In the midfield, Albertini had retired from the Italian national team a while ago. George Wood was not selected for Eriksson’s English team. Although Ribéry had performed well in the Premier League this season, he did not receive the French manager Domenech’s attention. Ashley Young and Aaron Lennon had only played for the England national youth team. Mikel Arteta, who had played overseas for a long time, had never been selected for the Spanish national team.
For the strikers, Viduka was still the Australian national team’s main striker. However, Australia basically had no real opponents. Rather than saying he was going back to compete, it was more like he was going back for a vacation. Nicklas Bendtner was recruited by Denmark’s national football team. But it was hard to say if he would have a chance to appear. Perhaps he would just be on the substitutes’ bench for two games. Peter Crouch was noticed by Eriksson, and the media reported it. But he did not appear on the national team’s big list for this game.
In this way, Edwin van der Sar and Mark Viduka were the only ones who would really leave the Wilford training base. The Forest team’s lineup remained quite intact, sufficient enough for Twain to practice formation tactics and make targeted arrangements. Compared with their two rivals, the Forest team suffered the least shortfall.
When the Premier League tournament started again on April 3, the Forest team would face its direct rival, Everton, at its home ground. It was not going to be an easy game.
In Eastwood’s absence due to his injury, Twain deployed a whole new front line. Unfortunately, with one striker injured and the departure of two forwards in their four-forward front line, only Crouch remained. Twain could not fully conduct training for the coordination within those twelve days. He could only rely on the rapport that they had built during the usual training. Bendtner was delighted to be selected for Denmark’s national team at such a young age and was eager to play for Denmark. When he left, Twain also encouraged Bendtner and hoped that he would perform well. But in reality, Twain was keen for Bendtner to remain on the substitutes’ bench for the entire two games so that he could get back a healthy Bendtner when the national team games were over. With only three forwards left on Forest’s front line, they could not afford any more injuries.
For the challenge against Everton, Twain would put the healthy Bendtner and Crouch in the starting lineup. Viduka would be on the substitutes’ bench. He would watch and decide if he needed to play depending on the situation.
In Twain’s view, Bendtner could completely replace Viduka and play the role of a powerful center forward. And what about Crouch? He was the tallest, but he was not the type to play as a strong center forward. He had good footwork, which was especially important for a six-and-a-half-foot striker.
The two midfielder candidates for the flanks remained unchanged in the midfield. They were the team’s main forces, Franck Ribéry and Ashley Young. In the middle of the midfield, Twain made a change which originated from the UEFA Europa League: Albertini, who had played continuously in a series of games, would be rotated out because George Wood, who had been suspended for more than half a month for the UEFA Europa League, was back in the starting lineup. His partner was Mikel Arteta, who made his debut in the last UEFA Europa League game.
Tang En decided to have a little fun for this arrangement. He used the Everton core midfielder in his own memory to deal with Everton. He thought that it would be very interesting. But Tang En did not know if Moyes would find it amusing.
Wood’s mission was simple. Previously when Albertini was playing, he was in charge of watching the team captain’s back. This time, he was replaced by Mikel Arteta. Wood’s mission remained unchanged. He would still be watching Arteta’s back and support Arteta when necessary.
On the defensive line, Hierro was rotated out. The two fullback partners, Matthew Upson and Piqué, remained unchanged.
During those twelve days, the Forest team would use those formations to perform repeated drills. And it was not just to deal with the game against Everton. More importantly, for the next eight rounds of the season, the Forest team would use this lineup most of the time to finish the season and only do some fine-tuning in a few small areas.
Twain and the Forest coaching team used all available time and means in these last twelve days. Earlier on the day after losing the game, Twain held a simple meeting with the coaches in the hotel room before going to the airport. At the meeting, he openly acknowledged his strategic mistakes. After giving up the league tournament, he did not even achieve any good results that he had hoped for at the UEFA Europa League in the end. For Twain himself, the UEFA Europa League runner-up and top 16 were just levels. If he did not win the championship title, it was not considered a good result.
Soon after, Twain told the coaching team that the team’s goals had changed and that their focus was back on the Premier League. The team was still based on the Premier League. It must be said that even though the ability of the Nottingham Forest coaching team might be in the middle level of the league, everyone was very nice. No one mocked Twain for reaping what he had sowed. No one complained that they had done a big circle around the UEFA Europa League. For them, the team’s collective performance was far more important than individual honor. As long as it was good for the Forest team, they would do the right thing.
Twain knew what kind of people these coaches were. But regrettably, now was not the time to say thank you. After all, their goal had not been achieved.
During the day at the team’s training base, Twain and the entire coaching staff led the team in training. They studied tactical arrangements, ensured that the players were in good condition, and paid attention to their physical condition. The countless small details were all taken care of by specific people. Twain only needed to create an overall plan. However, after losing a few games recently, his role as a manager might not be reflected in the team’s specific training, but in psychological adjustment.
He needed to convince everyone that these failures were just minor setbacks. Provided that they put in a little more effort and soldiered on, they could do it. And for Twain, this was probably the job he was best at.
Twain continued to be busy at night. He did not go to the bar at all during that period. After going home, from dinner onwards he and Dunn would study each opponent of the remaining eight rounds. No detail was spared. Dunn did not have a heavy responsibility in the youth team training. After all, the youth team and the First Team were still very different. Therefore, he would help Twain gather a lot of the competitor’s video material. After dinner, the two men would sit in front of the television and watch the game videos of those teams over and over again.
Although Dunn was not a First Team manager, he was doing a job that any member of the First Team’s coaching team would do.
After losing the UEFA Europa League, if they did not want to end up with nothing this season, then everyone had to gather his strength and try his hardest to fight. Now there was no way back.
The time to hurtle was here.