763 Psychological Battle (1/2)
Forest beat Juventus 1:0 in an away game and successfully got revenge against them. At the same time, they also cemented their position at the top of the table for their group.
Winning this particular match had an ever greater significance to Forest than the aforementioned points. Previously, the media made no special mention of Nottingham Forest's victories over either Celtic F.C. or Atlético Madrid. When they beat Juventus, however, numerous media outlets printed the following in their titles: ”The Red Forest Makes Its Return to Europe!”
By right, Nottingham Forest had made its return a long time ago. They had made their return once they qualified for next season's Champions League in the last match of the Premier League last season. There was actually an additional meaning behind the media's words. What they meant was that the invincible Nottingham Forest that once took Europe by storm was truly back.
By defeating a strong team like Juventus, Nottingham Forest proved they weren't a team that was just going to travel around Europe and head back home. They were a team full of ambition, and they were intent on making a name for themselves in Europe. Defeating the seeded Juventus team was nothing more than a starting point for them. It was definitely not the end.
It can't be helped that nobody believed Tony Twain when he showed humility, even though he rarely did so. It was just like the story of ”The Boy Who Cried Wolf.” People would constantly think a person had an ulterior motive no matter what the person did once the image of them being egotistical had been deeply seared into other people's memories.
In truth, Twain was truly keeping a low-profile this time. He did not want to add too much pressure onto his team. The times had changed, and so had the team he was leading now. There were many new and young players on the current team. He wasn't sure if, like him, they all craved a challenge and would never get tired of being challenged.
Rebuilding a team was a process that required time. He could not be too focused on instant gratification. That was a principle he was very clear about.
Honestly, it was truly a blessing to be a player for Nottingham Forest. There wasn't much stress on the players besides the stress of trying to become champions.
When Ibišević failed to score goals, Twain was there to shoulder the pressure with him. When Matías Fernández failed to assimilate himself into the team, Twain tried his best to create chances for him to become one with the team.
Žigić was scoring too little goals? That was OK. Twain assured him that as long as he made a contribution to the team, he would not get upset with him even if he didn't score goals.
The media had the guts to question a particular Nottingham Forest player? Twain would have already fired back at the uneducated media with his big mouth before the players got to have an opinion about it.
The players had nothing to fret over as long as they were with their boss, Tony Twain. To the players who had followed him for years, Nottingham Forest was Twain, and Twain was also Nottingham Forest.
Frankly, Twain did not really wish for his players to harbor such thoughts about him because it would cause them to get infected with the ”Reliance on Tony Twain” illness. Even though he had never considered leaving Nottingham Forest to work elsewhere, that did not mean an accident would not occur. For example, his heart.
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Nottingham Forest still had to face another challenge from Juventus at home after beating them in the away game. Three matches had been played in the group stages so far. Juventus had won once, drew once, and lost once. They were ranked second with four points under their belt. Atlético Madrid drew twice and lost once, and they had two points. Celtic was the weakest team in the group. They lost twice and drew once. They were ranked last with only one point.
However, no one could say that Celtic had no chance of advancing into the next stage. Besides Nottingham Forest, which was way ahead of the pack with nine points, all three other teams in the group could have missed out on clinching the final spot to qualify for the next stage. If Juventus intended to put themselves in a favorable position to qualify for the next stage of the Champions League, it was best for them to triumph over Forest at the City Ground stadium.
Twain chose to employ a more defensive-oriented formation at the City Ground stadium and made use of several layers of defense to confine Juventus. The match had no highlights and was not exciting to watch. Both teams put in sub-par performances. In the end, Nottingham Forest beat Juventus 1:0 once again with a goal that was suspected to be offside.
After the match, the British media commented, ”Ranieri's team was already on their way home before they even got to see what the City Ground stadium looked like. Juventus could only run around the periphery of the penalty box. They were never able to make their way into the penalty box because Tony Twain had focused heavily on defense for the match.”
On the other hand, the Turin media outlets expressed helplessness over the two 1:0 losses that Juventus suffered. ”Juventus was defeated by the playing style they are good at. Nottingham Forest gained two 'Italian-like victories.'”
Nottingham Forest was guaranteed a spot in the next stage of the Champions League by winning all four matches and gaining 12 points. Twain decided to reduce the pressure on the team by performing squad rotation in the remaining two group stage matches. Joe Mattock would get to play his very first Champions League game in his professional football career.
In the Premier League, Nottingham Forest's performance was evidently not as consistent as it had been in the previous two seasons. It had its ups and downs. It could beat Aston Villa by a whopping 4:0 and lose 0:3 to Arsenal away. Nottingham Forest had yet to fully regain its vitality after changing most of its players.
After playing in the match against Juventus in the Champions League group stage, Nottingham Forest subsequently played in 12 matches in the Premier League. the team attained seven wins, three draws and two losses, and gained 24 points. They were only four points behind Arsenal in first place.
This result was enough to please Twain. It was already late November. The team would soon have to play frequent games during the Christmas period. His plan was to cling onto a top four position during this period and widen the gap between themselves and Chelsea in fifth place.
The economic crisis had impacted Chelsea far more deeply than Nottingham Forest. Abramovich's assets had decreased by nearly 80 percent during the economic crisis. During that time, he not only sacked 15 scouts, but he also did not invest a single cent in the club. There were many rumors floating around that he was planning to sell Chelsea for a symbolic fee of 1 euro.
Even though Abramovich eventually came out and dismissed the rumors, saying that Chelsea was still under his name, it was an indisputable fact that Chelsea was suffering from a dip in form. Frank Rijkaard was a manager who was down on his luck. He was not assigned to manage Chelsea at a good time.
The club that spent the most money during the summer was Manchester City. The club that spent the least was a club few would have guessed: Chelsea.
Abramovich demanded Rijkaard to work with the current squad. He also wanted him to attain at least one trophy throughout all the competitions. However, his demands were too much of a stretch. Rijkaard was not only unable to get the players that he wanted for the team, but the team's star player, Florent Malouda, also had transferred to Juventus.
Rijkaard never once said that he wanted to give up on the Premier League. His only words with regards to Chelsea's ranking in the league was that there were still quite a few games left to play. Therefore, nobody knew which team would become champions until the end. However, deep in his heart, he was beginning to want to give up on the Premier League and focus his attention on winning other local competitions and the Europa League.
Twain was not in the mood to wage a verbal war with Rijkaard after seeing the miserable state that he was in. He just couldn't find it in him to bully a hapless guy.
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