Chapter 27: Pay attention to your feet

"How many times do we have to come to London a year?" Dun asked casually while sitting on the bus leading to Fulham's home stadium Craven Farm Stadium.

"Who knows." Chris Lak also replied casually.

"Six times at least." Tang said.

"There are six Premier League teams... London may be the city with the most top league teams.

"Tang Ng drifted his eyes to the distance, getting closer and closer to Fulham's home court, but the place he was watching was not Craven Farm Stadium, but the northeast.

Looking over there, there is no huge blue figure under the gray sky, only rows of houses.

Don En couldn't see his eyes, but he knew very well in his heart that it was the direction of Chelsea's home court Stamford Bridge.

In the huge London, there are six Premier League clubs of all sizes. But for Donn, there are only two opponents that really care about, one is Arsenal in north London and the other is Chelsea in central London.

Historically, English football has been in a strong state in the north and weak state. Manchester United, Liverpool, Everton and Newcastle in the north are all famous old-fashioned teams, and most of them are northern teams participating in the top English league. To discuss this issue, we have to trace back to the background of the initial booming period of modern football - the era of the Industrial Revolution.

Since most heavy industrial bases are concentrated in the north of England, and modern football has developed rapidly among the working class, and there is a rich football culture and accumulation, it is not surprising that a world powerhouse like Liverpool and Manchester United will be found.

In southern England, London is the most concentrated place for football clubs. This is related to London being the capital and population convergence.

Although Fulham was earlier than the establishment of the West Club, and after the Stamford Bridge Stadium was originally built, it was intended to be used for Fulham (because Stamford Bridge Stadium is in the Fulham area), Fulham rejected the proposal.

This gave birth to the Chelsea Club today.

Before Bates took over Chelsea, both clubs were unknown and had little fame.

Bates' arrival brought the first glory to Chelsea club, and then Russian billionaire Abramovich brought the team a second glory period.

After that, although Fulham also had the support of the mogul Fayez, he gradually distanced himself from Chelsea. Today, Chelsea can form a quasi-wealth club in European football. What about Fulham? It is just an ordinary Premier League team.

Tang En turned his attention to the direction where Stanford was located, which well illustrates the position of the two teams in his heart. Even if the opponent in this game is Fulham, Tang En is still thinking about Chelsea. Who made the two clubs so close?

When the team arrived at Craven Farm Stadium, the CCTV5 setup team was ready. They were allowed to shoot in the locker room for five minutes, although in these five minutes they could only take pictures of the players changing clothes and going out to warm up.

Don was held back by them for a brief interview, and the specific matters could only be handled by Chris Lack.

He loudly reminded the players in the locker room to hurry up and go out to warm up. Before Tang En came, he was blocked by more reporters at the entrance outside the stadium.

"As long as they win Fulham in this game, they can win three consecutive games. Manchester United's local game will only be held tomorrow. If this game is won, Nottingham Forest will temporarily be ranked first in the league standings.

This is a wonderful temptation for Tony Donn's team - since leading the team back to the Premier League, Donn's team has not tasted the taste of being the leader of the league. Even if it is only temporary, it is worth their efforts.

”

On TV, experts are analyzing the game for the audience. He doesn't say that, but you really don't know that Nottingham Forest has never been the first in the league in one...

When Tang En finally got rid of the entanglement of the reporters and returned to the locker room, the team's warm-up was almost done. Tang was not there, and the CCTV reporters were not there. They went to the stadium together to shoot the team's warm-up scene.

and Tang's work.

The locker room where the noisy music was just now suddenly quieted down. Tang En paced slowly here and circled around. What he was thinking about was not what the game was like, but the future of the team.

Suddenly, a noise from the direction of the court broke his thoughts. He turned around and found that the door of the locker room was pushed open, and the players and coaches walked in one after another.

Tang was also interviewed at the door. These Chinese reporters were really trying to take advantage of the situation and tried every means to film the situation inside the locker room. Tang En walked over and closed the door.

"Guys, win this game. We can be the boss." He turned around and said to the players who had just settled.

"This is our home court, don't give those outside the opportunity to go wild here!" Like Donn, Fulham's head coach is a young man - 36-year-old Chris Coleman (Chris_coleman), but he is not as famous as Donn.

Since they are both young people, they are naturally unwilling to admit defeat. Before the game, whether it is the bookmaker or the media, they were unanimously optimistic that Nottingham Forest scored all three-pointers away, completely ignoring the feelings of the home team Fulham.

Coleman didn't want to prove that they were right. He did not have the idea of ​​winning in this game. Instead, he had the belief that "nottingham Forest must never win." He instilled this belief in the players.

Fulham hopes to cause some trouble for Donne in this game.

Players from both sides appeared, and the coaching staff of both sides also came to their respective positions.

"Tony. I'm a little worried." Tang Butt turned his head to Tang En as soon as he sat down. I had an idea in my heart that I always wanted to say it, but unfortunately I didn't have the chance just now.

"Um?"

"Before the game, the head coach of Fulham said it would cause us a lot of trouble..."

Tang En waved his hand indifferently: "Any head coach facing us will say this, and even I will say this to our opponents. It's no big deal, just beautiful words that boost morale."

"But, Fulham played five defenders."

"Let them guard."

Seeing that Tang En was not worried about anything, Tang stopped talking. He also hoped that it was his own illusion.

After the game started, Fulham did take a defensive posture at his home court. In this game, Coleman lined up a 451 lineup, and recovered half-court defense from the first minute of the game.

No matter how Nottingham Forest controls the ball outside, they just won't come out.

It is better to score only one point at home than to take the risk of attacking the opponent to fight back. Now all England know how fast the counterattack speed of Nottingham Forest is, and a negligence may have irreparable consequences.

Coleman told his players that he would rather watch the scoring opportunity be wasted than rushing up and losing defense.

Under such tactical guidance, the first half was extremely dull. Nottingham Forest had no good idea to face Fulham, a piece of land with iron land. Apart from Van der Fart's long shots, the Forest team could not find a more suitable way to score.

Van Nistelroy and Eastwood were both stared at by others, and the penalty area was full of people. The dignified center Van Nistelroy actually needed to be forced to pull to the side to catch the ball.

Not to mention Eastwood, after being injured, he was not a striker who fought head-on with the opponent. Later, he gradually pulled out of the penalty area and tried to shoot from a long time.

In the whole first half, Nottingham Forest received eleven shots. Eight of them were long shots, Van der Fate three, Eastwood four, and George Wood one. Seven shots were within the range of the goal frame, but no goal was scored.

Fulham's united defense did cause some trouble for the Forests.

For Fulham, zero conceds are not easy to achieve. They paid the price of four yellow cards for this.

However, their fouls were scattered and did not concentrate on the defenders. There were people from the forward to the defenders. This was obviously also the last result of the game by coach Coleman.

He has done a good job.

"The first half is over! Nottingham Forest didn't get any good chance under Fulham's crazy pressing and defending.

Their quick counterattack did not use ground space under Fulham's defense. Coleman's tactics were very successful. He curbed the Forest's offense!"

"Believe that Tony Donn bought Van Nystruee not to sell jerseys, but to make up for the weakness of Forest's not good at positional battles last season. However, Van Nystruee was not in good condition in this game, and has not shot so far.

”

The commentator said it was good at all. Van Nystruey was in a bad state in this game, and Tang En also saw it.

But he still plans to continue giving Van Nistruy a chance in the second half.

During the mid-to-long break, Tang En adjusted the team's lineup.

Ribery, who was completely restricted on the left side, was replaced by Petrov, and Eastwood retreated from the penalty area.

Because Ribery has become accustomed to the Premier League in the past two years, everyone has thoroughly studied him, and this game sounded the alarm for Don Eun. Ribery's role in the wing road is becoming more and more limited, and he has to consider another way out...

Although Petrov is also a wing player and his characteristics are simpler than Ribery, he is better than "face" and no Premier League teams know him yet. There is no research on him. He may be a surprise player.

Eastwood went out of the penalty area to use his long shot and back-shot ability. Eastwood's long shot at the top of the penalty area is still very threatening. Facing the opponent's heavy troops to deploy, set pieces and long shots are the solutions.

Speaking of set pieces...

Bale did not follow during the halftime break. Don asked the substitutes to warm up on the court.

Hopefully the second half will come in handy...

Tang En nervously arranged the team tactics for the second half in the locker room, and was not as calm as the first half.

The CCTV5 shooting team did not get the permission to enter the locker room for halftime break, so they could only continue to wait on the sidelines and exchange views on the first half with each other.

They were a little embarrassed about this situation because no one expected that this game would be so hard. Nottingham Forest couldn't start the situation for a long time, and they were looking forward to climax moments and were not here for a long time.

"Hey, happy_end won't become bad_end, right?" someone asked.

"Who knows?" The head of the group, the producer of the show shrugged. "This is not something we can control. Look, I asked you to prepare two sets of plans in advance and the effect will come out? No matter what they are like.

Our program can be successfully completed.”

"That's right... Zhang Touer, who doesn't want his own team to win? Speaking of this, I didn't expect Nottingham Forest to have such a close relationship with China. A Chinese player, a Chinese assistant coach, and a head coach are still Chinese communications who are fanatical about Chinese culture.

”

"Yes, maybe even if they suddenly visit China a few years later, it will be normal."

"If such a thing really happens, we must invite them to Taiwan to record a special program!"

"Don't think about the good things. You have forgotten the mess of Real Madrid at the time? The head coach of Nottingham Forest is not a good person to get along with. He has a eccentric personality. Who knows what he will do then?"

When I heard the boss say this, no one mentioned this. Real Madrid broke their appointment a year ago, and I was deeply impressed. It was indeed not a good memory for them.

Just as this group of people were discussing, the players on both sides appeared again and the second half began immediately.

The two sides changed sides and fought again. The scene was no different from the first half. Fulham still defended the penalty area and refused to go out. No matter how the fans of Nottingham Forest provoked them with booing and insults, they were like turtles.

Tony Don can no longer sit on the coach's seat like in the first half. He has been standing on the sidelines and closely monitored the changes in the situation on the court.

Looking at Don Eun with a somewhat anxious expression, the TV commentator suddenly laughed: "Fulham's performance reminded me of Nottingham Forest a season ago. At that time, Don Eun's team also made his opponents at a loss.

Unexpectedly, Nottingham Forest will be dealt with by the opponent in this way. Coach Tony Tangen, you will have such a day..."

After Petrov went up, he flashed a few times. Unfortunately, Van Nystruei's condition in this game was really bad and he didn't catch it.

In the 70th minute of the game, Donne finally decided not to wait for Van Nistrui to return in form. He replaced the Dutch shooter with Niklas Bentner. Bentner's header was stronger than Van Nistrui and stronger. Donne hopes that he can score in front of the opponent's goal.
To be continued...