<h4>Chapter 781: An Ibrahimovi? Good at Headers</h4>
<strong>Trantor: </strong>Nyoi-Bo Studio <strong>Editor: </strong>Nyoi-Bo Studio
ording to Tony Twain’s habit of doing things, he must determine an alternative course of action before he made up his mind on a matter.
The sale of ?igi? had really been bothering him for two days. The reason he wanted to keep him was really as he thought when he spoke to An before. The reason for selling him was that the Forest team might not need as many yers in the forward line from next season... It was not impossible to sell a yer and make some transfer money avable for the team.
Twain was not stubborn about this matter.
In fact, starting in the second half of the season, the Forest team would be using more new tactical formations in order to seek breakthroughs. For all these years that Twain had led the team, it was the first time that he had made all these subverted changes. After all, the Forest team previously always gave the impression that they defended and then counterattacked. No matter how they changed, they could not break out of this cycle.
New formations and tactics required more proactive measures. Twain no longer insisted on his 4-4-2 formation. Instead, he changed the y to 4-5-1, and a stricter differentiation would be 4-2-3-1, the Christmas tree shaped formation.
In this way, the demand for strikers was greatly reduced. Each game only required one striker. If too many yers were on the bench and the rotation could not be arranged ordingly, there would be people who felt dissatisfied—why can he be rotated on the field while I can only continue to sit on the bench?
He could only consider in this way if he really were to sell ?igi?.
But if ?igi? was gone, the team would be missing a center forward. In some special circumstances, a center forward like ?igi? could y a role that the other strikers could not. Twain was unwilling to throw away a still very useful card in vain.
Ibi?evi? was a striker, but he was not purely a center forward, let alone a firm center forward.
Van Nistelrooy was retiring at the end of the season. Eastwood’s knee had always been like andmine which could be stepped on at any time after three major operations. Ibi?evi? was the only striker with no trouble. In the new tactics, Agbohor would be a moreprehensive yer. He could be a striker, but Twain nned to let him y as an attacking right midfielder because his speed advantage could y a bigger role in the nk.
Millán, who was out on loan, could also y as a forward, attacking midfielder slot and other positions. A utility yer always did not have to worry about having opportunities to y.
If he sold ?igi?, where would he go find a suitable recement?
Twain’s target he had in mind for the substitute was to have a certain strength, but not too strong, because anyone too strong would certainly require the main position, which Twain absolutely could not satisfy this requirement. If Eastwood was fit and uninjured, he and Ibi?evi? would be the team’s main forwards and in rotation for appearances.
As a result, the role of a new striker would be less. If possible, Twain was reluctant to pay for a third striker... It would be a waste.
After mulling over it for two days, Twain thought of a man.
※※※
“Are you free now?” During a break in the training, Twain pulled in Kerke and Dunn.
“Isn’t the training in progress?” Kerke was surprised.
“Let the coaches handle it first. I want you to apany me to the reserves training ground.”
“Why do you suddenly want to go to the reserves team?” Dunn asked.
“I suddenly thought of a person. I almost forgot about him...” Twain scratched his head and said slightly embarrassed.
He did forget that person...
※※※
“You did forget him.” Standing by the training ground at Wilford, Dunn nced at Twain.
The reserves team did not belong to the youth team, so they trained with the First Team in South Wilford. The two ces were not far apart and did not take long to reach there.
The reserve team was ying a seven-on-seven game on the training ground in front of them. There was one person in the yellow team who was very eye-catching because he was the tallest on the field now.
Twain and Dunn, as well as Kerke came to see him—Aaron Mitchell. Two and a half years ago, Twain had gone to the reserve team to inspect ?ahin’s state of recovery but did not expect that day’s protagonist to be another person.
At the time, Mitchel’s performance as a center back wascking. If he continued to y like this, the best chance he would have would be to y in the second-tier league, which he would never have been able to establish himself in the Premier League at his level anyway, let alone y in the Nottingham Forest First Team.
After watching him train and y, Twain called him in and suggested that he yed as a center forward from now on. Although both positions were yed in the middle, the position was moved from the back to the forefront, which could be described as a dramatic change.
It was only out of Twain’s professional habits to let Mitchell change position. Then half a yearter, when he was crushed by a heart attack, he was busy battling the heart disease for another six months andpletely forgot about Mitchell. Later in the process of rebuilding the team, because the Forest team was not short of yers in the forward line, so he also never recalled that poor yer whom he changed his position, threw in the youth team and never asked about again.....
It was no until the possibility of ?igi?’s transfer was on the agenda that he recalled the young man who had felt simr to ?igi?.
Aaron Mitchell was currently twenty years old and had yed in the reserves for two years but had yet to get a chance to y in the First Team.
While arguably ying in the reserves was a way into the First Team, it did not mean that ying here would necessarily allow him to get into the First Team. There were a number of yers who spent most of their time in the reserves and could only be drawn to the First Team asionally to relieve any immediate need. This portion of yers were considered lucky. Most yers faded into obscurity in the reserve team, perhaps seek opportunities in the lower leagues, or declined henceforth. If a yer who had graduated from the youth team and always yed in the reserves after, it at least meant that he did not have any outstanding talent or ability. Such a yer’s future was bleak.
From this point of view, Aaron Mitchell’s talent was clearly not outstanding.
Mitchell was on the pitch as a center forward, and his header was still outstanding, thanks, of course, to his fearsome height. Twain felt that Mitchell was currently taller than when he first saw him. So, he pointed to Mitchell as he turned his face to the reserve team coach Colin Calderwood and said, “How tall is he now?”
“Two point two meters.” Calderwood replied.
Twain whistled, “He’s as tall as ?igi?.”
“But he is thinner than ?igi?.” Dunn said next to him.
Indeed, the thinness of the two-point-two meter tall Mitchell was clear. He was a bit like Peter Crouch who used to y for the Forest team.
“How’s he with physical confrontation?” Twain asked.
“Average.” Calderwood replied.
The answer made Twain frown. The center forward he needed had to be strong and able topete with the opposing tall and strong defenders in the penalty area so that he did lose his position and the ball easily.
Calderwood certainly knew what Twain was worried about, so heughed and continued, “But Tony, he’s not quite like the traditional center forwards...”
“Eh? How is he different?”
“Have you ever seen a center forward who is more than two meters tall and can scissor?”
Twain and the two assistant managers next to him stared at Calderwood in surprise.
“His technique is excellent.” Calderwoodughed, “and even. There’s no obvious weakness technically. He can pass the ball to create opportunities for his teammates, and also to pull to the side to cross pass. His dribbling in terms of his height, is also good. Maybe it’s because he knows he’s not capable of physical confrontation, so he works hard in technical training, and so... it bes what you see now.”
During their conversation, Mitchell got the ball. He stopped the ball during running with his heel outside of the foot. While he stopped the football at the same time, he alsopleted the action to do an emergency stop and turn to change direction...
“Wow—,” Kerke could not help exim.
After stopping the ball in the nk and bypassed an opposing defender, Mitchell swung his leg for a pass on the spot. Unfortunately, the teammate who received in the middle did not expect Mitchell’s decisive pass and missed the ball by a margin.
The men did not speak and began to observe Mitchell’s performance on the field.
Perhaps because he had been a center back, Mitchell retained the habit of seeing opposing yers go up and grab the ball, rather than ying like a pure attacking yer who walked around in the front field and watched as the other side take the ball past him. This helped Mitchell get a lot of chances to counter press in the front field.
Because he was two point two meters tall, he dribbled the ball at a very wide pace, so his speed did not feel slow, and did not give a heavyset feeling like ?igi?. Coupled with his excellent footwork, watching him y always gave the illusion—was this really a big man more than two meters tall?
He was also not the kind of center forward who liked to wait in front of the goal for his teammates to pass the ball to him. He preferred to pull out, back up to receive and overly connect for the attack.
His header was indeed a very sharp weapon. As long as the football flew into his aerial space, he would get it nine out of ten times. His amazing height coupled with his outstanding jump, in addition to the level of his header and awareness from his training and ying as the center back, he could said to dominate the aerial space in front of the goal.
Unfortunately, his shot was a little poorerpared to his excellent header...
Twain watched his game for fifteen minutes and had a rough idea. His header sess rate was as high as eighty per cent, but only one out of five shots from his feet hit within the goalpost range—which was too direct and intercepted by the goalkeeper.
“Well... His shooting skill improvement rate is slow...” Calderwood was a little embarrassed when it came to that.
In the reserves, the tactic for Mitchell was during the offensive, he would retreat to receive the pass from the midfield. Then he would use his footwork skills to dribble the ball to break through and after which, he would divert it to the sides for his teammates who had already plugged in while he continued to dash to the penalty area. His teammates would send the ball after they got rid of the opposing nk defense. Mitchell who was already in ce by then, would fight to head the ball. This time he had two options: A, he would use his header shot to score a goal; B, he would send it to the other teammates and create a chance for them to shoot.
The tactic was very simple and Mitchell did quite well. He was really impable with the header shots.
Unfortunately, his body was really too thin and almost did not have the ability for direct confrontation. That was one of the main reasons why he could not y well as a center back in the first ce...
This reason was also essential to why he had not been rmended for promotion to the First Team.
The Premier League was the most confrontational league tournament in the world. A “reasonable collision” in the Premier League could be a malicious foul in other league tournaments. The physically inferior striker would lose out when hepeted against the others. Apart from Wenger’s oddity, few managers would take an interest in a striker who looked like he could be blown away by the wind.
But Twain did not care that much. He saw hope in Mitchell and apletely different center forward. He might bring something different to the Forest team’s offense.
“Tell him to report to the First Team tomorrow.” Twain snapped his fingers and said, “I’m going to sign him up for the next stage of the Champions League tournament.”
This sentence meant that he could let ?igi? go with confidence ...
Neither of the two assistant managers made any suggestions with regards to Twain’s decision. They saw something brilliant in Mitchell, whose shorings could be made up by training and high levelpetition.
After he finished briefing on these matters, Twain left with two assistant managers. They still had to go back to the First Team training ground and was not able to waste too much time here.
※※※
Aaron Mitchell only heard the news from Coach Colin Calderwood that he had been transferred to the First Team from the reserve team after training. After being stunned for a short moment, he was joyous. Since switching to y as the center forward, he had thought about his future at the Forest team. He felt that since the boss had to change him to y as a striker, he might need a striker.
But then he felt a little hopeless when he saw the Forest team’s swelling to somewhat bloated ranks in the forward line. He thought he was not an exceptionally talented yer, and the only things he was proud of were his height and headers.
He kept practicing his skills in the hope that he had some different qualities that could stand out from the other yers of the same kind.
After determining on how to train him as a striker, Colin Calderwood, also noticed Mitchell’s efforts and characteristics in the area, so he rmended a training example for Mitchell to follow.
This example was not ?igi? in the Forest team, nor was it van Nistelrooy. It was Ibrahimovi? in the far away Inter Millán.
In addition to training, he would study the tall Swedish center forward’s ying characteristics and style, to try his best to imitate and learn, in hopes that he could also be a striker who was more than one point nine meter tall but with outstanding footwork skills.
Now the opportunity hade!
The next day he went straight to the First Team’s training ground and saw the star teammates he rarely saw on the sidelines, which made him a little excited. While those teammates also looked a little curiously at the foolishly happy Mitchell, standing on the sidelines.
Mitchell was not a rising star yer like Moke who was in the reserves, but whose name had long been spread throughout the club. He remained in obscurity before he came here. Although everyone was in the same club, it was normal to be unfamiliar with each other.
When the First Team yers warmed up together, Aaron Mitchel still stood outside, at a loss over what to do.
That was when his savior came.
Tony Twain and the two assistant managers walked onto the training ground. He saw Mitchell at a nce, who was wandering outside the crowd, and waved to him, “Kid,e here!”
“This is your new teammate.” Pulling Mitchell over, Twain introduced him to the other yers, “Aaron Mitchell, a professional striker, who used to y as a center back.”
Hearing his strange position change, the yers broke out in a moment of wonder.
After a brief introduction, Twain asked the yers to warm up, but he made Mitchell stay behind.
“There are some things I have to make clear to you in advance so that I don’t have any trouble in the future.” Twain said to Mitchell who stood in front of him extremely deferential, “First of all, to be able to be transferred to the First Team proves that you are capable, so don’t doubt that you are not strong enough; Secondly, you can’t think that you will be able to get the main position and be in the starting lineup once you are in the First Team…I won’t promise you all these. You have to fight andpete with the attitude and form you’ve trained if you want all these. You know, you’re currentlyst out of all the strikers in the First Team.”
Mitchell nodded repeatedly.
“You’d better use your learning mentality to prepare for your days in the First Team. I think that will help you more.”
While saying all these, Twain’s face with the sunsses on was always serious-looking. He did not mind being harsh on these young people, because he knew how cruel professional football was. It was best not to have any illusions and be down-to-earth in order to achieve something. On the path of these young people’s development, he was willing to be the number one viin in these people’s hearts all the time.
Seeing that Mitchell had a good attitude and was humble enough made Twain very satisfied. He ended his sermon and began to assign specific training tasks, “Starting from today, we will increase your shooting and strength training. The coaching team will give you a special training program for you to follow. I heard when you were in the reserves, Coach Calderwood asked you to learn from Ibrahimovi??”
Mitchell nodded in reply, “Yes, boss. I hope to be a striker like him.”
“Make no mistake, boy. Ibrahimovi? is not physically weak, and his shooting ability is ten light years better than yours.”
Mitchell’s expression darkened. Although Twain spoke the truth, the truth was not nice to hear...
Twain remembered that Mitchell was already twenty years old, but he was still a young yer after all. Sometimes encouragement was needed.
So, he grinned and said, “But don’t worry. At least you have one thing that is better than Ibrahimovi?—your header.” He pointed to Mitchell’s head and said, “An Ibrahimovi?, who is good at headers and much better than Ibrahimovi? himself!”