I didn't know they would do this …"
Tang En nodded, but he did not know what to say in the face of such a scene. He could only slap his thigh hard. "I know … These boys! Good, very good! "
Kerslake smiled.
(To be continued. If you want to know what happened next, please log on to WWW. CMFU. COM. More chapters. Support the author. Support original reading!)
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