This is the 2004-2005 season that Donn is familiar with. But now because of the addition of him and Nottingham Forest, there will definitely be some changes in the future, and whether the changes are big or small depends on how involved he and the Forest team are.

Donn, of course, didn't want to end the season in vain, and he didn't sacrifice himself to maintain the "ideological consciousness" of historical unity.

On November 4, Nottingham Forest take on their second opponents in the group stage of the UEFA Cup, Serie A giants Lazio, at their home city stadium. It was the second European tournament at the City Stadium in eight years, and not only was the stadium packed up on the day of the game, but also bars across the city.

The Nottingham Forest fans gave the Italians a glimpse of their frenzy, and from the start to the end of the game, the singing and shouting of the Forest fans never stopped. The City Stadium is a standard football stadium with no running track separating the stadium from the stands, and this small stadium is naturally far from comparable in size to Rome's Stadio Olimpic, but it has the advantage of giving the visitors a greater sense of the home team's fans and giving them a great sense of oppression.

Add to that the almost one-of-a-kind English fan style, and playing away from home here is almost a heart attack.

Since it is his home stadium, Donne's tactics here are not conservative at all, and the pressing style of play throughout the game makes Lazio feel suffocated. The Italians didn't expect that this promoted polo team in England would be so strong that they were beaten and had no power to fight back.

When the game finally ended, the score was fixed at 2:0. Nottingham Forest won against Italian Lazio with a home momentum.

As the visitors had already left the city stadium, Forest fans gathered in the square outside the stadium, waving their fists at the visiting bus and chanting the song "The World is in Our Hands". The Forest team that accompanied Clough in the first place spread all over Europe, and now the familiar melodies of Europe are back!

Nottingham Forest made it two wins in a row in the group stage with a home win over Lazio in the UEFA Cup, and two games remaining, away at Villarreal and at home to Partizan Belgrade, as long as they don't make big mistakes.

The Foresters, who won the game, seemed to be deflated all of a sudden, as if they had suddenly lost their spirits after fearing that they had crossed a peak, even though they had more than half of the journey left.

Three days later, on November 7, Nottingham Forest took on Liverpool, who have been in poor form recently, and it was a good opportunity to steal points on the road. The Forest team played completely incomprehensible.

Donne's best morale boost was useless in this game, the never-give-up spirit he had always emphasized, and in terms of tactics, he was firmly suppressed by Benitez, a master tactician from Spain, and had no chance at all. No matter what arrangements he makes, he will be perceived by the other side, and no matter how he adjusts and replaces, he will not be able to jump out of the circle that Benitez has drawn for him.

He could only watch his side lose 4-1 at Anfield – Nottingham Forest's second and biggest defeat of the season in the league.

As the head coach of the team, how painful it is to see such a scene...... The greater pain was not that he lost badly, but that Donn felt that he had no way to lose, and that he was far inferior to the Spaniard in terms of tactical ability. Liverpool were able to reverse AC Milan in the second half this season and win the European Cup, which is not a stroke of luck.

When he used to be a fan, Donn didn't feel much about that reversal, but after actually playing against Benitez, he found that he was still far from a world-class manager.

At the post-match press conference, the media were waiting to see how Don En, who had lost, would get back the bargain on his tongue, but he didn't expect that the first sentence of Don En's mouth disappointed these reporters who were afraid that the world would not be chaotic.

"There's nothing to complain about, we lost. I don't want to make excuses for failure, such as poor fitness, too much pressure, the opponent is too strong, we are playing away...... Wait a minute. There are no excuses, and if you lose, you lose. Donn sat next to Benitez and said to himself. The only reason we lost was that we weren't good enough, so congratulations to Rafa Benitez and his team, Liverpool did better than us today and they deserved to win. ”

As soon as he said this, someone couldn't wait to raise his hand: "Coach Donn, what do you think of your team's performance?" ”

Don glanced at the other party, "I never rate my team and players at press conferences. "Of course he's talking nonsense, because he used to praise his players on such occasions a lot after the game. He refused to comment on the loss today.

The reporter on the other side also knew that Tang En's words were unreasonable, but the other party refused to say, what could he do? I had to sit down depressed.

Another reporter then stood up and asked: "May I ask Coach Donn, since you don't want to evaluate your own players, can you evaluate Liverpool's players?" How do you think they fare in this game? ”

Donn felt that the reporter was clearly raising the bar with him, so he asked: "Are you a reporter for the Liverpool media?" Seeing that the other person nodded, he continued, "Very well. I think some of the Liverpool players were very good in this game, while others were very average. Now, it's a fill-in-the-blank question, you can replace the 'certain players' above with the name of any Liverpool player, and the first and second 'certain players' you can fill in. He spread his hands.

Although Donn said at the beginning that he had nothing to complain about, that doesn't mean that he can still smile and chat with reporters here after losing. After answering a few questions with a perfunctory face, he got up and said goodbye and left the press conference. Leaving the place of protagonist to Rafa, the winner? Benitez, no matter how he evaluates his opponent in this match, Donn doesn't care.

Nobody knows it's Tony? Donn exited early at the press conference on several occasions, but they knew it wouldn't be the last.

(To be continued)