207 The Premier League Kickoff Part 1 (1/2)

Chapter 207: The Premier League Kickoff Part 1

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

By the time July turned into August, Nottingham Forest had quietly withdrawn from the transfer market. While the media was still conjecturing Tony Twain's next target, the Forest team had completed the formation of the team and set the lineup. The remaining time was spent on preparing for their opponents in the new season.

In order to do this, in addition to the usual training, Tang En refrained from going to the pub every night to drink. Instead, he and Dunn stayed at home to watch the video profiles of all their opponents in the English Premier League. Apart from that of the Forest team itself, they studied the summer transfer data of all nineteen Premier League teams to understand whether their opponents had been strengthened or weakened.

Tang En's advanced three-year knowledge of the world played an important role at that time. For the summer transfer market, there were many things that no one could be certain of, such as whether a player bought by a team was worth the price, or whether some unknown kid would perform beyond everyone's expectations. One could also never know which players would exceed their value and which players would not live up to their reputation and become a washout after one season.

However, Tang En knew. He had knowledge of who had made the right purchases and who had made poor purchases.

When he discussed the Premier League with Dunn, he would mention some names, but he would not clarify too much. He was afraid of arousing Dunn's suspicions. After all, he was from the future; but Dunn just possessed his body, but had remained in the same time period.

Even though they had the same experience and an extraordinary tacit understanding of each other, there would still be secrets that Tang En would not tell Dunn, and that Dunn would not tell Tang En.

※※※

Based on the scores, the twelve-million-or-so pounds that Tony Twain had spent to create the new Forest team was clearly unsatisfactory.

The results of the five friendlies were one victory, two draws, and two defeats. The biggest problem they exposed was that there was not enough rapport in their cooperation, and that their physical strength recovery was less than ideal. There were other conventional issues as well. He discovered that the team lacked techniques when turning defense into offense and did not have the most effective means of attack. Albertini was the midfield core of the Forest team, but he had not completely adapted to English style football; the one word which could sum up his style was ”fast.” Fast offense, fast defense, fast to turn defense into offense. Maintaining that fast-paced momentum during an intense confrontation proved to be a bit difficult for Albertini, who was accustomed to Italian football.

Nonetheless, Twain placed a lot of trust in him. Even when it was obvious that he had not played well and had caused the team to lose, he would not criticize the Italian veteran at the post-match press conference. If the reporters pushed the issue, he would state with a serious expression that Albertini was still at the stage of familiarizing with the team, and it was very normal for his state to be unsteady or less than ideal.

He did not doubt Albertini's ability and competence. The only problem was adapting to the football style, which required time. And he believed that at Albertini's age, there was no need to spur him on. The player himself would want to prove himself more pressingly than anyone else would.

A veteran as well, Hierro performed quite well on the defense, but due to his age, he had completely abandoned his ability to attack and concentrated solely on defense.

In the friendlies, perhaps the most satisfying player who had just joined the team this summer was Viduka, the Australian striker. After all, whether it was his adaptation to the Premier League, his competition experience, his age, or his skills, he was very much in sync with the Forest team. Compared with the 02-03 season, Mark Viduka's last season in Leeds United had slightly declined, because he had been affected by the club crisis. In truth, there had been very few players who had still been in the state of mind to think about playing. Despite that, he had still appeared in thirty matches in the League Championship and had scored eleven goals.

Viduka scored three goals in five friendlies, and was the team's highest scorer in those games. As a result of his outstanding performance, Crouch could only be a substitute for him. And partnering with him was the nimbler Freddy Eastwood.

Nicklas Bendtner and Peter Crouch would be substitutes for the front line. When necessary, Twain would consider rotating, and, in the case of not being able to break through, bringing on Crouch with his unique skill; the tall Bendtner with outstanding headers would also be an excellent choice. After all, their Premier League rivals were more familiar with Viduka and less familiar with Bendtner.