Prior to the match against Manchester City, Forest also played one more game – the group stage of the UEFA Champions League. For Nottingham Forest, the question now is not about qualifying, but on what position they will qualify.

Done will be hoping his side can win their remaining two games and finish top of the group.

As a result, Forest won 4-1 at their home stadium against Porto. Although Porto was a good place a few years ago, this Porto team really can't compare with Nottingham Forest.

Some people may not want to believe it, but Nottingham Forest is indeed one of the top teams in Europe. Whether it is the strength of the players or the coaching level of the head coach, they can be counted.

Before that, no one in European football could have imagined that Nottingham Forest, who had been struggling in the lower leagues, would return to glory. The mist-shrouded forest seemed to appear out of nowhere, all because of Donn, who had traveled back in time since 2007......

What would have happened without Donn's outfit? Perhaps Nottingham Forest has now been relegated to League One or League Two due to frequent changes of managers, economic crisis and other factors...... No one will ever speak of this once glorious name, and Nottingham Forest, like countless other clubs in the history of modern English football, will have a glorious past, only to be drowned in the tide of time and money, quickly forgotten.

Of course, it may not have happened, as they have an equally good manager and a bit of good luck to re-inflict a second flight on England after a few years...... As for whether it can reproduce the glory, it is difficult to say.

But, none of that happened, did it?

They may occur in another parallel universe, but in Donn's world, they can only be "ifs" and "ifs".

The problem now for Donn is that with the Christmas season approaching and the Champions League restarting in the second half of the season, he will have to allocate his team's fitness more rationally to ensure that he does not fall behind in the final sprint. At this time, the rotation system is particularly important.

The rotation system is a contradiction with the wishes of the players, and no one likes to be replaced and rested when they are in the right shape, because that means the main position is not solid enough.

However, Donn has to do so, as his first-team squad is not as bloated as the likes of Chelsea, and he has been following a policy of 'leaning down the ranks' to reduce the number of first-team players and improve the quality of competition. The advantage of this method is that it can save a lot of unnecessary expenses, and the disadvantage is that it is a little stretched when it needs to be replaced...... Especially in the case of injuries and illnesses.

Don asked the team doctor to give him a tally of the current physical condition of everyone on the team and give him a coefficient of possible injury.

Both Eastwood and Beckham were afflicted by old illnesses and minor injuries from time to time; Ruud van Nistelrooy's fitness has been severely challenged in the previous series of devilish fixtures, and he is not in great physical condition right now and needs to be included in the rotation; Ribery has recovered, and after playing a few games, he has not found any hidden diseases, so he can use it with confidence; Pepe's problem is a bit complicated, he looks like he can handle the game on the field, but after playing two games, the team doctor thinks that he should be cautious, so in the game against Manchester City, Donn did not let him play, he did not even make the squad, and sat in the stands to watch the game; Ayala is too old to try everything, and it is necessary to rotate him, and his experience and ability can help the team not only on the field, but also in training. Just like what Hierro did to Pepe, Piqui and others when the Forest team was just promoted to the Premier League, Ayala is just passing on his understanding of defenders and defense to his teammates.

George. Wood was directly excluded from this report, Fleming had already told Donn that Wood was an unknown creature that did not belong to Earth, and if he didn't play football, he would definitely be taken to the laboratory for dissection. The physical condition is too good...... Good ones are not like earthlings.

Donn understands and agrees, as he himself thinks that Wood is a biochemical robot from the future. The media in England made a fuss about giving Wood a cheesy nickname - "The Monster".

Whenever he thought of Wood's physical fitness, Don thought of his great and venerable mother, Sophia. Compared to most families, Sophia can't afford to buy all kinds of nutritional products for her son, and there is no way to let him eat the best food, and all aspects of nutrition are balanced and developed. She just kept the best food she could earn for her son, and in this way, a mother who was emaciated and sickly and almost died, raised the "monster" that amazed the whole of English football. It's not quite a scientific explanation, but Donn believes it's true, because behind the crude food lies Sophia's outpouring of love, George. There's no reason Wood shouldn't be strong.

When Wood became famous, Sophia was also exposed - this is inevitable - and everyone was surprised that Wood could have such a strong body after learning about Wood's childhood. Don will sigh and say, "This is love......

Far from it.

If it weren't for Sidwell's mood, Done wouldn't have rotated Wood at all. Eventually, though, Wood was in the rotation – but his rotation was different from the others, he only rotated for a long, long time, and Sidwell's more appearances were expected to be on the side of Forest to go a little further in the FA Cup, where they were knocked out of the Carabao Cup......

This season, Donn still hasn't changed his mind about using domestic cup competitions to train his troops. Regardless of who the opponent is in the English League Cup and FA Cup, he always uses the combination of "youth team plus reserves and some first-team players".

Don really can't look down on the League Cup, he has won it once anyway, and there is nothing to regret if he doesn't win it in the future. The winner of this kind of competition is only seriously considered by teams that have been defeated on several other fronts and teams that have never had a chance to win other titles other than this, Tony, obviously. Donn's Nottingham Forest are not that kind of team.

FA Cup...... In fact, even in the early years of the Premier League, the FA Cup was still very high - although it is not low now, but it is not as good as it used to be - as the world's oldest modern football cup, with a history of 136 years, which is older than the history of most football clubs in the world. In England, the team that can win the FA Cup is respectable and the team will regard the FA Cup as a great honour. Even many years after the creation of the Champions Cup, England believed that the best cup competition in the world was the FA Cup, not the European Cup.

Brian, Emperor of the Nottingham Forest dynasty. Clive's only regret is that he didn't lead the team to win even one FA Cup, and Done doesn't want that to be his regret. But the problem now is that the Forest team may be strong enough to win the Champions Cup, but they can't achieve what they want to do on all three fronts. For the FA Cup to lose the league and the Champions Cup, Don didn't do it. It's not twenty years ago, and the FA Cup is nowhere near enough to meet the ambitions of a professional club team.

For Premier League teams, the FA Cup officially starts in January every year, and then until May, which happens to form a crossover with the league and European competitions. So Don doesn't want to play the FA Cup idea right now.

Powerful teams such as Barcelona and Real Madrid have not been able to solve the problem of fighting on multiple fronts at the same time, and in the end they all got their wish, let alone Nottingham Forest, which is just rising. If you are used to games like FM and CM, you may think that it is easy to win multiple crowns, but in fact, there are not many teams that can achieve the triple crown. It is not difficult to explain why Manchester United won the treble in the first place, and the prestige was so high, and many people considered it a "great" result. Although Liverpool's "five crowns" are not too high, they have also made Liverpool fans talk about it for a long time. It's the same thing - to win the title on multiple fronts at the same time, it's not just the strength of the team, it also needs a lot of luck, it's not like it can be done, sometimes it's not controlled by manpower.

※※※

Nottingham Forest bounced back strongly in December, and Donn was hoping to take advantage of the opportunity to close the gap between the teams and the top teams.

They beat Bolton Wanderers 4-1 away after a 4-0 win at home to Manchester City.

Grant's Chelsea finally made it back to shoulder in this league fixture, winning 2-0 at home to Sunderland. Manchester United also thrashed Derby County 4-1 at home, but Donne's other two rivals, Arsenal and Liverpool, both lost on the road: Arsenal lost 2-1 to Middlesbrough and Liverpool lost 3-1 to Reading. Incidentally, Manchester City, one of the top six, lost away to Tottenham Hotspur with a score of 1:2.

Next, the seventeenth round. Arsenal, who have lost, host Chelsea, while Manchester United, who have won at home, will take on Liverpool at Anfield. Of the top six teams, only Manchester City and Nottingham Forest are better off – Manchester City host Bolton Wanderers and Nottingham Forest host Blackburn.

The two strong conversations caught everyone's eye, and even Donn followed the whole game, but luckily they didn't kick off at the same time as Nottingham Forest, otherwise he would have missed these two exciting games - the process may not be exciting, the result must be exciting.

After a very tough 90 minutes, Arsenal narrowly beat Chelsea 1-0 at home.

Equally grueling 90 minutes, United relied on Cristiano, who has been able to do almost anything this season. A breakthrough by Ronaldo assisted Tevez to score for a 1-0 win over Liverpool.

The following day, Manchester City won 4-2 at home to Bolton Wanderers and Nottingham Forest won 5-3 against Blackburn.

Now the points and the standings are interesting.

After the 16th round of the league, Arsenal lost the game and Manchester United won, so the two teams are still tied on points, with 36 points in first and second place in the league table. Nottingham Forest jumped to third with 35 points, and Chelsea won two in a row and the points went from 25 to 31. In this way, the first is Arsenal, the second is Manchester United, the third is Nottingham Forest, the fourth and fifth are Liverpool and Manchester City, and the sixth is Chelsea.

Order has returned to the eleventh round of the league.

In the seventeenth treatise, there is a change.

Arsenal won, Manchester United won, Nottingham Forest, Manchester City won. As a result, Arsenal and Manchester United are still first and second with 39 points, and Nottingham Forest is still third with 38 points, but the fourth and fifth have changed. Originally, Liverpool relied on goal difference to dominate Manchester City, which had the same number of points, and ranked fourth. Now they have lost the game and have to relinquish fourth place, which Manchester City occupy with 35 points, Liverpool 32 and Chelsea 31, fifth and sixth respectively.

The difference between fourth and fifth is not just before and after in the standings. This ranking is put in the final round of the league, and the fourth can go to heaven - play the Champions Cup qualifiers, and have a great chance to participate in the Champions Cup main event; The fifth can only play the League Cup, which is much worse paid, although it is not hell, but for Liverpool, who has played the League Cup for three consecutive years, it is a result that is more hateful than hell.

The pressure on Benitez's shoulders is not light, coupled with the turmoil at the top of Liverpool, there are rumours that Benitez may be sacked, partly because of his poor relationship with the club's president, and partly as the club's board of directors' explanation for the team's failure to reach the UEFA Cup for the third year in a row.

The manager's position is not based on the usual scenery, and the pressure they face on the big stars is not what the players can imagine. Don is very sympathetic to the situation of the legendary Benitez, and he does not want to go to Mourinho and then Benitez. If the good managers are done in this league, he will not be interested in playing. There are always all kinds of challenges in life to be interesting, if the good opponents are gone, what is the use of those championships, even if they are easy to win?

Why does the championship trophy look radiant and make countless people fascinated, in Don's opinion, it is because there are enough good enough opponents on the way to compete for the championship, and stepping on the corpse of a strong man to the throne is much more rewarding than stepping on the corpse of an ant.

Fortunately, the Liverpool FC board soon issued a statement saying that they fully trusted Rafael. Benitez, and described Benitez's years at Liverpool as "remarkable".

Don doesn't have to worry about losing another good enough opponent.

※※※

In the Champions League group stage, Donn didn't let those who had always wanted to see Forest's jokes get their wish. Forest did not go to the UEFA Cup as Nottingham Forest thrashed Marseille 4-0 away in their last game. With four wins, one draw and one loss, it ranked first in the group with 13 points and qualified with its head held high. Meanwhile, Porto are second with eleven points.

In the last two months, whether it is in the domestic arena or in the European arena, the Forest team has suddenly become a "professional goalscorer".

Since the 1-0 defeat away to Liverpool in the league, they have scored in every game, with an 8-0 win over Besiktas, a 3-1 win over Tottenham Hotspur, a 1-1 draw with Chelsea, a 2-3 defeat to Arsenal with two goals, and then a scoring frenzy: a 4-1 win over Porto in the Champions League group stage, a 4-0 win over Manchester City in the league, a 4-1 win over Bolton Wanderers, a 4-0 win over Marseille in the final game of the Champions League group stage, and a 5-3 win over Blackburn Rovers in the 17th round of the league.

Immediately, some people exclaimed that the Forest team was not conservative and was going to play offensive football, so offense was king. Don was dismissive of this. His style hasn't changed much, but Forest have improved a lot from before when it comes to controlling the ball and controlling the tempo of the game. No matter what tactics he faces, Donn has a way to deal with the opponent without being at a loss as he was when he faced a team that couldn't defend it.

In fact, Don has always believed that in the competition for the league championship, the important thing is not to win the game against the strong team, but to win the game against the weak team, and firmly hold the three points that should be in hand. Not dropping points in unnecessary places is the key to deciding who will win the league in the end. Otherwise, it will be like Vialli and Gullit's Chelsea, with a group of talented players and advanced tactical play, but due to the instability of the team's overall performance, although they can repeatedly defeat strong teams, they always lose points inexplicably on weak teams, and in the end, they are nicknamed "spoilers", which is really not the original intention of Gullit and Vialli......

After finishing first in the group stage of the Champions Cup, Don can also put all his energy into the league because Christmas is coming......

(To be continued)