Tony Twain had personally confirmed his future at Nottingham Forest. He would not leave Nottingham, which made the Forest fans feel slightly more at ease. But the rumors in the media about his possible departure from the City Ground Stadium did not immediately disappear. The Times had confidently declared that Tang En would definitely leave the City Ground stadium after four years and look for a better job elsewhere. At that time, his contract would expire and he would be free to leave without having to bear the high penalty fee. It was believed that there would be countless powerhouse clubs scrambling for him.
Although Twain was not coming to Manchester United, Manchester United did not stop looking for a successor for Ferguson. Because after the end of this season, the old manager, Ferguson, would definitely retire. This news had not been officially announced. Most people would rather think that it was just a moment of confusion by the old manager. At the end of the season, he would find that he could not leave football and Manchester United. Then, he would take back his decision and decide to stay at Old Trafford. In this way, many people could breathe a sigh of relief — except for his arch-rivals.
Both Twain and Ferguson had confirmed their futures, but the story between the two did not end there. It had just begun.
After playing the last game of the Champions League group stage, both teams qualified as the top team in their group. Three days later was the highlight — Nottingham Forest's away game against Manchester United.
This was the only strong confrontation in that round of the league tournament, and it was also a game that would be broadcast live across the country. Because of the recent highlights of Ferguson's successor, this game was the focus of attention. In addition, there was only a two-point difference between the two teams. The outcome of this game would determine the rankings of the two teams in the league table. It was impossible not to pay attention to it.
After the match against the Celtics, Tang En resumed his battle with Ferguson at the press conference. He declared that he was not interested in being anyone's successor and deliberately provoked Ferguson.
Ferguson did not back down and immediately retorted, "When he works in this business for 20 years, his wish can be realized."
From the war of words between the two men, outsiders really could not see that their personal relationship was relatively harmonious.
The two men were typical "where they sat determines where they thought." They said and did things according to their position.
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The manager could not always be the protagonist in a confrontation between two teams. The players of both teams were also the focus of countless people.
Cristiano Ronaldo had said countless times that he wanted to leave, but in the end, he stayed at Manchester United. In this game, he will be Ferguson's blade against Nottingham Forest. The reporters ran to interview him, wanting to hear his views on the game. Ronaldo appeared very low-key. "This is just an ordinary league match."
Although what he said was the truth, there was no meaning to this match. But the media was not satisfied, so they went to ask Rooney. Rooney was a little more fiery than Ronaldo. "We will beat Nottingham Forest at home. I can't imagine that we will lose at home."
Nani, on the other hand, appeared to be proud and arrogant. "Who do you think is the biggest threat on the opposing team?" The reporter asked him. His answer was, "Their entire team is not a threat."
His words angered the Forest players. Pepe was the first to stand up and express his dissatisfaction with Nani. "I hope he has a chance to play. I'll let him know what a threat is."
Eastwood, on the other hand, said, "I'm glad that their entire team thinks the same way. It's as if everyone wants their opponent to be an idiot." He beat around the bush and called Nani an idiot.
George Wood was not a man who wanted to start a war of words with others. He was more willing to shut the other side up with a fierce foul. When he was pestered by the reporters, he could only say, "We'll know during the game."
Know what?
He did not say it, but the media believed that George Wood was going to teach those bastards who looked down on them a lesson!
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The spat between the coaches, the players, and the spat between the supporters of both sides were endless. This was a special scene in professional football. All of these were foreshadowing, a cushion for the climax of the final game.
Three days passed quickly. Nottingham Forest only stayed in Nottingham for a day after returning from Rangers in Glasgow before they set off for Manchester again. It was not a good thing for the team to run around so frequently and intensively in preparation for the game. The team could not continue the systematic preparation training. Fortunately, the Forest team had been preparing for the game against Manchester United since the last round of the league tournament was decided early on. The team had made detailed arrangements in training to target Manchester United's main attack points. The team's offensive style was also reflected in training.
The only thing to worry about with two away games in three days was the team's fitness.
Before the game, countless experts and fans had analyzed that Nottingham Forest would play their best defensive counterattack at Old Trafford. After all, no team dared to play against Manchester United here. The result would be a tragic death without exception.
But this time, Tang En intended to do the opposite again. He wanted to play the game in a way that no one could think of.
"We're going to attack." Tang En said bluntly at the tactical preparation meeting the day before the game. "I bet Ferguson won't think we have the guts to do that. So, I'm asking all of you to press the attack and gain the upper hand from the start. The earlier we score, the better it will be for us. "He snapped his fingers.
"Boss, what if we don't score after a long time?" Eastwood raised a question.
"Slow down the pace, take care of defense, and then continue to attack."
Tang En looked determined to conquer the Theatre of Dreams with offense.
Şahin replaced Tiago as the starter for this game because they wanted to attack. Nottingham Forest's formation also changed from a parallel 4-4-2 to a rhombus 4-4-2. The two side midfielders would frequently plug in to attack. When the two sides were in a deadlock, the two full backs would stay in the backfield to participate in the defense and rarely come forward to assist. At the same time, George Wood took on the heavy responsibility of defense in this game. The offensive work was all handed over to his teammates in the front field.
Although it was offense, Tang En did not forget that defense was the foundation. So, it was almost impossible to see Tang En's team completely ignore defense and attack. Perhaps he would only do so in the last five minutes of the game when his team was still a goal behind.
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Ferguson did not expect Tony Twain to dare to play against Manchester United at Old Trafford. He felt that Tang En was a pragmatist. If they wanted to retreat unscathed at Old Trafford, or even win, then defensive counterattack was clearly the most appropriate.
Although the outside world was dissatisfied with his insistence on defensive counterattack as the main tactic and felt that he was weak and timid. Tang En had never been shaken by the outside world's criticism.
Ferguson felt that he already understood Tony Twain very well, but he was still wrong this time.
Before the game, Wood and Manchester United's captain, Gary Neville, had a coin toss. He had lost, so Manchester United had the right to pick the side. And Nottingham Forest had gotten the right to kick off. In fact, getting the right to kick off was a good thing for Tang En's Forest team, because they could control the ball at their feet from the start of the game.
In the past, the outside world had a misconception that Nottingham Forest never cared about ball possession. They took out data as proof — Nottingham Forest's ball possession rate was lower than their opponents in 90% of the games, regardless of the outcome.
But in reality, Tang En just did not care about the kind of ineffective ball control that repeatedly passed the ball back and forth in his own backfield. He was particular about ball control that could eventually form a threat in the opponent's half of the field. As long as they could score in the end, even if it was only two passes from start to finish, it was fine. So, although his ball possession rate was always lower than his opponents, he could still win.
Watching other teams' games, most people might have the same thought — when the ball was not at the feet of a team's players, their supporters would start to worry, worried that the opponent would score. Because it was a very dangerous thing to let the ball be at the feet of the opponent.
But watching Nottingham Forest's games, the Forest fans were already used to the scene of the opponent controlling the ball and their own side defending. In their eyes, once the ball landed at the feet of the opponent, then the opponents' fans should actually be worried. They would definitely come up to attack, and if they did, there would definitely be a gap behind them, and that would be Nottingham Forest's opportunity.
But the game at Old Trafford today was going to change the perception of the Forest fans.
Nottingham Forest controlled the ball at their feet after the kick off, but they were not in a hurry to launch a quick attack. Instead, they seemed to be casually passing the ball back and forth near the center circle. In the past, when Nottingham Forest played, the scene of the backfield players passing the ball back and forth was rarely seen. Because Tang En felt that passing the ball back and forth in the backfield was pointless. While they lost the opportunity, they also wore down their side's drive. So, the pace of his game had always been very fast.
Now, they were leisurely passing the ball back and forth in the Old Trafford stadium, and passing the ball further and further back. Finally, the ball was passed by Woodgate to Akinfeev's feet. Boos against Nottingham Forest began to ring out in the stands of the Old Trafford stadium.
Berbatov rushed up and pretended to enter the penalty area to intercept the ball at Akinfeev's feet. Behind him, Rooney, Ronaldo, and Tevez pressed up one after another.
Akinfeev did not give Berbatov a chance to intercept the ball. He directly kicked the ball to the front field with a long pass when the two were still ten meters apart.
"A long pass! This is very much in line with Nottingham Forest's style! "The commentator teased.
The player Tang En sent out in the front line for this game was not the tall center forward, Žigić, nor was it Ibišević, but the former Manchester United veteran, van Nistelrooy. His partner was Eastwood.
As Fernández was injured in the previous game, Lennon played as the left midfielder in this game. Bentley was suspended for accumulating yellow cards, so the right midfielder was changed to Agbonlahor. Tang En hoped to use the speed of these two players to attack Manchester United's side defensive line. Van Nistelrooy still received the ball under Carrick's marking and used his skills and experience to firmly control the ball at his feet, waiting for his teammates to come forward to receive. Carrick tried very hard to intercept the ball at the back, but his position was already gone. Unless he committed a foul, there was no way he could intercept the ball.
Just as he was about to commit a foul, van Nistelrooy passed the ball out. His target was Şahin.
After Şahin received the ball, he passed a diagonal pass to the side. On the side near the technical area of both teams, a whirlwind blew past. It was Agbonlahor!
Agbonlahor was quite fast. Manchester United's defensive player on this side was Evra, who was also a fast player. The two were evenly matched.
Before Agbonlahor could receive the ball, Şahin's straight pass was shoveled out of the sideline by Evra, who rushed over.
Ferguson smiled when he saw the scene off the field. This was the Nottingham Forest he was familiar with. It looked like today's Forest would not be any different from usual.
The Forest team was characterized by more straight passes. They liked those penetrating passes. Although the success rate was not high, as long as they succeeded once, it could be fatal.
In order to deal with this kind of straight passes, Ferguson did not bring on Scholes. Instead, he deployed Hargreaves and Carrick, two midfielders with outstanding running ability and focused on defense, in the midfield. At the same time, he asked the rear defensive line to pay attention to defensive protection and not give the Forest team a chance to play a straight pass. In terms of offense, once the Forest team's straight pass was intercepted, they would immediately counterattack. Neither Carrick nor Hargreaves was the kind of passer who could organize an attack, so Manchester United's main attackers were Ronaldo and Rooney, who switched to play in the midfield. They were responsible for bringing the football to the front field and then passing it to Berbatov or Tevez.
Now it looked like they did a good job. Şahin's straight pass was thus destroyed by the agile Evra.
Nottingham Forest's possession of the ball from the kickoff was ended by Eastwood's long shot from the top of the penalty area. The ball he shot out deviated from the goal.
Perhaps some people would think that Nottingham Forest was so aggressive in their offense because they got the right to kick off and it would be a waste not to use it … But in fact, the Forest team soon showed them that they were wrong.
After Manchester United's shot was pounced on by Akinfeev, he did not make a long kick. Instead, he threw the ball with his hand to launch an attack. Wood passed the football to Şahin, who sent a diagonal pass again, but this time in the direction of Lennon on the left.
Thirty-five-year-old Gary Neville did not pounce to tackle like Evra. He knew he was absolutely at a disadvantage in terms of speed, but his experience could help him deal with Lennon. Therefore, he chose to retreat slowly and did not give Lennon the space to sprint.
This move worked. Although Lennon successfully received the ball, he found that he could not directly break through the Manchester United captain's defense. Nottingham Forest's fast attack could not be played, so they could only pass the football back again and slowly grind.
Ferguson sat in the technical area and kept chewing gum in his mouth, which was his trademark posture. When he was sure, he would do it. After watching Nottingham Forest's performance in the opening five minutes, he became more confident about winning the game.
It was no different from the previous Nottingham Forest team. In another five minutes, if they could not score, Tony Twain would definitely instruct the team to retreat and then wait for the opportunity to hit Manchester United's counterattack.
Ferguson was not worried about such a play. Their training for a week had been arranged according to the Forest team's tactical characteristics. Once the Forest team could not score in the first ten minutes and could not lead the game into the track they were used to, then the unlucky person would be Tony Twain's turn.
After the start of the game, they would strive to score first and then shrink their defense to lure the opponent out. Then they would rely on tenacious and solid defense and speed to hit the opponent's counterattack.
Ferguson had studied the Forest team's tactics and game habits quite thoroughly. He firmly believed that Tony Twain could not escape the palm of his hand.
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