Chapter 156: EFL Cup Part 1
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
On February 7th, Nottingham Forest was back on their journey in the English Football League Championship. After more than a dozen days of rest and reorganization, they scored a modest 1:0 victory against Coventry City on their home field.
While the dozen or so days of break gave Tang En the time to adjust the team's tactics, and once again prepare for a new battle, it interrupted the Forest team's rhythm. It was a tough game for them to play on their home turf, and they finally beat their opponents by scoring a somewhat suspect, offside goal.
After the game, the Coventry City manager jabbered on about the referee's decision, thinking that his team should have been the winner. But Tang En, who got off lightly, insisted that the referee was right, and did not want to further mention the goal.
It was not important for Tang En and the Forest team, whether the ball was offsides or not. But, it did matter to the Coventry City manager, who was splitting hairs over this issue. He just needed to know that his team had received the three valuable points in said situation.
Victory was the most important thing, after all, and the process ... was just part of the path towards victory. No matter what methods were used, they just needed to reach the finish line.
A week later, Nottingham Forest's winning streak finally ended. In the 31st round of the League Championship, they were forced into a 1:1 draw with Walsall at their home turf. Because they were one match short, they were still in 14th place. The tied game also did not affect them much. After all, they did not lose. This went to show that Tang En's insistence on a motto, "Don't lose, even if you won't win", was correct.
On February 17th, in the 24th round of the make up game, Nottingham Forest challenged Gillingham to an away match. Judging from the scene, the Forest team was still at a disadvantage.
The young players' problem of unstable state of play was fully exposed. They could get the better of their opponents in succession, or they could also let the opponents gain the upper hand consecutively. Eventually, the final score was tied at 0:0. Tang En unequivocally relied on his tactics to obtain a point in this away game, finally, with much difficulty. He was most gratified that, in the end, they did not lose.
He was realizing more and more, the kind of pressure that came from being a manager. As in, every time he saw the opponents surrounding his own goal, and bombarding it, his heart would be in his throat. Every time a shot to the goal was attempted, his heart would stop. It was an awful feeling.
February 29th was the EFL Cup final. Before that, Nottingham Forest had one match every three days: three League Championship matches on the 14th, 17th, and 21st. This caused Tang En to make some veiled criticisms at the press conferences. He complained that the League committee did not know how to adequately accommodate the players, especially regarding the fact that such an intensive game schedule was arranged before such an important match, providing his team with no time to rest.
As a matter of fact, the League committee was justified in this arrangement, because one of these three scheduled games was a make up game, and they had also postponed the 33rd round match between the Forest team and Bradford City. If the games were to proceed as usual, the kick-off date of the game would be February 28th ...
On February 21st, the 32nd round of the League Championship, Nottingham Forest continued traveling to away games. This time, their opponent was Rotherham United, and the final score was 1:1. It was another draw. After their winning streak, the Forest team had consecutive draw matches, but, again, at least they did not lose.
Tang En was slightly relieved, but he had to put all his efforts into preparing for the EFL Cup final with Middlesbrough. Now, eight days away from the finals, the media coverage had gradually increased.
Because the Forest team was a League One team, and was back in the final after twelve years, they received more attention. Even Tang En felt a little nervous, as he was watching those media reporters wandering outside the training ground. But this kind of tension could not be shown in front of outsiders, as he was the leader of these players, and the leader could not be nervous, could not hesitate, and could not disappoint them.
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Des Walker gave the new training plan to Tang En. Today was February 23, and they still had six days for targeted training. Before the training session on this day, the coaching team must come together to discuss this plan.
Tang En looked at it, and deleted all the training on offense, except for the "offensive positioning ball drill", then he passed it to everyone present. Walker and the coaches looked at this "new plan", and glanced at each other.
Seeing their puzzled expressions, Tang En smiled. "It's very simple, we're not going to use offense on Middlesbrough in the match. We are going to play defense, and let them attack. Not only that, there's also an additional training program in this list – to increase the amount of training on penalty kicks by twenty minutes at the end of each day's training," he explained.
"Tony, you want to bet on the penalty kicks?" Walker asked.
Tang En nodded, "Yes. Starting tomorrow, the team's training that is opened to the media and fans will be shortened to half an hour. We will continuously practice defense for this one week. Middlesbrough seems to be similar to the Bolton Wanderers, which we have beaten in the semi-final. They rely on lending or buying those star players past their prime in order to support the team. But, their offense ability is stronger. If we play hard, like we did against the Bolton Wanderers, then McClaren (Middlesbrough manager) will be delighted. Did any of you guys pay attention to the media coverage from Middlesbrough?"
Everyone shook their heads. Clearly, few people would care about such things. But Tang En cared, as he said, "I recently collected all kinds of information from there. Although we couldn't go directly to their team's training grounds to observe, I can tell from these media reports that the Middlesbrough team has a positive attitude. I think Middlesbrough must be happy to know that the final match will be against a team from the middle rankings in a second-tier league."
All the coaches understood what he meant. Middlesbrough felt that there would be a greater chance of winning against a League One team.
"If they think that, then that is a big mistake!" Tang En smirked. "When they hope to use offense to end the battle, we will let them hit a wall!" He punched his fist into his left palm.
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After the coaches' regular meeting, the entire coaching team began the "construction of the wall", according to Tang En's requirements. Even Eastwood, who normally did not need to participate in defense, had been specifically asked by Walker in training: If the ball were to be lost, he must counter seize on the spot. If he did not succeed in seizing the ball on the spot, he must immediately turn back to chase, or hand the target over to any midfielder who would head up to defend, and he must return to replace the midfielder's position.
This was not just a requirement for Eastwood alone. All the attacking players must follow this call, too. If someone had performed a token extending of his leg or spreading of his arms after losing the ball, he would immediately hear the sharp ear-piercing referee whistle, and Walker's berate.
In particular, the wingers were almost used as second full backs. When they were carrying out an offense to hit their opponents to the fullest, their defense must be withdrawn to their bottom line.
In addition, Tang En was firm in regards to not practicing to create offside traps. For Nottingham Forest fo face Middlesbrough, which was fast in the wings, creating offside traps was tantamount to suicide.
The key to their defense was to constrict their opponent's control of the ball, as well as their space and time for passing. Creating offside traps was not an ideal choice. The Forest team's three sections must keep a tight distance in the game, so it was not a surprise for the strikers to return to defend the center circle.
For the current football world, it was annoying to ask the team to play such a defense, which was equivalent to playing passively. But Tang En knew clearly that the rest of the world would realize the benefits of this kind of compact defending after this summer. Why? Because the Greek team won the championship. In the German World Cup two years later, the Italian team had had the last laugh, due to their better defense tactics.
The players did not understand, and Tang En would tell them during the training intervals that focusing on the proper defensive was the only way to win the cup. Those who wanted the championship and glory must follow accordingly, and those who did not ... Are you still professional players? Are you still men?
Des Walker fully experienced the true essence of Twain's belief: "There's no tactic which cannot be changed, as long as I can win the game. I don't care whether we use defensive counterattack or offensive football". In order to enter the finals, under the circumstances of losing a goal first, he could decisively abandon the idea of minimizing the loss of ball control and defense, and switch to offense, like in both the home and away matches against the Bolton Wanderers. Finally, he depended on a valuable goal in an away match to gain admission to the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.
Once they were in a match where victory was certain, he would discard the "offense" unimaginably far away, and use all efforts to defend to the death. He would rather drag the game to a penalty shoot-out, with both sides each having half a chance, than to fight to the death with the opponents within the ninety minutes. This was because that kind of tactic was considered to be "riskier" for him.
Twain once said to Walker, "Des, you know I'm obsessed with the Chinese culture, their cuisine, their traditional customs, their history ... even their military strategy and tactics. Do you know ?"
Seeing Walker shake his head, Tang En expressed his understanding, and then explained, "It's a very famous volume of art of war in China, which specifically talks about military tactics. With more than three thousand years of wisdom, it is no longer just about military tactics. I think it can also be used in football. Football is war. There's a saying in the book: 'Water shapes its course, according to the ground over which it flows; the soldier maps out his victory in relation to the foe whom he is facing. Therefore, just as water retains no constant shape, there are no constant conditions in warfare.'"
Walker was mystified by this sudden emergence of Chinese language from Twain. Tang En smiled and explained, "The translation means that, 'Water will change its flow, based on topography and terrain. The soldiers should decide their winning strategies, according to the different enemies.' Therefore, what it is saying, is that there is not a fixed situation in war, just like there is no constant pattern to a water flow. A football match is no different from a battle. I always avoid being seen through by our opponents. Whether we are playing defense or offense, our strategy depends on what kind of opponents we face, what kind of game, what kind of situation ... I know this kind of expectation may be a bit high for the team right now. But ..."
He pointed to the players, who were currently training on the field, and said with pride, "We will train them, and they will be able to do it when they need to."