More than 50,000 home fans booing to "welcome" Tony Twain had become a thing of the past. The referee had long blown the whistle to start the game. The fans had focused their attention on cheering for the Forest team and did not care about Tony Twain anymore.
From the looks of it, Nottingham Forest, who was playing at home, clearly had the upper hand. After all, they had played together for many years. Even if the manager was changed, there was no loss in their tacit understanding. And … even if they were facing the team led by the original boss, there was no need for them to throw the game in the game. Twain had never taught them to throw the game in front of an old friend.
Nottingham Forest's locker room was clearly divided into three factions. One faction was the diehard supporters of Tony Twain, such as Pepe. The other faction was the players who were full of resentment towards Twain. If there were to be representatives … Wood should be one of them. Another faction was the middle of the fence. They did not clearly express their views. They were not as emotionally inclined towards Tony Twain's departure as Pepe and Wood were. These people were the majority.
This division was also reflected in the game. George Wood was in high spirits. He tirelessly shuttled and intercepted in the midfield, and at the same time actively plugged in to participate in the offense.
O 'Neill gave up Twain's original 4-2-3-1 formation and changed it to 4-4-2. There was only Wood in the midfield as a defensive midfielder, and Şahin played as an attacking midfielder. The two side midfielders were Fernández and Bentley. The forwards were Aaron Mitchell and Agbonlahor. The defenders, from left to right, were Gareth Bale, Pepe, Thiago Silva and Rafinha. The goalkeeper was still Akinfeev.
This lineup was no different from Twain's at that time. It looked like O 'Neill still intended to use the main framework left by Twain. But if what Pepe said was true, then O 'Neill would soon have to worry about finding another center back.
On the other hand, on the England side, a group of temporarily pieced together third-string teams did not have any tacit understanding, nor did they have any technical tactics. They were not in high spirits in the away game. They were really lucky that Nottingham Forest did not score in the opening ten minutes.
The defender, Jack Cook, passed the ball to Delph in the midfield. It was originally an ordinary 15-meter diagonal pass, a technical move that any professional football player would know, but Cook lost the ball. It was not Cook's fault, as Delphi was partly to blame.
The moment Cook passed the ball, Delphi thought Cook was going to dribble the ball himself, so he stood still. Cook's pass required Delphi to run and receive, so the football brushed past Delphi and rolled directly to Şahin's feet.
The fans in the stands gave a burst of laughter to Cook, who made a mistake in the pass.
Dunn shook his head when he saw the scene in the stands. "What a motley crew."
He was right. This England team was a motley crew of players who had rarely or never been selected for the national team. How could they be expected to perform well? That was simply a fantasy story.
Tang En listened to the laughter of the Forest fans off the field. He was neither annoyed nor anxious. Yes, these players were not good enough and did not have enough experience, but they had an advantage that others did not notice – compared to the England team that was full of big names, the team in front of them had more fighting spirit because they had a reason to work hard.
If you want to catch my eye, you'll have to put your life on the line.
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But a motley crew was a motley crew. After the England team resisted for 25 minutes, the goal guarded by Chris Kirkland was finally blasted open by Aaron Mitchell's head.
The cheers that erupted in the Crimson Stadium this time were even louder than when they welcomed the Forest players into the stadium. The deafening sound was like Niagara Falls pouring down in torrents, rumbling like endless rolling thunder, surging in everyone's heart.
This was the first time Tang En had experienced the power of the new stadium, and he was a little dazed from the shock – playing in such a stadium must be more enjoyable than playing in the City Ground stadium.
"The goal scorer is Aaron –" The announcer in the stadium broadcast led the fans to shout again.
"Mitchell!!!" The fans in the stands responded loudly.
"In the 26th minute, Aaron Mitchell opens the scoring for Nottingham Forest! Beautiful coordination on the flank, grabbing the ball in the middle! Mitchell's height and leaping advantage leave David Wheater and Anton Ferdinand at a loss! Before the game, there were people who were worried that Nottingham Forest would lose its soul after Tony Twain left. But from the looks of this goal, those worries were unnecessary. The Forest players quickly adapted to their new manager, and they did not show any mercy when facing Tony Twain … It looks like Tony Twain's first game for the national team is going to be a failure! "The commentator's tone was a little gloating. In fact, to be able to see the always strong Twain suffer a setback was the wish of many people, and the commentator was no exception.
After the goal, the fans reacted enthusiastically, but the scorer was not in the mood to celebrate. On the one hand, it was just a friendly match, not even a quality warm-up match, and there was nothing to be proud of just scoring a goal. On the other hand, it was because he was facing Tony Twain, the boss. The person Mitchell should be most grateful to in his career was Tony Twain. If not for him, he was afraid that he would still be playing as a center back with no future, and then be abandoned by the Forest team, go to a lower league team to survive, and finally retire in obscurity. He was on the same side as Pepe.
After the goal, Mitchell did not even have the mood to wave in response to the fans' cheers. He just turned around and ran back. Occasionally, he even shook his head, feeling that the people the boss picked were too weak …
The people who were truly happy for the goal were Martin O 'Neill and Evan Doughty. The former was because it was possible to defeat Tony Twain. Even though a friendly match would not prove too much, it would definitely allow him to temporarily get rid of Tony Twain's shadow. When people mentioned him, they would not always say "Tony Twain's successor", which was a long and complicated title.
The latter was happy because he heard the cheers from the stands. The people's hearts were still on his side …
Twain expressed a little dissatisfaction with the goal concede. He shook his head at Walker in the technical area and said, "The defense was not good enough … They should not have given Bentley the chance to pass."
Walker nodded. "There's no other way, Tony. They've only been practicing together for half a day. I think we should not care about the result of this game … "
"No." Twain rejected Walker's suggestion decisively. "We must win this game."
Walker did not continue to speak. He could vaguely guess why Twain had to win this game. The reason was very complicated. In addition to establishing his might, it was probably because he was stimulated by the boos when he entered the stadium. When had Tony Twain ever admitted defeat? When had he ever admitted defeat? If others booed him, then he had even more of a need to prove his strength. Simply put, he liked to go against others. It was no wonder that such a strong-willed person would offend so many people.
Walker felt that perhaps he was really the most suitable candidate to be England's assistant manager. If it were anyone else to be Twain's assistant, they would probably start quarreling with him after just a few words of disagreement. Only someone like Walker, who understood Twain so well, could act as a lubricant.
Thinking about it again, a person who could be Twain's assistant manager must be a very, very nice person with a good temper. Such as him, such as David Kerslake, and also that Chinese Dunn. No wonder Roy Keane was said to have rejected Twain's invitation to be his assistant manager twice. If that Irishman came, the two of them might not even be able to be friends …
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The Nottingham Forest fans were optimistic about the outcome of the game, especially after Mitchell's goal. In their view, winning was not a problem. The problem was how many goals the team could beat this England third-string team. If they won in the end, their afternoon would be worth it.
Twain observed off the field for a while and decided to make adjustments. Taking advantage of a dead ball, he called the team captain, Ashley Cole, who was close to his side, to his side. And so on and so forth.
After returning to the field, Ashley Cole conveyed Twain's latest instructions to his teammates. Following which, the England team contracted their formation and began to enter a defensive phase.
Twain could see that Nottingham Forest's morale was high amidst the waves of cheers from the fans. Looking at O 'Neill's excitement on the sidelines, he could guess that the Forest team would definitely take advantage of the situation to attack in the following game. Then, with England's current state, if they went out to fight against the Forest team, they would definitely die a terrible death in the end. If they conceded another goal, Twain would not have the confidence to win the game.
So, he chose to retreat and defend. It was a very ugly retreat.
The commentator laughed, "We've seen Tony Twain's signature stunt again. Compared to him, Nottingham Forest's new manager, Martin O 'Neill, is clearly more proactive. He's directing the team to press on to attack and strive to score another goal. "
Paying the price of being ugly and being ridiculed, Twain's team successfully held on with a score of 0: 1 until halftime. No matter how Nottingham Forest bombarded, England's goal did not fall. This made the fans in the stands feel very bored — the opponent was clearly a third-string team that was put together at the last minute. The team had almost all their main players on the field, but they still could not do anything to them.
Defending to the death was very simple. Everyone just had to huddle together and be clear about what they were going to do.
The only half a day of joint training time, Twain still let the team practice defense. At that time, everyone still thought it was strange. Now they finally understood the manager's good intentions …
When the whistle sounded at halftime, Twain was the first to get up from his seat and took the lead to walk to the tunnel. When the camera thought of giving Tang En another close-up shot, it could only capture his back view in the tunnel.
"A very boring first half. As long as Tony Twain is there, the game can't be interesting. Martin O 'Neill has brought a breath of fresh air to Nottingham Forest, and Tony Twain has brought what he's good at at Forest to England. We don't know if this is a good thing or a bad thing. But as Twain said himself, victory is the only criterion to test whether a manager is successful or not. As long as he can lead the team to victory, the voices that doubt him will disappear. "
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Twain watched the players file in from the locker room. When everyone was there, he closed the door. The soundproofing of the new stadium was much better than the City Ground stadium. Once the door was closed, the noise outside could almost not be heard.
"I have to praise you for your good performance in the second half of the first half. You defended the Treble winning team's attack. And considering that you've only been a team for a day, to be able to only concede one goal, I have nothing to complain about." Twain first gave this group of people a sweet jujube, and then …
"But." He changed the topic. "Don't forget what our goal is for this game. It's not to lose by one goal here, or even to force a draw with the home team. I hope you understand one thing — "He raised his right index finger," the difference between the national team and the club team. When you play for your respective clubs, you have to face a long season, at least thirty-eight games a year. During this process, draws and defeats are allowed. It doesn't matter if you lose this game, we can still win the next game. But the national team is different. There is very little room for you to make mistakes and lose here. I don't know how many of you can eventually make it into my national team squad, but I hope you can develop a habit here — to strive for victory in any game. "
He smiled. "From now on, I'm the England manager. You must remember this. I'm a person who likes to win and hates to lose. My team must also like to win and hate to lose. "
The players looked at him quietly.
"Do some people like to lose?" He asked.
Someone shook his head.
"Look, we have a common language now, and a common goal." Twain spread his hands, "In the second half, we will defend and counterattack. They will definitely use the flanks to threaten our goal. In turn, we will take advantage of the gaps behind their two flanks. "
Twain was very familiar with Nottingham Forest. Even with the change of manager, Twain still found that the Forest team had not changed much through his observation in the first half. At least the offense on the flanks, which they were best at, was maintained well. Wasn't the Forest team's only goal launched from the flanks?
"Don't make too many passes in the midfield. Play more over the top and try to make long passes." Twain was talking about the English long pass charge that countless people used to scoff at. But it was good to use against the increasingly delicate Nottingham Forest.
Martin O 'Neill instilled a sense of beauty in Nottingham Forest. The football they played made people feel relaxed and happy. His work for more than a month was not in vain. But one thing he did not notice was that the current Nottingham Forest was slowly losing one of the most important things.
"You have to play with a tougher attitude. Don't be afraid of getting hurt! How can you get hurt? You are the ones who take the initiative, not them. Only the passive side will get hurt. So, the more you are afraid of getting hurt, the more likely you are to get hurt. Let go and play, nothing will happen! "
"Şahin's passing skills are good, but he was seriously injured before. He still has some misgivings about physical contact. You can take advantage of this. You can use more close to him, and you can't be lacking in small movements, so that he can't pass the ball out comfortably. Mitchell's technique and header were both good, but even though he was tall, he was very weak in physical confrontations. Moreover, his stamina was his weakness. Forcing him to keep running and fighting with him would force him to use all his strength. As the game progressed, he would become less and less of a threat. Agbonlahor is fast, but his shooting skills are crude. There's nothing to worry about. Just don't let him start the ball from the flanks. Blocking Mitchell is the same as blocking Agbonlahor … "Twain analyzed the strengths and weaknesses of all the Nottingham Forest players to the players one by one, telling them how to deal with them. Other than the new players who had just joined the team this summer, he talked about almost everyone. He was very familiar with Nottingham Forest, so familiar that he did not need to do any homework in advance. These things were at his fingertips, and he could talk about as much as he wanted.
Then he talked about George Wood.
He was stuck.
He did not know how he should talk about it. He understood Wood very well, but he could not say how to deal with the kid. He waved his hand and could only say nothing, which made the players, who had been full of expectations, feel a little disappointed and confused.
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Martin O 'Neill was not satisfied with the team's performance in the first half, because he had only managed to score 1: 0 with the entire main lineup. One must know that their opponent was England's third-string team.
If Tony Twain were here, he would definitely curse and tell them to end the first half with a one-goal lead against such a lousy team. But O 'Neill could not do that. If he really did that, his support rate in the locker room would definitely plummet.
It was just that unfair. The more Twain scolded, the more charming he became, while the others had to serve him carefully.
After O 'Neill tactfully expressed his dissatisfaction, he rearranged his tactics. He thought that Twain would definitely stick to defensive counterattack in the second half. For someone who had studied him thoroughly, it was not difficult to guess this. Generally speaking, defensive counterattack would only be used when one's side was in the lead, but Twain always used it when he was one goal behind. On one hand, it was to ensure that he did not continue to concede the goal, and on the other hand, it was to rely on sneak attacks to equalize the score, and then disrupt the opponent's arrangements. The hateful thing was that he still succeeded time and time again, and it was tried and tested.
O 'Neill's orders to the Forest team were to strive to score first in the opening. If the situation was not good, then they were to shrink the defensive line and contend with Twain in the midfield. In any case, if they fought in the midfield, Nottingham Forest would definitely win.
After explaining the tactics, O 'Neill repeated his request, "This game must be won!"
The players looked at each other, suddenly feeling that this was not as simple as a friendly match to celebrate the opening of the Crimson Stadium …
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