Twain stood on the sidelines with his arms crossed over his chest. The camera lenses were focused on his profile gazing into the distance at the top of the grandstand, where the electronic scoreboard clearly showed the score of 2:1. The home team, Nottingham Forest, was ahead of Chelsea.
Mourinho also stood on the sidelines. Unlike Twain, he had put his hands into his pockets.
Taking advantage of the loss of ball possession, Mourinho grabbed hold of Lampard. He told him to cancel that plan and devote all his energy to finding the Forest team’s defensive weaknesses.
The expressions on both managers’ faces were very serious. The game was not over. Being in the lead, Twain did not want Mourinho to catch up. He did not want to repeat Mourinho’s mistake. He knew that Chelsea was a tough nut to crack. There was nothing to be delighted about with a one-goal lead. Who knew what would happen next in the game?
Chelsea did not give up. There was still half an hour left in the second half of the game. They had time to equalize the score. They had not reached the end of the road yet.
What had they relied on to be unbeaten for forty-one rounds? It was not just Roman Abramovich’s ruble. Strictly speaking, this Chelsea team did not have any players recognized as international superstars. Although their values were not low, it was Abramovich who hyped the prices up. The team had been able to win the league last season with its absolute advantage because Manager Mourinho had united the team’s standard of fighting strength. He instilled an unyielding fighting spirit and a desire for victory in the “mercenary squad” put together by money. This point was very similar to Twain’s Forest team. Therefore, they won several times in face of adversity and managed to get out of danger repeatedly.
Today’s game was just one of those times to them.
Mourinho’s team never knew the meaning of concession.
After Chelsea lost the ball, they launched a frenetic counterattack against the Forest team, so much so that the leading Forest team had a hard time playing.
Mourinho let his team press forward to pressure the Forest team’s defensive line. At the same time, they created offside tactics to trap Anelka and Mark Viduka.
In that way, Chelsea’s formation was more compact, pressing and attacking layer by layer. Even if the Forest team used long passes to advance, the probability of the ball ending up at the feet of the Chelsea players was high. Then they would organize two, three, four strikes. This would give the Forest players the impression that Chelsea’s offense was relentless. For the defenders, as the pressure increased until they could not withstand the pressure and crumbled, the specific phenomenon would result in them committing errors on their own.
George Wood was so tangled up by Lampard that he was too occupied to attend to the other attacks from Chelsea.
In turn, Chelsea looked for a point to assail and repeatedly struck the ball in that direction, which was their right flank and the Forest team’s left flank.
Duff and Robben would occasionally switch positions in the game. They were not fixed to the left or right and the two players switched even more frequently. Leighton Baines was the weakest among the Forest team’s four starting fullbacks. Mourinho knew that, and so did the Chelsea players. They constantly struck Baines’ defensive zone to make him crack earlier than the other points in the Forest team.
“Push them out! Push them out!” Twain yelled on the sidelines and waved his arms vigorously, but no one noticed. Even if someone noticed him, it was of no use. It was not as if the Forest team’s front line could push out the opponents just because he shouted, “push them out.”
Chelsea pressed on too hard. The Forest team had completely fallen into their tempo. What good could come out of following the opponents’ pace?
In spite of the critical situation, Twain did not intend to adjust by substitution. He did not have a suitable substitute player for the current situation.
Any game could face a situation whereby the opponents suddenly exerted force to form an absolute advantage and lay siege to a goal. But still, one should not panic at those times. Blindly making hasty adjustments would only give the opponents opportunities to take advantage.
Twain did not make any adjustments. He believed that the eleven Forest players on the field could withstand the waves of Chelsea’s offense.
As long as they resisted, Chelsea would be dampened. Mental frustration would bring on physical exhaustion. At that time, it would be the Forest team’s turn to counterattack.
The crux of the matter only had one point, which was to withstand Chelsea’s tornado of attacks.
But the more crucial question was, could the Forest team withstand it?
They were not facing a team that was in the lower ranks of the league, but the top-ranked team, Chelsea, with the highest number of goals scored at twenty-four and the least number of conceded goals at only four in ten rounds of the league.
This was truly a tough challenge.
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Leighton Baines felt exhausted. Even though the game had been going for sixty-five minutes, he was not a player who was physically weak. In fact, he had good stamina and could run very well. However, if he had to face a team’s offense, he would be worn down no matter how well he could run.
He had started out at Wigan Athletic, and he even received Wigan Athletic’s greeting before the season’s opening game with his former club. As one of the most successful players to debut at Wigan Athletic, he had become a standard brand name for Wigan Athletic’s youth training, that a football star could also come from a rugby-obsessed town.
Although he had joined the Forest team, his favorite team was still Wigan Athletic.
At that time, Twain had used the “main position” to attract him to the Forest team and he quickly became the main left back. Although he was only twenty years old, he already had a complete Premier League season experience. Now he was not considered an inexperienced rookie anymore. He was currently Nottingham Forest’s main left back and England’s under-21 youth team’s main left back. He was rumored to be a future star whom Ferguson was interested in.
Still, he played appallingly in this game.
He certainly knew who he was facing: Ireland national footballer Damien Duff and the Netherlands’ national footballer, Arjen Robben. They were the top players in European football. His ability was still far beneath theirs. But despite his opponents’ strength surpassing his, he was not willing to accept that it was natural for him to play so appallingly.
None of Twain’s players were willing to admit that they were inferior to others.
They were as competitive as their boss and did not like to lose.
Ribéry came back to help him defend, but the Frenchman was not good at doing that kind of thing. Not to mention, the Forest team was now overwhelmed by the pressure. They were most in need of using offense to turn the tides. If he came back again, who was going to counterattack?
Anelka and Viduka continued to fall into Chelsea’s offside trap. With Ribéry’s fast speed, the side midfielder could plug in to have more opportunities to break through the trap.
He did not want Ribéry to come back. Otherwise, even if he intercepted the ball, the ball would still be trapped in a tight loop and be unable to break through because the two players were too close. It could only be intercepted by Chelsea, and then he would have to repeat everything that had been done before.
It was too tiring!
Wood usually would support the defense on both flanks because he had good stamina and was fast. Twain also asked him to expand his defensive zone. But today, he was entangled with Lampard.
Just now, when he rushed over to help with the defense, Duff immediately passed the ball to Lampard in the middle. Chelsea’s number 8 kicked a long shot that forced Edwin van der Sar to make a wonderful save, which also made the Forest fans scream.
The defensive barrier in the middle had hit an impasse. All offense on the flanks were done to find opportunities in the middle. If Wood ran to support Baines, what about Lampard? What about Tiago?
This time Robben exchanged positions with Duff. He came to face Baines’ defense, and Duff went to the other side.
Robben’s characteristics were small running steps with a fast pace and straight upper body. He almost relied on his two legs rapidly alternating and zigzagging to shake off his opponents.
Baines put all his focus to mark Robben, who dribbled the ball in front of him. He knew Robben was fast. Half a second of negligence and distraction could lead to his opponent’s breakthrough.
Ribéry moved closer to Baines, but Baines had eyes for Robben alone.
“Mark him! Don’t make a move lightly! Stick to the inside line!” Even Albertini anxiously yelled on the sidelines.
Twain glanced at the Italian. Demetrio had said on more than one occasion that he wanted to be a manager after retirement. His favorite games which he was the best at were the CM and FM series. It looked like he had to cultivate his ability on the training field.
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The Chelsea fans were excited by the continuous bombardment. The massive amount of adrenaline pumping through their veins made them cheer their team with flushed faces. The Forest fans jeered at Chelsea.
In such a noisy environment, Baines could not hear Albertini’s roar. But it was the basic requirement of a defensive player to know what the seasoned captain was shouting.
Robben’s speed did not look fast, but Baines did not dare not take it lightly. This was not the first time he had encountered the “Flying Dutchman” in this game. He knew that this seemingly slow dribbling of the ball contained a very strong explosive power.
Robben moved the football to his instep and Baines moved ahead to block. The Dutchman suddenly pulled back the football. The inside cut was only a feint. The purpose was to deceive Baines into shifting his center of gravity inward. His real purpose was still to get to the byline and deliver a cross.