Chapter 774: Volume 6: Crimson, We and Casually

Captain George Wood announced his contract extension, and the team beat Manchester City 2-0 away. The combination of these two things made the morale of Nottingham Forest unprecedentedly high and the confidence burst.

Immediately ushering in the Champions League group match Celtics, the players of the Forest team also said in an interview that there is no problem with winning at home.

Tang En asked Tang to give him a list, and the names on it were all those who expressed such thoughts to the media or were overconfident in their usual training. Then in the starting list for the first Champions League group match of the new season, none of these people were on the list.

The problem of overconfidence is most serious in the midfield. Shaheen, Bostock, Bentley, Kompany and Rafinha are all on that list.

So Celtic are looking at another Nottingham Forest away - goalkeeper Akinfeev; centre-backs Pepe and Woodgate with Joe Mattock at left-back and Nku at right-back Lu. St. George Woodley, the eternal captain of the midfield, continued to start without moving, and his position was unshakable. His partner is Thiago. Lennon on the right and Cohen on the left. The forward line is partnered by Ruud van Nistelrooy and Abanglaho.

Not letting Ibisevic start is out of a strategy to protect him and decompress him.

The Celtics absolutely dare not say that they can easily win against such a Nottingham Forest team. In fact, since Twain has always liked to adopt frequent rotations, the strength of each of his lineups is not far behind. Any set can be said to be the main lineup, and sometimes under the instigation of his ingenious words, the lineup that is not favored by others can explode with amazing energy... 07-08 is the one who is deeply touched in this regard It's the end of the season for Portsmouth. They thought that Nottingham Forest, who had changed the main lineup significantly, would be a bully. They planned to beat this mighty team and that mighty head coach at home. They almost succeeded, but in the end they didn't Nottingham Forest, who was gone berserk, poured seven goals.

With these lessons learned, no one dares to underestimate Nottingham Forest's second lineup...

The Celtics put up a defensive counterattack lineup in the away game, trying to wait for an opportunity to attack on the basis of holding a point.

Dunn expected that his opponent would do this. But today's Nottingham Forest is no longer the team that could only defend and counterattack. Although his lineup lacks a midfield organizer like Shaheen. However, George Wood's improvement in offense was enough to reassure Dunn.

Another advantage of this midfield configuration is that two defensive central midfielders are placed in the midfield, which cuts off the opponent's counterattack route from the center. When forming a formation, two people stand side by side at the back, and the two full-backs are positioned very forward, almost reaching the position of the winger, which seems to be far away. But that's not the case in actual games. Because Wood and Thiago will always take turns to advance, and the two wingers will retreat to respond, so there is no danger of being cut off if the distance is too far.

Tang En has always asked the players to move flexibly, so his formation does not represent the actual effect. In terms of defense, he requires everyone to strictly abide by tactical discipline, and not to do anything that should not be done. But on offense, he gave the players the greatest freedom, allowing them to play freely under a big tactical frame. As long as he can score a goal, he doesn't care how the goal is scored...

Back to the game itself.

The Celtics deployed heavy troops in the midfield, like a spider laying a net, waiting for the stupid bird of Nottingham Forest to hit him head-on, get caught in the net, and then use the counterattack to kill them.

Twain was not an idiot either, he asked the team to press up properly, but the defense just stood still. One advantage of starting Joe Mattok and Nkuru is that these two rookies are much more obedient than those old fritters-yes, Bell has evolved into an old fritters! I know it's a slippery act.

Tang En didn't require the full backs to assist, but asked the central midfielders to run in behind. They were originally two defensive midfielders, but they kept going forward in turn during the game, disturbing the Celtics' defense. Especially Wood, his speed and body make him very threatening when he goes forward, not to mention his through ball is getting sharper...

Only 30 minutes into the game, Wood already had two direct passes through the Celtics' thick defensive line. Unfortunately, neither Ruud van Nistelrooy nor Abanglaho could receive his ball. .

But the Celtics were also smart and immediately adjusted their defense. The defense was further shrunk, leaving no room for Wood to pass the ball.

After Tang En saw it from the sidelines, he got up from the coach's bench and made his first adjustments in this game.

He put Ruud van Nistelrooy up front, Abanglajo pulled wide, cleared the middle and then... stepped up the long-range shot.

George Wood, Thiago, Lennon, Cohen, Abanglaho and even Ruud van Nistelrooy would try to shoot from distance whenever they got the chance.

Although the scoring rate of long-range shots may be the lowest of all scoring methods. But the Celtics created such a good opportunity for Twain, he didn't need to be too reckless - after the Celtics' defense line shrunk, a large space was formed at the front of the penalty area. When the position took the ball, there were no Celtic players who rushed up to defend immediately, giving Nottingham Forest players too many opportunities to adjust.

In this case, what are you waiting for if you don't shoot?

Bad luck for the Celtics too.

Wood, who is usually poor in accuracy, hits the goal frame with two long-range shots one after another. Although there was no goal, there was a huge cheer from the stands of the city stadium.

The Celtics reacted too slowly to this, and they still didn't rush up to stop Wood's long shot.

So the third long-range shot, Wood scored.

"Ohhh-George Wood!! Beautiful long-range shot! Fast, powerful, and angled! His shots are getting better and better! Nottingham Forest leads 1-0 at home!"

After the goal, George Wood was surrounded by his teammates and ran to the sidelines, enjoying the cheers that belonged to him alone.

"This is the best gift he can give to the club after the contract extension! He has played in a stable state as always, and he has made the opponent desperate... such a person is renewing his contract with the Forest team for five years. Tony Twain must be The happiest person in the world!"

Tang En stood up and applauded Wood's goal. At the same time, he tilted his head and smiled at Tang beside him: "Your efforts have paid off. His current level of long-range shooting is completely different from the first time I saw him." .”

Tang also applauded: "It's his hard work, I didn't do anything... Demi is right, he is also a genius in this regard."

Speaking of Demi. Tang En was a little lost. How happy the Italian would have been if Albertini had been among his companions...

※ ※ ※

After scoring the goal, the game became much easier for Twain and the Forest team.

The core of his tactics is to let himself take the lead, and then counterattack the opponent... This kind of tactics is very insignificant, but it is the most effective.

Now it depends on the mentality of the opponent.

If the Celtics feel that it is okay to lose a goal in the away game, then they will continue to defend and wait for the opportunity to counterattack. Maybe they can tie the score at the end of the game, and that is a real profit. This is quite uncomfortable for Twain - 1:0 is the most unsafe score in the world, he must keep the team vigilant for the rest of the time, with a high level of nerves, constantly besieging the Celtics At the same time, beware of the opponent's counterattack. This kind of game is too tiring for the players. If he can choose, he doesn't want to play the rest of the game like this.

Another possibility is that the Celtics are not willing to lose in the away game, they want at least a draw. Then I will try to attack it in the rest of the game. This is Twain's favorite way of coping. He can fight back and forth with his opponents on the court... Of course, it's not a confrontation. A fool only plays confrontation with a team that wants to score goals. He defends and counterattacks. The roles of the two teams are reversed.

In essence, he still likes to bully others...

This time the Celtics didn't get what he wanted. They chose to continue to defend and wait for an opportunity to attack.

So Tang En had to stand on the sidelines to supervise the battle, asking his players not to let down their vigilance.

During the halftime break, Tang En repeated this request to everyone. He analyzed the current situation for the team, and then asked them not to underestimate the enemy, not to take it lightly, and not to relax their requirements. The back line is still not allowed Press up, beware of the opponent's quick counterattack.

In this game, he put all the confident and conceited players on the bench. From the player's mentality, he didn't worry about anything.

Now we just need to pray that some inexplicable accidents will not happen on the court.

At the beginning of the second half of the game, the Celtics planned to take advantage of the game just started and when the opponent's attention was not focused, they reacted violently and evened the score. But Tony Twain had already expected that Nottingham Forest did not appear to be "not concentrating". Instead, they played tricks and hit the Celtics with a few counterattacks, almost scoring a goal.

Now the Celtics were honest, and they retracted and never came out again.

The second half was rather dull. Nottingham Forest bombed around the Celtic penalty area, and due to a lack of luck, they just couldn't score. The Celtics' few chances to counterattack could not threaten the goal guarded by Akinfeev at all.

Nottingham Forest finally beat Celtic 1-0 at home, giving them a good start to their Champions League death group tour.

At the post-match press conference, Celtics head coach Rod Stewart said helplessly: "This is football. I think a draw is a fair and reasonable result..."

Tang En almost laughed out loud——Which eye of your old man sees a draw is more suitable for this game? He then said slightly sarcastically: "I'm not very satisfied because we only won one goal."

Then a reporter asked: "Group C is recognized as the group of death. Does the victory over the Celtics mean that Nottingham Forest has the upper hand on the road to qualifying?"

"I never think about this issue. As long as we can continue to win, we will definitely qualify. I prefer to focus on the opponents in the quarter-finals."

The Scottish reporters might not be used to Tony Twain's habitual arrogance, but the English reporters were used to it. They changed the question: "Which two teams do you think will appear in this group?"

Tang En tilted his head and looked at the reporter: "If I say that everyone has a chance to qualify, you must be very dissatisfied? Do you think I'm prevaricating you?"

What he said was the truth. With Tony Twain's personality, he could hardly say anything that pleased everyone. So he went on to say his answer: "Nottingham Forest and any team."

What a big tone! The three teams in the death group have become his foil...

But no one will find it strange. If Tony Twain wasn't arrogant, it might make people feel abnormal. This is the Tony Twain that their reporters like to see.

A group of people excitedly prepared the headline for the next day's report:

"Tony Twain Has No One in His Eyes"

"Twain looks down on Juventus! "

"Twain Books Group Qualifiers in Advance"

...

etc.

Twain could of course pretend to be arrogant in front of the media, but that was a way for him to confuse his opponents. Sun Tzu's Art of War has the saying that "soldiers never tire of deceit", and it is the same in the football world.

In fact, his real thought is that any opponent in this group is a threat to the team. But there are three, six, and nine ranks in it-the most threatening team is Juventus, followed by Atletico Madrid, and the third is the Celtics he just won.

But Twain was not too worried about the team's morale and state against Juventus - the only team that hadn't won the European Champions Cup two years ago, must win this time! Everyone thinks so.

Playing Atletico Madrid is a challenge for the team. This is an opponent they have never encountered before, not to mention that the team also has the silver boot shooter Aguero in the World Cup in South Africa.

As for the Celtics...it will be the last round of the group stage when they return to their home court, and if the situation of the Forest team's qualifying is determined by then, Twain doesn't care how they play. If the Celtics want to qualify or fight for a place in the UEFA Cup, they will inevitably launch a fierce attack at home. At that time, the Forest team will just play their best defensive counterattack.

※ ※ ※

After the game, the media's attitude towards the game was mixed. Nottingham local media unanimously praised Nottingham Forest's performance, saying that they won a key victory and made a good start for qualifying in the group of death. Although the score is not high and the scene is not exciting, the three-pointer is the most important thing.

This game strengthened their confidence, and they can once again look forward to the feeling of the team standing on the top of Europe...

Of course, there were also quite a few media who ridiculed Tony Twain for his "habitual arrogance". With the current Forest team, it was not certain whether they could qualify for the group stage, let alone longer-term matters. The Celtics, who are considered to be the weakest in the group, only won a 1:0 at home. What face is there to say: "The team that will qualify will be Nottingham Forest or any other team"?

Public opinion is generally not optimistic about Nottingham Forest qualifying from this group, they are more optimistic about Juventus and Atletico Madrid. As if to cite their ideas, Juventus and Atletico Madrid drew 0:0 at the Alpi Stadium-it seems that they are all ready to join hands to qualify without hurting their peace...