Before the game against Manchester City, the Forest team played one more game — the UEFA Champions League group stage. For Nottingham Forest, the question they were considering now was not how they would advance, but what position they would advance in.
Tang En hoped that his team could win the remaining two games and take first place in the group.
As a result, the Forest team defeated Porto, who came to challenge them, 4: 1 on their home ground. Although Porto had been glorious a few years ago, the current Porto team could not compare to Nottingham Forest.
Perhaps some people did not want to believe it, but the current Nottingham Forest was indeed one of the top teams in Europe. Whether it was the strength of the players or the coaching standards of the manager, they were all top-notch.
Before this, no one in European football would have thought that Nottingham Forest, who had been struggling in the lower leagues, would have this day of glory again. This fog-shrouded forest seemed to have appeared out of thin air, all because of Tang En, who had transmigrated back in 2007.
If Tang En had not transmigrated back, what would have happened? Perhaps Nottingham Forest had now been relegated to League One or League Two because of the frequent changes of managers, the economic crisis and other factors … No one would ever mention this once glorious name again. Nottingham Forest would be like countless other clubs in the modern history of English football. They had a glorious past, but they could only be drowned in the tide of time and money and quickly forgotten.
Of course, it was also possible that none of this would happen. They might have changed to an equally outstanding manager, and with a little luck, they might have returned to England's top league after a few years. As for whether they could repeat their glory, it was hard to say.
But none of this had happened, had it?
They might have happened in another parallel universe, but in the world that Tang En was in, they could only be "what if" and "what if."
Tang En's current problem was that with the approaching Christmas schedule and the resumption of the Champions League in the second half of the season, he had to allocate the team's stamina more rationally to ensure that they did not fall behind in the final sprint. At this time, the rotation system was particularly important.
The rotation system and the wishes of the players were contradictory. No one liked to be replaced by someone else to rest when they were in good condition, because it meant that the main position was not stable enough.
But Tang En had to do this. His First Team lineup was not as bloated as Chelsea and other teams. He had been implementing a "streamlined" policy, reducing the number of First Team members and improving the quality of competition. The advantage of this method was that it could save a lot of unnecessary expenses, but the disadvantage was that it would be a little difficult to make ends meet when there was a need to change … especially in the case of injuries.
Tang En got the team medical team to calculate the current physical conditions of everyone in the team and gave them a coefficient of possible injuries.
Both Eastwood and Beckham were suffering from chronic illnesses and minor injuries from time to time. Van Nistelrooy's fitness had been severely challenged in the previous series of devilish matches. His current physical condition was not very good, so he needed to be included in the rotation system. Ribéry had recovered and did not have any hidden ailments after playing a few games, so he could be used with ease. Pepe's problem was a little complicated. He seemed to be able to handle the games on the field, but after playing two games, the team doctor thought that he should be carefully observed. So, in the game against Manchester City, Tang En did not let him play. He was not even on the squad list and sat in the stands to watch the game. Ayala was old and could not be used every single time. It was necessary to rotate him. His experience and ability to help the team was not only reflected in the game, but also in the usual training. His experience could also help the defenders. Just like what Hierro had done to Pepe, Piqué and the others when the Forest team had just been promoted to the English Premier League, Ayala was just passing on his understanding of defenders and defense to his teammates and partners.
George Wood was directly excluded from the report. Fleming had long told Tang En that Wood was an unknown creature that did not belong to Earth. If he did not play football, he would definitely be caught and dissected in the laboratory. His physical condition was too good … so good that he was not like an Earthling.
Tang En deeply understood and agreed with this, because he himself thought that Wood was a biochemical robot from the future. The English media, on the other hand, made a fuss and gave Wood a tacky nickname — "Monster."
Every time he thought of Wood's physical condition, Tang En would think of his respectable and great mother, Sophia. Compared to most people, Sophia could not afford to buy all kinds of nutrition products for her son, nor could she let him eat the best food and have a balanced development in all aspects of nutrition. She just left the best food she could earn for her son. In this way, a thin and sick mother, who was on the verge of death, single-handedly raised a "monster" that shocked the entire English football world. Although this was not in line with a scientific explanation, Tang En believed it was true. Because behind the crude food, there was Sophia's love. There was no reason for George Wood not to be strong.
When Wood became famous, Sophia was also exposed. This was inevitable. After everyone learned of Wood's childhood, they were surprised that Wood could have such a strong body. Tang En would sigh and say, "This is love …"
But he had gone off topic.
If it were not for Sidwell's feelings, Tang En would not have let Wood rotate. But in the end, Wood was also on the rotation list. However, his rotation was not the same as the others. He was only rotated once in a long time. Sidwell's more opportunities to play depended on the Forest team being able to go further in the FA Cup. They had already been eliminated in the EFL Cup.
This season, Tang En still did not change his idea of using the domestic cup to train the team. In the EFL Cup and FA Cup, no matter who the opponent was, he always used the combination of "youth team, reserve team and some First Team players" to deal with them.
Tang En really did not care about the EFL Cup. Anyway, he had won it once. There was no regret if he did not win it in the future. The championship of this kind of competition would only be seriously considered by teams that had been defeated in several other competitions and teams that had no chance of winning other championships. Obviously, Tony Twain's Nottingham Forest was not that kind of team.
As for the FA Cup … In fact, even in the early years of the Premier League, the FA Cup's status was still very high. Although it was not low now, it was not as high as it used to be. As the world's oldest modern football cup, it had a history of 136 years, older than the history of most football clubs in the world. In England, a team that could win the FA Cup was worthy of respect, and the team would also regard the FA Cup as a great honor. Even many years after the creation of the Champions League, the English people thought that the best cup in the world was the FA Cup and not the UEFA Champions League.
The only regret of the Nottingham Forest dynasty, Brian Clive, was that he did not lead the team to win the FA Cup even once. Tang En did not want this to be his regret. But the problem now was that the Forest team might be strong enough to win the Champions League, but they could not achieve the result of competing in three competitions at the same time. Tang En was not willing to give up the EFL Cup and the Champions League for the FA Cup. It was not like 20 years ago now. The FA Cup was far from being able to satisfy the ambitions of a professional club team.
For the English Premier League teams, the FA Cup officially started in January every year, and then it would continue until May. It just so happened to overlap with the EFL Cup and European competitions. The competition was dense, and there were many distractions. In the end, it was very likely that everything would not go well. So, Tang En did not want to have any ideas about the FA Cup at the moment.
Teams as strong as Barcelona and Real Madrid had not been able to solve the problem of competing in multiple competitions at the same time and eventually getting what they wanted, let alone the newly rising Nottingham Forest. Used to games like FM and CM, they might think that winning multiple trophies was easy, but in reality, there were not many teams that could achieve the Treble. It was not difficult to explain why Manchester United's reputation was so high after they won the Treble, which was considered a "great" achievement by many people. Although Liverpool's "Five Trophies" was not very valuable, it was also something that Liverpool fans talked about for a long time. It was the same principle — to be able to win the championship in multiple competitions at the same time, not only did the team need to be strong, but it also needed to be very lucky. Such a thing could not be done easily. Sometimes it could not be controlled by human strength.
※ ※ ※
Nottingham Forest had a strong rebound in December. Tang En hoped that the team would seize the opportunity when the schedule was not too dense to close the points gap with the top teams in the rankings.
After sweeping Manchester City 4: 0 at home, they beat Bolton Wanderers 4: 1 away.
In this round of the league tournament, Grant's Chelsea finally achieved consecutive victories, beating Sunderland 2: 0 at home. Manchester United also beat Derby County 4: 1 at home, but Tang En's other two competitors, Arsenal and Liverpool, both lost away games: Arsenal lost to Middlesbrough 1: 2, and Liverpool lost to Reading 1: 3. Incidentally, Manchester City, one of the top six teams, lost to Tottenham in an away game with a score of 1: 2.
Next was Round 17. Arsenal, who lost, faced Chelsea at home, while Manchester United, who won at home, had to go to Anfield to challenge Liverpool. Among the top six teams, only Manchester City and Nottingham Forest had an easy time — Manchester City played Bolton Wanderers at home, while Nottingham Forest played Blackburn Rovers at home.
The two strong matches attracted everyone's attention. Even Tang En paid close attention to the two games. Fortunately, these two games did not start at the same time as Nottingham Forest's game. Otherwise, he would have missed these two exciting games — the process might not be exciting, but the results would definitely be.
After a very difficult ninety minutes, Arsenal narrowly beat Chelsea 1: 0 at home.
It was also a difficult ninety minutes. Manchester United relied on Cristiano Ronaldo, who was almost omnipotent this season, to break through and assist Tevez to score, and beat Liverpool 1: 0.
The next day, Manchester City beat Bolton Wanderers 4: 2 at home, while Nottingham Forest beat Blackburn Rovers 5: 3.
The points and rankings were very interesting this time.
After the end of Round 16 of the league tournament, because Arsenal lost the game and Manchester United won, the two teams still had the same points, 36 points respectively in first and second place in the league rankings. As Liverpool and Manchester City, who previously had the same points as Nottingham Forest with 32 points, both lost, Nottingham Forest jumped to third place with 35 points. Chelsea won two consecutive games, and their points went from 25 to 31. In this way, Arsenal was in first place, Manchester United was in second place, Nottingham Forest was in third place, Liverpool and Manchester City were in fourth and fifth place, and Chelsea was still in sixth place.
The order returned to the eleventh round of the league tournament.
In the seventeenth round, there was another change.
Arsenal won, Manchester United won, Nottingham Forest, and Manchester City all won. In this way, Arsenal and Manchester United both had 39 points and were still in first and second place. Nottingham Forest was still in third place with 38 points, but there was a change in fourth and fifth place. Originally, Liverpool relied on goal difference to suppress Manchester City, who had the same points, to be in fourth place. Now that they had lost the game, they had to give up the fourth place. Manchester City sat in this position with 35 points, Liverpool with 32 points, and Chelsea with 31 points, ranked fifth and sixth respectively.
The difference between fourth and fifth place was not just in the rankings. If this ranking was put into the final round of the league tournament, fourth place could go to heaven — to play in the Champions League qualifiers and have a great chance to play in the Champions League proper; fifth place could only play in the UEFA Europa League, which had a much lower treatment. Although it was not hell, for Liverpool, who had played in the UEFA Europa League for three years in a row, it was a result more hateful than hell.
The pressure on Benítez's shoulders was not light. In addition, Liverpool's top management was in turmoil. There were also rumors that Benítez might be dismissed, partly because he had a bad relationship with the club's chairman, and partly because the club's board of directors had to explain the team's failure to reach the UEFA Europa League for three years in a row.
Although the position of a manager was usually glamorous, the pressure they faced was not something the players could imagine as they ordered the big-name star players around. Tang En was very sympathetic to Benítez's rumored situation. He did not want Benítez to leave after Mourinho. If all the outstanding managers in this league tournament were gone, he would have no interest in playing. There had to be all kinds of challenges in life for it to be interesting. If all the good opponents were gone, what was the use of those championships that were easy to win?
In Tang En's view, it was because there were enough outstanding opponents on the way to the championship. Stepping on the corpses of the strong to reach the throne was much more fulfilling than stepping on the corpses of ants.
Fortunately, the Liverpool Football Club's board of directors quickly issued a statement, expressing their full trust in Rafael Benítez and evaluating Benítez's years at Liverpool as "remarkable."
Tang En did not have to worry about losing another good enough opponent.
※ ※ ※
In the Champions League group stage, Tang En did not let those who had always wanted to see the Forest team make a fool of themselves get what they wanted. The Forest team did not play in the UEFA Europa League. Nottingham Forest beat Marseille 4: 0 in an away game in the last game. With four wins, one draw, and one loss, they ranked first in the group with 13 points and advanced with their heads held high. At the same time, Porto also advanced with 11 points in second place.
In the last two months of competition, whether it was in the domestic arena or the European arena, the Forest team had suddenly become a "professional goal household."
Since the 0: 1 away loss to Liverpool in the league tournament, they had scored in every game. An 8: 0 win over Beşiktaş, a 3: 1 win over Tottenham Hotspur, and a 1: 1 draw with Chelsea was the game they had scored the fewest goals in. They also scored two goals in the 2: 3 loss to Arsenal. What followed was a frenzy of goals: a 4: 1 sweep over Porto in the Champions League group stage, a 4: 0 win over Manchester City in the league tournament, a 4: 0 win over Bolton Wanderers, a 4: 0 win over Marseille in the last game of the Champions League group stage, and a 5: 3 win over Blackburn Rovers in the 17th round of the league tournament.
Immediately, some people exclaimed that the Forest team was no longer conservative. They were going to play offensive football, so offense was the way to go. Tang En was dismissive of it. His style had not changed much, but the Forest team had improved a lot in terms of controlling the ball and the pace of the game. No matter what tactics the opponent used, Tang En had a way to deal with them. He would not be at a loss like before when he encountered a team that stubbornly defended.
In fact, Tang En had always believed that in the fight for the league title, the important thing was not to win the game against the strong teams, but to win the game against the weak teams and firmly hold on to the three points that should have been in their hands. Not losing points pointlessly was the key to deciding who would eventually become the league champion. Otherwise, they would be like the Chelsea team in the hands of Viali and Gullit back then. They had a group of talented players and advanced tactical play, but due to the team's overall unstable performance, they would always inexplicably lose points against the weak teams despite being able to repeatedly beat the strong teams. In the end, they were given the nickname "Spoilers." This was not the original intention of Gullit and Viali.
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