Chapter 795: Volume Six: Crimson Tang En's Christmas Tree

Aaron Mitchell was transferred to the first team, which proves that Zigic's transfer work has officially started.

Allen picked the teams with the highest offers and accepted their applications. As for Zikic himself, he has no special views on transfers. He was not the kind of loyalist who would swear allegiance to the Forest team to the death. If the other party could offer better conditions than those at Nottingham Forest, he would naturally not refuse. At the same time, Mitchell, who was the same height as himself, was suddenly transferred to the first team. He also knew very well that the boss did not intend to keep him wholeheartedly, so there was no point in continuing to stay.

The three clubs that Allen Adams accepted were Newcastle in the Premier League, Hamburg in the Bundesliga and Villarreal in La Liga. All three clubs have quoted a price tag of £10 million. It's no wonder that Allen came to Tang En. At this time, he can still offer 10 million pounds, which is indeed very attractive.

Negotiations went very well, and in the end Zigic chose to go to Villarreal in La Liga. This team gives the best personal treatment, and at the same time they still have the strength to compete for the annual Champions League qualification.

Three days later, Nottingham Forest and Villarreal officially announced the completion of the transfer at the same time, and Zikic switched to the yellow submarine at a price of 10 million pounds. Tang En bought Zikic for 10 million euros at the beginning, but now it has been converted into British pounds, which is equivalent to 10.8 million euros. In today's economic environment, a small profit is already very good.

At the very least, it showed that Tang En's vision was fine, and the people he bought did not lose money.

After Zigic left, his No. 9 jersey remained, and Tang En gave it to Mitchell.

When handing over the jersey, he still said with a straight face and a little sternness: "The number does not mean anything, and the number nine is not a symbol of the main force."

Mitchell was used to the tone and attitude of the boss, nodded and said: "I know, boss. I will work hard."

Tang En grinned, pretending it was a smile.

※ ※ ※

Zikic is gone. In his two and a half seasons at Nottingham Forest, he scored a total of 21 goals and 25 assists for the team. This result is not ugly. However, his two seasons with the Forest team were the darkest two seasons for the Forest team. Without a championship or honor, he came empty-handed and left empty-handed.

In the minds of Nottingham Forest fans, Zikic's status is definitely not comparable to Van Nistelrooy, Eastwood and other forwards. He didn't even leave a single memorable moment and just walked away.

Not long after Zigic's transfer was settled, Bostock also accepted Fulham's loan contract. In this contract, Twain specified one rule - when Fulham played Nottingham Forest, Bostock would not be allowed to play.

This clause in the contract is not unfamiliar in La Liga, but it is still rarely done in the Premier League. It's a little shameless for Dunn to do this, but he doesn't want the Forest team to be knocked to the ground by the players he trained. Eto'o's "tragedy" against Real Madrid in Mallorca must not happen to Nottingham Forest.

Former Real Madrid player Pablo Garcia (Pablo_Garcia) once talked about this clause, which he called "the shit clause". It can be seen how much he hates this clause.

Tang En didn't care about the reputation of this clause, as long as it was useful to him, it was good!

Fulham doesn't care about this one. Anyway, in their opinion, there is only half of the season left, and this is the only chance to meet with the Forest team. If they don't let them play, they won't let them play.

Bostock has a little opinion - he hopes to give full play to his level when playing against the Forest team, so as to attract more attention from Twain so that he can compete for the main position next season.

This is exactly what Tang En is most worried about... He is afraid that the loaned players will come to the game with the mentality of proving themselves to their old clubs, perform at a level that exceeds 200% of the usual level, and become the star of defeating the Forest team players. So this possibility must be snuffed out in infancy.

Bostock eventually accepted the condition -- so what if he didn't? Either accept it, or you can only stay in the team and continue to sit on the bench. Sometimes Tang En is a kind friend, but most of the time, he is a hateful devil.

During the winter transfer period, Nottingham Forest sent away two players and did not bring in one. Twain believes that the current lineup is sufficient for all the upcoming games.

※ ※ ※

On January 16, Nottingham Forest challenged Everton away. In this game, Twain showed everyone his new formation for the first time.

Moyes carefully studied the performance of the Forest team in the last few games before the game, and he felt that Tang En would still stick to the offensive strategy. But he didn't expect Tang En to change his formation.

All along, no matter how Twain changes, he will always insist on a few points: 1. Emphasis on defense; 2. Attacking from the side; 3. Double forwards;

4231. This is the formation Forest used against Everton.

The four defenders are Joe Mattok, Pepe, Woodgate and Nkuru, which is normal. But for the first time in the midfield, he didn't set up a midfielder!

It's not that George Wood didn't play. Wood was not injured or sick, and his condition was fine, let alone suspended. How could he not play? It's just that his position on the field has changed a little.

No longer a simple defensive midfielder, he and his partner Thiago both moved forward, from a defensive midfielder to a central midfielder. Don't underestimate this change. The defensive midfielders and central midfielders have different responsibilities. The defensive midfielder focuses on defense, while the central midfielder is more responsible for the tandem work of defense and offense, and needs to play a greater role in offense.

Although the Forest team's coaching staff has been focusing on cultivating George Wood's offensive ability since several seasons ago, his position has always been a defensive midfielder, and he has more requirements for defense.

Now that the position is changed, it means that he can let go of his offense. Whether it is for Wood or the Forest team, this is a rare breakthrough.

In the midfield he and Thiago are responsible for organizing the attack, but also shoulder the heavy responsibility of defense. It can be said that he is the busiest person in the team.

The "3" in front of them are Cohen, Fernandez and Abanglaho. Cohen and Abanglahor are on the left and right flanks, while Fernandez is placed in the middle, giving play to his ability to pass the ball well and shoot from long distances. He can not only complete the final pass for the team's offense, but also He scored a goal by himself, and said he was an attacking midfielder. In fact, he was not an organizational attacking midfielder, but more like a scoring type.

This was also one of the reasons why Tang En used Fernandez instead of Shaheen. Shaheen is slightly inferior to Fernandez in scoring ability.

It won't be surprising that Abanglaho plays on the right, because he has played this position many times in Aston Villa, and it is not the first time he has played an attacking right midfielder in the Forest team.

The forward at the top is Ibisevic.

At the same time, Dunn asked the two full-backs to actively assist. He changed the previous rule that he easily did not allow full-backs to insert assists. It can be seen that he is determined to play offensive football at Everton's home court.

Although in normal training, the coaching staff often let Wood hit the forward position, but in actual combat, this is the first time. So Nottingham Forest's coaching staff has been nervously watching the progress of the game. They want to see if the content of the training can be fully utilized in the game.

Wood was not used to it at first, he always had to run backwards and become a midfielder. So Tang En yelled loudly from the sidelines, telling him to return to his position.

Retreating is allowed. After all, the central midfielder needs to take into account the defense, but it is not allowed to retreat and stop coming up.

Thiago took on the responsibility of running the offense while Wood was still trying to adjust to his new role. He used to play this position, and he can enter the role immediately without adapting.

※ ※ ※

At the beginning of the game, it can be seen that the entire Forest team tried this formation and tactics for the first time in the game, because they are all adapting...

Moyes didn't understand why Twain would suddenly use this tactical formation in this game, which seemed to be a tactical formation that none of his own players had fully adapted to. But he won't think about such incomprehensible things. Since the Forest team hasn't entered the rhythm of the game, then I'm not welcome!

He commanded the team to launch a swift offensive to the Forest team's goal. Finally, in the 17th minute of the game, their striker genius James Vaughan (James_Vaughan) showed his talent outside the penalty area. After receiving a pass from his teammate, he planned to break into the penalty area, but was met by Tia on the outside. Ge's interception. Thiago's tackle did not completely stop Vaughn, he staggered, quickly adjusted his center of gravity, and suddenly kicked and volleyed vigorously before Wood came to tackle! The football flew past Akinfeev's fingers like a cannonball and rushed into the goal!

"World wave!" The commentator roared excitedly, "When Wayne Rooney was still at Everton, he once scored an almost identical goal in the match against Arsenal! Vaughn's performance has long been let Everton fans have forgotten Rooney, as Everton's main striker, he has scored eleven goals so far this season! The future is limitless!"

The goal ignited the atmosphere at Goodison Park as the Everton fans created a blue wave in the stands like a stormy sea.

Tang En was a little depressed. This is the difference between talented players and ordinary players... Ordinary players can only raise their hands and surrender in the face of Thiago and Wood's joint interception, while geniuses can seize fleeting opportunities and pass the ball through the cracks Shot into the goal.

It's definitely not his coach's fault...

Now that the team is behind, should they switch back to the 442 they are most used to? With the current staffing of the Forest team, it is not impossible to switch to 442. Abang Lahuo can be a striker, and Cohen can play on the right side.

But Tang En resolutely said "No!"

4231 to persevere. He firmly believes that after the adaptation period, it will be Everton's turn to be unlucky!

The power of 4231 has undoubtedly been demonstrated in training, it's just how to make this power successfully displayed in actual combat.

The key is George Wood. If he can't enter the role, it will affect the performance of the entire team.

Dunn believed that Wood's football intelligence would not be that bad. After all, he was someone Albertini favored. Who was Albertini? The midfield commander, he is famous for his football wisdom!

After struggling for twenty minutes on the field, George Wood finally got used to his new position. However, he has his own understanding - not to fix himself in the position of central midfielder, he is more flexible, similar to the traditional "Box_to_box" player in England, he can perform very well on both the defensive end and the offensive end. .

Such a player has a wide range of activities and has higher requirements for physical fitness, but physical fitness happens to be Wood's strength, and he doesn't have to worry about such sprinting back and forth that will make him exhausted in the second half of the game. This is just right.

Tang En laughed after seeing this scene off the court. Although it is different from what I arranged, it is better this way.

Let him play in the way he finds out that suits him best, maybe he will do better than all of us thought.

Wood started the show by sprinting from one restricted area to another.

He stopped Everton, he organized Forest, he was there when he was needed, he looked superhuman with his energy.

"George Wood tackled Vaughn's dribble! Is it a foul? No, a clean tackle!"

"George Wood's through ball, beautiful! Penetrating Everton's defense! Unfortunately, no one can catch it - too much force..."

"He tried to shoot from long distance and it went over the bar!"

"Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooton" once again !"

...

Nottingham Forest's set of tactics is based on the two central midfielders in the midfield. The core of the two central midfielders is of course George Wood. Wood is alive, and everything is alive.

In the 40th minute of the first half, Wood intercepted Tim Cahill's ball in the midfield and handed it to Thiago, who was then distributed to Cohen on the wing.

Cohen made a cross from the wing, and Everton's goalkeeper Tim Howard made a misjudgment and missed the football, allowing the ball to pass over him!

How could Ibisevic let go of such a good opportunity? He threw away Joseph Yabo who was defending him, jumped up and pushed the football into the empty goal!

This is the advantage of the double midfielder. You can counterattack on the spot and launch a counterattack immediately without delay, and it will not give the opponent a chance to counterattack in the midfield.

※ ※ ※

During the intermission, Tang En affirmed the performance of the players in the second half of the first half and told them to continue to play like this in the second half. Everton simply couldn't resist the Forest team who launched an all-out attack.

Sure enough, after Everton resisted for a while in the second half, the situation on the field was completely controlled by Nottingham Forest. The five midfielders are not good-looking. The characteristic of this tactic is to control the midfielder, kill the enemy's counterattack in the opponent's half, and at the same time oppress their defense line, press every step of the way, and strive to gain an advantage on the scene, so as to maximize the advantage For the victory.

Tang En used Everton as an experimental product on purpose. Opponents that are too strong are afraid of accidents, and opponents that are not strong enough are not qualified to be experimental products. Therefore, a team like Everton, which ranks in the middle, has a stable performance, and is qualified to hit the Champions League, has become the top choice.

Poor Moyes...

In the 80th minute of the game, the scene where Nottingham Forest kept pressing Everton in the second half finally came to an end.

This time it was Fernandez who was involved in the running position to open the gap, Thiago passed the ball directly, and Ibisevic successfully scored his fourteenth goal in the league this season, the total goal The number reached sixteen.

There are still four goals away from the betting victory, which is no problem for Ibisevic now.

In the end, Nottingham Forest relied on Ibisevic's two goals to beat Everton away. But in fact, the real reason for winning is Dunn's "Christmas tree". The well-known Christmas tree formation is AC Milan's 4321, but Tang En's 4231 also looks like a Christmas tree, so Tang En simply called this "my own Christmas tree", "unique", "the only one in the world" , "Other 4231s are not called Christmas tree formations, only my 4231 is a Christmas tree".

The statistics of the game explain the reasons for Everton's loss - Nottingham Forest's ball possession rate is 50%, the pass success rate is 79%, the steal success rate is as high as 89%, and the shooting rate is as high as 89%. Fourteen times, ten hit the target. By comparison Everton had just six shots, three of which were on target. completely at a disadvantage.

At the press conference after the game, Moyes admitted this reality with some helplessness: "They have completely mastered the situation, and they deserve to win..."

Tang En was very proud: "I am very happy to see this kind of scene. There is no suspense for us to win."

A reporter asked him why he uncharacteristically gave up the 442 that he had used for several seasons.

Tang En spread his hands: "Why? Couldn't the score of 2:1 and three points not answer your doubts?"

"But isn't your football style defensive counterattack and 442?"

"That's what you think. My style is the same after that - winning. Only winning and championships are my football style, and everything else is just a means to serve this result. As long as I can achieve victories and championships, I don't mind. Whether it's a counterattack or a total attack, I don't mind if it's 442 or 4231." Tang En threw out his unscrupulous theory with a smile.

"For victory and championship, I will do whatever it takes."