<h4>Chapter 899: The Determination to Win</h4>
<strong>Trantor: </strong>Nyoi-Bo Studio <strong>Editor: </strong>Nyoi-Bo Studio
More than fifty thousand home fans used boos to “wee” Tony Twain had now be a thing of the past. The referee blew the whistle to start the game and the fans turned their attention to cheering for the Forest team, leaving Tony Twain aside.
Judging from the game, the home team, Nottingham Forest clearly had the upper hand. After all, they had yed together for years. Even if the manager was changed, there was no loss to the rapport. Furthermore... even if they were facing a team led by their original boss, there was no need for them to throw the game. Twain did not teach them to throw a game when they yed against old friends.
Nottingham Forest’s locker room was clearly divided into three factions. One of the factionsprised of staunch supporters of Tony Twain, such as Pepe. The other was made of yers who were full of grievances against Twain. If a representative figure were to be named... Wood could be considered as one of them. There was also a middle-of-the-road faction. They did not clearly express their views and had no obvious feelings like Pepe’s or Wood’s toward Tony Twain’s departure. These people upied the majority.
These divisions was also reflected during the game. George Wood was particrly driven. He tirelessly shuttled back and forth in the midfield to intercept and actively plugged to participate in the attacks.
O’Neill gave up the 4-2-3-1 formation that Twain had originally used to y and switched to the 4-4-2 formation. With Wood in the midfield as the only defensive midfielder, ?ahin yed as the attacking midfielder. The two midfielders were Fernández and Bentley. The forwards were Aaron Mitchell and Agbohor. The full backs were Gareth Bale, Pepe, Thiago Silva and Rafinha from left to right. The goalkeeper remained as Akinfeev.
The lineup was no different from that during Twain’s time. It looked like O’Neill still intended to follow the main framework left by Twain. But if Pepe’s words were true, O’Neill would soon have to worry about finding another center back.
On the side of the Ennd team, a group of yers, temporary pieced together to form a C team, had to y the away game with little motivation, tacit understanding and technical tactics. They were really lucky that they did not concede a goal to Nottingham Forest in the opening ten minutes.
The defender, Jack Cork passed the football to the midfielder, Delph. It was supposed to be an ordinary fifteen-meter diagonal pass, which was a technical move that any professional footballer would have. But Cork lost the ball. Cork could not be med, because Delph was partly at fault as well.
The moment Cork passed the ball, Delph thought Cork was going to dribble the ball himself, so he stood still. But Cork’s pass needed Delph to start running to receive it, so Delph missed the ball and it rolled straight to ?ahin’s feet.
The fans in the stands gave Cork a burst ofughter for his passing error.
Dunn shook his head when he saw the scene in the stands and said, “It’s really a motley crew.”
He was right. The Ennd team was a motley crew. Some of the yers had rarely or never been selected for the national team before. And now they were put together at thest minute. How could they be expected to y well? hard work in the hope that they will do well? It was simply delusional.
Twain listened to theughter of the Forest fans off the field. He was not annoyed nor anxious. Indeed, these yers were not good enough and inexperienced, but they had an advantage that no one else had noticed – the team in front of him was had more fighting spirit than that Ennd team with big name yers, because they had more reason to work hard.
If you want to me to pick you, you have to show me your drive and fight hard.
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But the motley crew remained a motley crew. After the Ennd team held on for twenty-five minutes, the goal defended by Chris Kirnd was finally breached with a header from Aaron Mitchell.
The cheers which erupted from the Crimson Stadium this time were louder than the cheers weing the Forest yers. The deafening sound was like the Niagara Falls pouring down in torrents next to the ears. It roared continuously like rolling thunder, surging in everyone’s heart.
It was the first time Twain experienced the power of the new stadium. He was a little unsettled from the shock – it must be gratifying to y in such a such stadium aspared to the City Ground stadium.
“The goalscorer is Aaron—” The announcer on the stadium broadcast led the fans to loudly chant.
“Mitchell!!!” The fans in the stands shouted in response.
“In the 26th minute, Aaron Mitchell scored the opening goal for Nottingham Forest! A beautiful coordination on the sideline and cut in for the shot in the middle! David Wheater and Anton Ferdinand were helpless against Mitchell’s height and bounce advantage! Before the game, people were afraid that Nottingham Forest, without Tony Twain, would y uncharacteristically as if they had lost their soul. But from this goal, the fear was superfluous. The Forest yers are quick to adapt to their new manager. They are also unfazed and do not relent when they face Tony Twain... It looks like Tony Twain’s first national team game is going to meet with failure!” Thementator’s tone sounded like he took delight in the misfortune. In fact, to see the always strong Twain suffer defeat was the wish of many people. Thementator was no exception.
The reaction from the fans after the goal was enthusiastic, but the goalscorer was not in the mood to celebrate. On the one hand, it was just a friendly match and could not even be considered a quality warm-up game. There was nothing to be proud of to score a goal. On the other hand, it was because he was up against Tony Twain, the boss. The man whom Mitchell should be most grateful for his career in his life was Tony Twain. If it were not for him, it was likely that he would still be ying as the unpromising center back all his life and then be abandoned by the Forest team before ended up ying in a lower level league team and eventually retiring in obscurity. He was on the side of Pepe.
After the goal, Mitchell was not even in the mood to wave in response to the fans’ cheers for him. He just turned around and ran back. asionally he would shake his head and felt that the yers the boss had picked were too weak...
Those who were really happy with the goal were Martin O’Neill and Evan Doughty. The former was happy because it was possible to beat Tony Twain. While a friendly match could not rify too many issues, it certainly allow him to temporarily get rid of Tony Twain’s shadow. People would not always use the tedious andplicatedbel “Tony Twain’s sessor” when they mentioned him.
Thetter’s delight was that he heard the cheers erupted from the stands. The people’s hearts were still on his side...
Twain expressed a slight dissatisfaction with the goal concede. He shook his head in the technical area as he said to Walker, “The defense is not tight enough…We shouldn’t have given Bentley a chance to pass the ball.”
Walker nodded and said, “It can’t be helped, Tony. They’ve only been practicing together for half a day. I don’t think we should care about the result of this game...”
“No.” Twain categorically rejected Walker’s suggestion, “We must win this game.”
Walker did not go on. He could vaguely guess why Twain must win the game. The reason wasplicated. In addition to establishing his power and prestige, perhaps he was provoked by the boos during his entrance. When did Tony Twain ever admit defeat? Give in? If people booed him, he had to prove his power. Simply put, he just liked to meet other people head-on. As a man with such a strong personality, no wonder he offended so many people.
Walker felt he might really be the most suitable candidate to be Ennd’s assistant manager. If someone else were to be Twain’s assistant, he was afraid that the person might be at odds with him soon. Only those like him who knew Twain so well could act as a lubricant to oil the wheels.
On closer inspection, the person who could be an assistant manager to Twain must be a Mr. Nice Guy, someone who tried never to offend anybody. Like David Kerke, or the Chinese man, Dunn. No wonder Roy Keane was said to have turned down two offers from Twain to be an assistant manager. If the Irishman had agreed, the two of them might not have been friends...
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The Nottingham Forest fans were optimistic about the result of the game, especially after Mitchell’s goal. They thought it was not a problem for them to win. The issueid in how many goals the team could win against the Ennd C team. If they won big in the end, they would have the most satisfying afternoon.
Twain observed off the field for a while and decided to make an adjustment. Taking advantage of a dead ball, he called the captain, Ashley Cole, who was near his side, over to him and repeatedly exhorted for a while.
Back on the pitch, Ashley Cole ryed Twain’stest instructions to his teammates. Following which, the Ennd team tightened their formation and began to move into a defensive phase.
Twain saw that Nottingham Forest’s morale had soared amid wave after wave of support from the fans. Looking at O’Neill’s excited state on the sidelines, he could conceived that the Forest team would definitely take advantage of the momentum to wage an offensiveter in the game. Therefore, based on the Ennd team’s current state, if they wanted to press ahead and go head to head with the Forest team, it would end up in a disaster. If they were to concede another goal, Twain would not have the confidence to win the game.
So, he chose to retreat, which was really ugly to watch.
Thementatorughed, “We are now seeing Tony Twain’s signature move again. Nottingham Forest’s new manager, Martin O’Neill, is clearly more active. He’s directing his team to press on to attack and try to score another goal.”
Having paid the price of ying ugly football and being ridiculed, Twain’s team managed to hold the 0:1 score line until the halftime interval. No matter how Nottingham Forest bombarded, the Ennd team’s goal did not fall. It was boring for the fans in the stands –the opponent was obviously Ennd’s C team, put together at thest minute but the team was unable to ovee them even when the entire main force were deployed.
Defending to thest was very simple. All everyone had to do was to huddle together and be clear about what they wanted to do.
With only half a day of practice time, Twain made the team practice defense. At the time, everyone thought it was odd. Now they finally understood the pains the manager had put into this ...
By the time the whistle sounded at the halftime interval, Twain was the first to get up from his seat and take the lead to walk toward the tunnel. When the camera wanted to give Twain another close-up shot, it could only capture a shot of his back in the tunnel.
“It was an extremely boring first half. As long as Tony Twain is around, the game can’t look good. Martin O’Neill has brought a breath of fresh air to Nottingham Forest while Tony Twain brings what he did best at the Forest team to the Ennd team. We don’t know if it is a good thing or a bad thing. But like what Twain himself has said, a victory is the only measure of a manager’s sess. As long as he can lead the team to victory, those voices which doubt him will disappear.”
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Twain watched the yers filed into the locker room. He closed the door when everyone was there. The soundproofing of the new stadium was much better than the City Ground stadium. The noise outside was almost impossible to hear as soon as the door was closed.
“I have to praise you all for the good performance in the second part of the first half. You have defended against the Treble winning team’s attacks. I have nothing toin about, considering you have only been a team for only one day and only concede one goal.” Twain first gave the group of people something sweet before...
“But.” He changed tack and said, “Do you still remember what our goal is for this game? It’s not to win marginally with one goal here and not even to tie the game with the home team. I want you to understand this point—” He raised his right index finger and continued, “The difference between the national team and a club’s team. When you y for your respective clubs, you have to face a long season, at least thirty-eight games a year. During the process, draws and defeats are allowed. It doesn’t matter if this game is lost. We can win the next game. But the national team is not the same. The room you are allowed to have here for mistakes and defeats is very small. I do not know how many of you can eventually make it to my national team squad list. But I hope you can develop a habit here – to try your best to seek victory in any game.”
He smiled for a bit and said, “From now on I am the manager of the Ennd team and you must remember that. I’m a man who likes to win and hates defeat. My team also has to like to win and hate to lose.”
The yers looked at him quietly.
“Don’t tell me there’s someone who likes to lose?” He asked.
Someone shook his head.
“Well it looks like we now have amonnguage and amon goal.” Twain spread his hands and said, “We will y defensive counterattack in the second half. They will use the sidelines to threaten our goal. We will, in turn, take advantage of the empty space behind their two sidelines.”
Twain was very familiar with Nottingham Forest, even with the change of manager. Twain had discovered that the Forest team had not changed much through his observation in the first half. At least they had maintained the offense on the sidelines which they were best at, very well. Did the Forest team’s only goal nowe from the attack in the sidelines?
“Do not pass the ball too much in the midfield, y more high balls, and try your best to do long passes.” Twain was referring to the English style of long balls that were once sneered at by countless people before. But it was rather good to use it to deal with the increasingly elegant Nottingham Forest.
Martin O’Neill had instilled a certain beauty in Nottingham Forest’s style. Their ying was a joy to watch. It had been worth it after working on them for more than a month. What he did not notice, however, was that the current Nottingham Forest team was slowly losing the most important thing.
“You guys have to y with a slightly tougher attitude. Don’t be afraid of getting hurt! How could you get hurt? You’re the ones driving it, not them. Only the passive side will get hurt. So, the more afraid you are of injuries, the more likely you will be injured. Give yourselves the free rein to go big. It’s going to be okay!”
“?ahin passes the ball well, but he has been seriously injured before. So, he’s apprehensive about physical contact. You can grab hold of that point and stick closer to him to tackle. There must be some petty maneuvers too to make him unable to pass the ball easily. Mitchell’s techniques and headers are good. But don’t let his height fool you, his physical ability is very weak, and physical fitness is his weakness. Force him to run continuously and go head to head with him so as to exhaust him sooner. Then he will not be as threateningter in the game. Agbohor is fast, but his goal-kicking method is rough. There is nothing to worry about. Just don’t let him shoot from the sidelines. Blocking Mitchell will be the same as blocking Agbohor...” Twain analyzed the strengths and weaknesses of all the Nottingham Forest yers one by one to his yers. He told them how to deal with each of them. Except for those yers who only joined the team this summer, he covered almost everyone once. He was very familiar with Nottingham Forest. He was so familiar that he did not need to do his homework in advance. He had the information at his fingertips, and he could talk about it as much as he wanted.
Then he had to touch on George Wood.
He was stuck.
He did not know what to say. He knew Wood well, but he could not talk about how to deal with this kid. He waved his hands and said nothing, leaving the yers, who were full of anticipation about it, a little disappointed and confused.
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Martin O’Neill was not satisfied with his team’s performance in the first half as he had deployed the main squad only to score 1:0, knowing that their opponent was Ennd’s C team.
If Tony Twain were here, he would have abuse roundly right away. He would have rebuked them for ending the first half with only a one-goal lead when they were ying against such a terrible team. But O’Neill could not do that. If he were to really do that, his approval rating in the locker room would plummet.
It was just so unfair. The more Twain scolded, the more charming he was, while the other people had to carefully wait upon the team.
After O’Neill tactfully expressed his displeasure, he rearranged the tactics. He thought that Twain would stick to the defensive counterattack tactic in the second half, which was not a difficult thing to do for a man who had studied him thoroughly. Generally speaking, the defensive counterattack tactic would only be used when a team was in the lead. But Twain always used it when his team was trailing by one goal. On the one hand, he could ensure that they did not continue to concede the goal. On the other hand, he could rely on a sneak attack to equalize the score, and then disrupt the opponent’s formation. The hateful part was he had repeatedly seeded, and the method was time-tested.
The order O’Neill gave to the Forest team was to fight to score first once the game started. If the situation was not ideal, then they would pull back the defensive line and contend with Twain in the midfield. Anyway, if they were topete in the midfield, Nottingham Forest would definitely win.
After he finished talking about the tactics, O’Neill repeated his demands. “We must win this game!”
The yers looked at each other and suddenly felt that this was not just a simple friendly match to celebrate the opening of the Crimson Stadium...