Losing to Arsenal in the away game made Nottingham Forest go two rounds without a win again. In this devilish competition schedule, except for Chelsea, Tang En had been defeated in all his matches against the other three strong teams. The media was not optimistic about Tang En's goal of "fighting for the league title" before the season. Manchester United, Arsenal, and Liverpool were all his direct competitors for the title. Now that they had all lost without exception and the gap in points was widened, did Nottingham Forest still have the qualifications to fight for the league title?
Although Tang En was unhappy about losing the game with Arsenal, he was not so pessimistic to think that his team's future was unknown. The media always liked to make a fuss and make headlines, because otherwise, they could not attract the attention of the readers.
Arsenal had won against Nottingham Forest and was still ranked first in the league with thirty-three points despite missing a game. Manchester United, on the other hand, had unexpectedly lost 0: 1 to Bolton Wanderers in an away game. Liverpool had won 3: 0 against Newcastle and Manchester City had won 2: 1 against Reading at home. These two teams now had the same twenty-nine points as the Forest team. Furthermore, they had surpassed the Forest team on goal difference and were ranked above Nottingham Forest.
As for Chelsea, which had recently undergone a major personnel change, no one had much hope for their game results. Not only because the club had just gone through such a thing, but also because most of the media did not recognize the ability of Chelsea's new manager, Grant. They did not believe that Chelsea could revive under this Israeli. Chelsea had nothing to do with this season's league title fight.
As if to prove that the media was not lying, Chelsea, which had a new manager, lost 0: 2 to the newly promoted Derby County in the away game.
Everyone was waiting to see Grant make a fool of himself, and he did it. Chelsea, which had lost Mourinho, seemed to have its soul taken away overnight. They showed no fighting spirit on the field, like a headless fly. Their tactics were chaotic, and the players were not in their best condition. Everyone seemed to have a lot on their minds, thinking about their future.
Tang En deeply understood this. Nottingham Forest, which he had just taken over, was almost like this. Mourinho had been at Chelsea for more than three years and had laid the foundation for the team. But his sudden departure had also caused irreparable damage to this foundation. Therefore, what Grant was left with was a mess. Morale was low, and everyone was anxious. Everyone felt like they had "lost their backbone". In the past three years, the Chelsea players had long been accustomed to the life of following Mourinho's lead. He had injected a strong mental strength into the team. He filled these people with the desire for the championship and made these people never admit defeat.
Now, these things were gone all of a sudden. It was like magic. With a puff, the pigeon disappeared from Magician's hand.
No one knew what Grant was thinking when he took over the team, and no one knew what else he could do with the team, but that was not important. Everyone was only concerned about how long he could sit in this hot seat. It was said that Abramovich had already contacted Tenkat, who had been Rijkaard's assistant manager in Barcelona, to come to Chelsea. Was he here to be the manager? There were also rumors that Abramovich had found Hiddink, who was working in the Russian national team, and Van Basten, who was the manager of the Dutch national team. The names of the three men had been confirmed, except for Tony Twain, who had caused the "foul mouth" incident some time ago. Chelsea had never admitted that they had looked for this troublesome figure. It would seem that Tang En had overreacted.
It was rare for a manager to be sentenced to death by everyone on the day he officially came to power. Should Avram Grant feel honored or sad?
Thanks to Grant. After Chelsea's loss, most of the media hype was directed at Chelsea, and Nottingham Forest's loss was not worth mentioning in this context.
The demonic schedule was coming to an end, and then after three rounds of buffer, the intensive schedule of the Christmas period would hit again.
This was the special thing about the English Premier League. Other leagues would have a winter break after Christmas. Among the four major leagues in Europe, only the English Premier League did not have this winter break. Because the public would be on holiday at Christmas, people who had been busy for a year would have more time to choose whether to travel or stay at home to watch television. Similarly, fans would also have a lot of time to go to the stadium to watch the games. From the perspective of maximizing monetary benefits, it was indeed very appropriate to arrange an intensive schedule of games during this period. But the problem was that the players were not robots. Like ordinary people, they also needed to rest, and the time needed to rest would be even longer. Because there were 20 teams in the English Premier League, including the various cup competitions in a season, a powerhouse team might need to play more than 60 games. At the same time, the English Premier League was also the fastest paced, most competitive, and fastest league in the world. The physical demands of the players to play in such a league were much higher than in La Liga and other leagues, and it was easier for them to get tired. The cup competitions in other countries were usually arranged in the middle of the week, but in order to maximize the benefits of the television broadcast, the English Football Association tried to arrange the FA Cup and EFL Cup on Saturdays and Sundays. This squeezed in the league schedule, and the extra league matches could only be frequently arranged in the middle of the week. This was also one of the important reasons why the English Premier League had so many double competitions in a week.
Christmas was in the winter, and at this time, the temperature dropped sharply. The English climate was mainly wet and cold, and was very unsuitable for outdoor sports. Under such environmental factors, the chances of injury were greatly increased. Every year at this time, the injury situation of the various clubs would appear together like a volcanic eruption. It was not a coincidence.
Like most managers, Tang En was also very unhappy with such an arrangement. However, countless managers more famous than Tang En had also opposed it, to no avail. In the end, the English Premier League was a company. Naturally, it had to make money as its first goal. The English Football Association also had to consider its own interests. As for the health of the players … since they were earning so much money, it was worth it to put in a little more hardships and risks that ordinary people could not compare to.
Any sport was a gamble that used one's youth to fight for tomorrow. Some people won the gamble, while others lost the gamble. This was a reality that made Tang En very helpless.
※ ※ ※
In the 15th round of the league, Nottingham Forest returned to their home ground once again. Compared to their previous opponents, this opponent's ranking was not low. However, this ranking was somewhat exaggerated.
Manchester City.
At the beginning of the season, Tang En had taken advantage of Manchester City as a rich player. Tang En did not mind letting Manchester City be a rich player again when Nottingham Forest desperately needed to win.
In fact, Ashley Young's performance in Manchester City had been quite good. If not for his scandal on the Internet, his current reputation would not have been bad. Manchester City was a rich player mainly because he was a sucker who spent a lot of money. Based on Ashley Young's abilities, 25 million pounds was still a little too expensive …
This game was also Ashley Young's first game back at City Ground Stadium. He would return many times in the future, but there was no comparison between the countless times and the first time. It was the same reason why virgins were more valued than non-virgins.
Some media outlets used this as a publicity stunt, and the inside story of the transfer was more or less revealed. Everyone felt that Ashley Young had been purposely chased away by Tang En because Ashley Young actually did not want to leave Nottingham Forest. This incident was propagated by some media outlets that "Twain's Black," which portrayed Ashley Young as someone who was loyal to Nottingham Forest and Tang En as a cruel and merciless dictator. Anyone who went against his wishes, even if they were the team's most loyal and meritorious players, could only leave Wilford desolately in the end.
This kind of talk was quite popular, because the majority of people in the world hated Tony Twain. But Tang En was not in the mood to argue with those people about this issue in the media. He had never cared about how others saw him, so if he quarreled with someone in the newspapers, it was definitely because of impersonal reasons. For example, it was to help the team reduce pressure, to divert the media's attention, or purely for fun to tease someone. None of it was because he wanted to clear his name. The media said that Tang En was a demon with horns on his head, wings on his back, a tail on his butt, and sharp fangs. He even happily publicized it everywhere, as if he was afraid that others would not know of his virtue.
In short, the situation was like this. The media wanted to hype up Ashley Young's battle for revenge, but Tang En completely refused to accept the challenge.
"Ashley Young? Oh, he's a very outstanding midfielder. I'm very grateful for the contributions he has brought to Nottingham Forest over the past few seasons, and I also hope that he can perform better in the new team. This is just a very ordinary League match. I have many old friends in Manchester City. If you really can't find a suitable publicity stunt, I suggest you publish a full-page advertisement. That way, you can earn more money. "
He did have friends in Manchester City, but that was in the past. Stuart Pearce had already reported to the English Football Association. He had become the manager of the England U21 national team last season. Because of this, Manchester City went back to contact Eriksson to return to England because they needed a manager.
Perhaps in other places, a club's manager could also be the manager of a national team. The most typical example was the Dutchman, Guus Hiddink. He could be the manager of PSV Eindhoven and the manager of the Australian national team at the same time. But this was absolutely impossible in England. Not to mention the saliva that was enough to drown a person 49 times over and the doubts of the club's fans about the manager's loyalty, even the issue of fairness could not be sloppy. If a manager of a Premier League team were to become the manager of the England national team, in order to let his club's players conserve more energy in the League, he would select all the players from other teams to enter the national team, fly tens of thousands of kilometers to play important friendly matches, and finally drag their tired bodies back to their respective clubs. When they faced off against this manager's team, they would probably not have the strength to fight at full strength, right?
Therefore, the English Football Association would never allow an England manager to be the manager of another club at the same time.
Even if Pearce was the manager of the U21 national team, he had to choose between his club and his country. He chose to give up his position as Manchester City's manager and go to England's national youth team.
This time, Tang En really could not say that he had any friends with Manchester City.
Eriksson was still the manager of England, and Tang En did not like him. He believed that Tang En did not have any friendship with the Thai people, and as for those players … they were even less of a friend.
So, this match was indeed as Tang En said, a very ordinary League match. If the media wanted to hype up the feud between him and Ashley Young, they had really found the wrong place.
Tang En once again used rotation for this match. Beckham was in the starting lineup, and Ribéry also appeared on the left flank. Of course, the middle of the midfield was still the combination of George Wood and van der Vaart. Tang En hoped to focus on cultivating the compatibility of this combination. If there were no accidents, Nottingham Forest's middle would rely on these two people in most situations. Although Ribéry could also play in the middle, after all, the left flank was where Tang En wanted him to stay.
In the front line, van Nistelrooy and Eastwood were partners in the starting lineup, Arshavin was on the bench, and Bendtner was not even on the main list.
In the rear defensive line, Gareth Bale was in the starting lineup, Ayala and Kompany formed the center backs, and Rafinha was on the right flank. Chimbonda was still on the bench.
Playing on their home ground, and with their recent poor results, Nottingham Forest, which made Tang En angry, was full of energy. In their eyes, Manchester City was a fat sheep waiting to be slaughtered, or to put it another way, a rich guy. There was only one word: three points!
"Oh, oh, oh!" The commentator shouted excitedly. "Van Nistelrooy!"
Three minutes into the match, Nottingham Forest was in the lead. It was too easy, too casual … Manchester City's magical halo at the beginning of the season was fading, and now they were waiting for a strong enough opponent to beat them back to their original state.
The Dutch striker ran on the sidelines with open arms, like a bird in flight. "The Flying Dutchman." Tang En had forgotten where he first heard this phrase, but at this moment, he naturally associated it with it. Van Nistelrooy was still as good as ever. Tang En had made the right choice in buying him. Not only was his condition stable, but he was also cautious and conscientious. In the locker room, he never pulled the Dutch fellow into a "Dutch gang." He had a good relationship with Beckham and could unite the others. A real professional player … Sir Alex, why did you let such a person go in the first place?
Before the end of the first half, Manchester City launched a strong counterattack, but it did not achieve much. Although Ayala was old, his experience was there. Coupled with George Wood's diligent efforts as usual, Manchester City's offensive was all talk and no action.
During the halftime interval, Eriksson encouraged the players to work harder. A one-goal deficit was nothing. Anything could happen on the football field.
Three minutes into the second half, Nottingham Forest scored a second goal.
Because Tang En had also told his people during the halftime interval that anything could happen on the football field. A one-goal lead was nothing at all, and they had to take advantage of the opponent's large-scale counterattack to launch a sneak attack.
He succeeded again.
Manchester City pressed forward, and Nottingham Forest took advantage of the empty space at the back to score another goal.
With a two-goal deficit, the expression on Eriksson's face was ugly.
The goal was scored by van der Vaart. His long shot pierced through Joe Hart's fingers.
In the following game, Nottingham Forest continued to work hard and scored two more goals.
Ribéry and Eastwood each scored a goal, and Nottingham Forest finally defeated Manchester City with a score of 4: 0.
As for Ashley Young, who was used as a gimmick by the media before the game? He was completely suppressed by Gareth Bale and Ribéry's offense in the game, and did not perform at the level he should have. After seventy minutes of mediocrity, he was replaced by Eriksson. He walked off the field with his head down, ending his "journey of revenge."
Nottingham Forest, who had won the game, stopped their potential decline, and Tang En was in a good mood.
He even hugged Eriksson, and there was no trace of the Swede he had criticized on television and in the newspapers.
A reporter asked at the press conference about the goals Tang En had set for the team before the season. Now that the team had lost three games, and the opponents were their most direct competitors, whether this would have any adverse impact on the goals he had set for the team before the season.
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