Chapter 161: Wall Part 1
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Inside the Cardiff Millennium Stadium's VIP suite, a golden-haired beauty, who was dressed fashionably, could not help but yawn, as she changed her sitting position somewhat uninterestedly. She was not a professional fan. In fact, she could not even be considered a football fan at all.
She felt that, the more important the match was, the more exciting the match should be. However, the match situation a mere ten minutes in, was so dreary, that it had made her extremely disappointed. In the eyes of this beautiful girl, this match was extremely tasteless and boring.
Actually, this beautiful girl was not the only person, who presently found the match boring. The football fans, who were seated on the stands and in front of the television, felt this way as well.
As this was an extremely important finals match, playing conservatively and steadily was the way to go. The commentators, Martin Taylor and Andy Gray, knew this very well, and therefore, did not complain during their commentary.
Instead, Gray questioned Nottingham Forest's concentrated defensive play style — defending like, ever that since the match started, how much longer could Twain's team continue on? Forty-five minutes? Ninety minutes? Or… One hundred and twenty minutes?
"Massimo Maccarone attempts a distance shot! It had hit the body of a Nottingham Forest player, before going out of bounds. This is a corner kick. The Italian has appeared to be very excited, ever since the match started. In a mere eleven minutes, he has already attempted two shots at the goalpost!" remarked one of the commentators.
For this match, Middlesbrough sent out an offensive lineup. Evidently, McClaren did not think that crucial matches should be played conservatively, or at least he didn't choose to play conservatively, when facing off against Nottingham Forest.
Actually, ever since Robson had become the manager of the team, Middlesbrough's tradition tactic was to use technique-centric, offensive football. Among the Premier League teams, they were nicknamed the "giant slayers", as they had a lot of experience playing against strong teams. However, when playing against teams, which were adept at snatching and had players with exceptional physiques, they would become somewhat at a loss for what to do.
Their greatest characteristic was having a strong offense and a weak defense. Although McClaren did not know what Tang En's plans were, he still decided to launch an unrelenting offense, right from the start of the match. He hoped to make use of this momentum in order to secure a leading advantage, as this would make things easier for Middlesbrough, which had more skilful players, in the rest of the match.
His plan for the match was the complete opposite of Tang En's. McClaren did not intend to fortify his defences during the match, but instead, chose to maximize their offensive advantage. He hoped to completely destroy this League One team's fighting spirit, by consecutively blasting balls into Nottingham Forest's goalpost.
As a result, McClaren had chosen to dispatch his most offensive lineup for this match. The frontline consisted of the power duo of Massimo Maccarone and Joseph Job. The former was the most accurate with shots, while the latter was extremely proficient with dribbling.
The four people in the midfielder positions were Middlesbrough's stars of hope. From left to right, they were: the nineteen-year-old genius football player Stewart Downing; Juninho, the 1.65metres tall Brazilian midfielder with exceptional techniques; the Dutch midfielder George Boateng, who defends aggressively, runs fast, and was not afraid of body rams; and finally, Gaizka Mendieta, the Spanish midfielder, who was on loan from Lazio.
The lineup for Middlesbrough's full backs did not have much change, but McClaren also did not have much choice in the selection of players. The French left back, Franck Queudrue, was a player that posed a huge threat to Tang En, as he was a player that could execute both defense and offense seamlessly.
Although he was only 1.83 meters tall, Franck Queudrue possessed exceptional header and free kick skills. In the two most recent seasons, he was one of the most outstanding left backs in the Premier League.
The right back position was assumed by Danny Mills, an England national team player on loan from Leeds United. The two center backs were thirty-one-year-old veteran player Ugo Ehiogu and the young twenty-three-year-old Chris Riggott. The goalkeeper was Australian national team goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer.
With this lineup, aside from Juninho, almost everyone else was part of Middlesbrough's main line-up in the English Premier League. Among the four midfielders, only Boateng was a defensive player. The other three midfielders were all better in terms of offense. McClaren's intentions were extremely obvious — and that was to go on the offense!
Playing defensively was never a style that Middlesbrough adopted. They liked executing give and go, a type of offensive football that was seamless. But today…. They still did not know that, the offense, in which they took so much pride, was about to hit a major wall.
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Juninho kicked off the ball, but Queudrue, who was being heavily marked by Nottingham Forest's players, was unable to receive the ball. As a result, Middlesbrough's offense was temporarily stopped.
Very quickly, Middlesbrough players, in their yellow jerseys, went on the offensive once again, because Nottingham Forest did not have any means of counterattacking at the front. Only Crouch was there, so even if he managed to snatch the first point of contact with the ball, using his height advantage, the goalkeeper could easily run over, and there was nothing Nottingham Forest could do to stop their opponent from regaining possession of the ball during the second point of fall.
Although Nottingham Forest's formation, which had been decided prior to the match, was supposed to be 442, during the actual match, only Crouch was positioned at the forefront. In the past, Tang En would arrange for Eastwood to roam around Crouch, keeping a lookout for the second point of fall. However, he did not ask Eastwood to do this today. Instead, he positioned the Gypsy slightly backwards in the field, for defense.
Nottingham Forest had almost completely given up on offense. This was done precisely to build a high wall in front of its goalpost, and to completely shut down all of Middlesbrough's offenses.
Italy had a tradition of adopting "Catenaccio", which referred to the entire team being focused on defense, and being closely-linked together. Prior to this match, Tang En had spent over a week devising a new defensive system for Nottingham Forest, which he had named the "wall defense". It was a welll-rounded, reinforced and concrete defensive system.
The back defensive line would definitely not pressure forward and would definitely not go out of position, with the three lines maintaining a close proximity and perfect formation at all times. In the area within a thirty meters radius from the goalpost, they were able to force a situation, whereby they would outnumber their opponent. It required the entire team to assist in defense, in order to reduce the amount of space their opponent had for their offense.
With your superb ball control, you might be able to continuously pass the ball around horizontally, when you are outside my defensive line. However, my players will not chase after you because you did that. No! No matter how you passed the ball around, as long as you don't make a direct pass, I will continue to watch your ball possession from behind the defensive line. It doesn't matter, even if you had an eighty percent ball possession by the end of the match.
But, if you decide to change your offensive direction from horizontal to vertical, and wish to directly penetrate my defensive region… then I'm very sorry, I'm unable to let you get what you want. Fierce tackles, two to three people's encirclement, impenetrable penalty area.. those are the situations that you will have to face.
Such was the thought process of the coach, as he devised his fierce game strategy!
Nottingham Forest's defensive area was like a muddy swamp. If you didn't step into it, you wouldn't face any issues. But once you stepped into it, it would be difficult for your offenses to advance a single step!
The majority of the people perceived defense as being something that was within the job scopes of the back defensive line and the defensive midfielders. In this mindset, while the rest of the team was focused on defending, the forwards and offensive midfielders could simply stand at the front and wait for their chance to counterattack.
This type of defense was just like a three-layered plywood. Although it seemed as though it could keep out rain and wind, one small poke was all it would take to pierce through it, as it did not possess enough strategic depth. A brilliant direct pass would be enough to tear through this paper tiger-like defensive line.
However, the idea behind Tang En's defensive system wasn't like that.
What was a "wall"?
A wall was something that had sufficient height, length, and thickness, something that was built using boulders, and that was difficult to overcome.
Height —
George Wood was 1.86 meters tall, possessed exceptional jumping power, and was not too bad at headers. Robert Huth, who was 1.90 meters tall, was tall enough, and was good at headers. Wes Morgan, who was 1.88 meters tall, was adept at air defense.
Length —
The entire field, from its left wing to its right wing, was within the control range of Tang En's overall defense. The role of the two left and right midfielders on the starting lineup, Kris Commons and Ashley Young, was not to pass the ball to Crouch's head, but instead, to double up as left and right backs.
Thickness —
Could a wooden board that was 1cm thick be called a wall? Everything in between its forwards and full backs was within the defensive area for Nottingham Forest's moving wall. Ever since Crouch and Eastwood had faced off against Middlesbrough's offenses, Nottingham Forest's defensive system could be considered to be in place already.
This, with all these above critical components, was a true wall that was 2.5 meters tall, 60 meters long, and 30 meters wide!
Middlesbrough's offense gradually weakened, after the fifteenth minute mark. It wasn't that they gave up on offense, but it was simply because, against Nottingham Forest's defense, they had consumed twice the amount of energy that they usually would have.
Tang En told the team that, during defense, they had to be more daring, when it came to tackling. They had to do it swiftly and fiercely, and were told not to stop, when closing in on their opponents. Even if they were unable to successfully execute a tackle, they still had to follow through with the action, because that would affect the opponents' subsequent receiving and passing of balls. As time passed, and as their opponents began to make more mistakes, Nottingham Forest would have achieved its aim of playing defensively.
Tang En firmly believed that, no matter how much of a technique-centric faction Middlesbrough was, their players' individual skills and the overall coordination of the team would still be inferior to teams like Real Madrid. When playing against teams, which snatched for ball possession fiercely and played extremely defensively, even Real Madrid could not do much about it, much less Middlesbrough, which was merely a mid-tier team in the English Premier League.
Juninho was a player, who displayed outstanding skills with his feet. However, he had come to Middlesbrough thrice. In spite of his first appearance, which had left a deep impression, Middlesbrough was still relegated. In the next two times, when he returned to this team, Juninho was no longer as good as he had been before. This was especially true after he broke his legs, which saw a huge dip in his performance as a result.
McClaren's original rationale for letting Juninho on the field was in order to make use of his personal skills to create some trouble for Nottingham Forest's back defense line. He looked at Nottingham Forest and Bolton's semi-finals matches, especially the first match.
McClaren felt that Bolton's manager, Allardyce, had made one of the greatest mistakes, in that he did not completely make full use of Okocha's individual techniques. During that match, George Wood was extremely active on the field, but McClaren had felt that Wood lacked the experience to adapt to different situations. Therefore, if Allardyce had given Okocha sufficient freedom, from the start of the match, to make a mess out of Nottingham Forest's defense, Bolton would have completely crushed that newcomer Wood's debut match.