Volume 5 Red Chapter 18 Wind Forest Volcano
From the first second, both sides went straight into the game.
There was no warm-up, no temptation, no pretentious feints, from the first second, both sides were fully in the groove, and every attack was aimed at the goal of scoring.
Steven Gerrard tried a long-range shot and almost found the back of the net. Thankfully, Van der Sar's concentration was very focused, and he punched the ball out with both fists - in the face of Gerrard's long-range shot, he didn't dare to hold it directly with his hands, afraid to let it go.
This powerful long-range shot instantly exploded the atmosphere at the Louis II Stadium.
Down sat in the dugout, behind him was a stand of Reds Liverpool fans, huge cheers filling every inch of space around him, stirring his eardrums. He had long been accustomed to this, and he didn't even twist his head, just thinking about his own problems.
It seems that Liverpool really can't wait to get over them, and the only question now is whether this is what Benitez means, or is it the Liverpool players' own thoughts?
He turned his head to look at the Liverpool dugout next door. Benitez sat in his place, surrounded by his assistants, and Don couldn't see his expression or hear what they were saying.
The Forest team is never afraid to run into a team that can't wait to win, or rather the Forest team likes to run into such a team the most, and they will launch a fierce attack as soon as they come up, bombing the Forest goal, hoping to take the lead with two or three shots on goal.
In that case, Forest's best defensive counter-attack will come into play.
Donn decided to wait a few minutes to see what Liverpool really intended before making a decision.
In the opening five minutes, Liverpool took advantage of their kick-off opportunity to lay siege to Forest's goal. And Nottingham Forest also cooperated to shrink the defensive line and let the opponent press up and attack.
Judging by the spectacle alone, anyone would conclude that Nottingham Forest are in a situation of being beaten passively, embarrassed by Liverpool's powerful attack. But a true insider doesn't see it that way.
For those familiar with Forest, this is when Forest's opponents are at their most dangerous.
You've all seen springs, right? When it wants to rebound, it will be forced into a ball by external force, and the strength of its rebound is related to the degree of compression before. If you put a sharp knife on top of this spring, then when it bounces out......
Forest's three lines contracted very tightly, with the exception of Eastwood, everyone else coming back to defence. No matter how fierce Liverpool's attack is, these three lines are very intact.
It's like a spring that has been compressed to the extreme......
'Liverpool are attacking aggressively, but let's look at Toney. Coach Donn, he doesn't seem worried. Of course, Forest's football is always about defending first and then needing opportunities to attack. It's not a matter of being pressed and beaten by others like this once or twice. There was a hint of sarcasm in the commentator's tone, and no one likes a team that sees defense as more important than offense. Donn is right that the Forest are not popular.
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Look for attacking opportunities while defending solidly. There is no need for Donn to stand on the sidelines and remind the players with gestures. Most of Forest's players know what to do, and those who don't know must be newcomers who only joined the team this summer. The only recent addition to Beckham's starting line-up for the Forest squad today is David Beckham.
Whether at Manchester United or Real Madrid, Beckham's exposure to football is one that focuses on attacking and advocating attack, except in his final season at Real Madrid, he rarely thought of paying so much attention to defense in the game.
When he came to the Forest, he had a lot of defensive play in training and he had to start from scratch.
Fortunately, he plays as a midfielder at Real Madrid, even if he plays as a right wing-back, he will actively participate in the defense, although the defensive level is average, but the mentality is very right. That's enough.
In addition to his tireless running and professionalism, Don had to rely on his set-pieces and wide crosses in the starting line-up for David Beckham.
Van der Sar pounced on Torres' close-range shot, and he held the ball firmly under him and did not give the opposition a chance to make up for it. Although Akinfeev has returned from Russia this season, Russia's number one international may need to sit on the bench for some time to adapt to the Premier League.
Van der Sar got up and tossed the ball to David Beckham, who came back to pick it up, and the Forest attacking players rushed to it. Ribery, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Van der Vaart, Eastwood...... It's all in the front court. Only David Beckham ran back to the edge of the box to receive the ball.
It's a new attacking tactic for Forest, using David Beckham's precise long balls to help the team get rid of the opposition's frantic interception in midfield and hit the opposition defence directly, in addition to the possibility of allowing their own strikers to close the opside's offside trap...... Everything else was fine.
Beckham received the ball and turned around and prepared a long pass. But as soon as he turned around, he was pushed down by Gerald.
The referee's whistle sounds, signaling a foul on Liverpool. But such a foul would not have given Gerrard a yellow card or any verbal warning, but instead ended a Forest's counter-attack in the cradle.
Forest took a free-kick at the back and Pepe's long ball was met by Liverpool's Danish centre-back Daniel. Ague (daniel_agger) pushed back, and the Forest team had no chance to counterattack, and at this time, Liverpool's 30-meter area was full of people. Forest had little other way to break through Liverpool's defence than to look for opportunities on the outside.
Donn's brow furrowed. He figured he knew about what Benitez was going to do.
It seems that the people of Liverpudlian are not all carried away by the anger......
Press up when it's time to attack, recover very quickly when it's time to defend, and if the Forest team wants to play a fast break, they try to delay it, even if it's a foul.
The tactics were clear and the players were decisive.
It looks like this game is not going to be easy to play.
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It is common sense that the harder the spring is compressed, the greater the attack force caused by the rebound force. That's how defending counter-attacks works.
But what if the force exerted on the spring is suddenly greater than the force that the spring itself can withstand? What if the upering force is not simply a top-down force?
What would be the result?
"Click".
"Fernando. Torres!! The commentator chanted the Spanish striker's name as Liverpool's no.9 opened his arms to receive congratulations from his team-mates.
In the opening eleven minutes, when Donn was racking his brains about how to deal with Liverpool's tactics, the Forest goal was lost.
A beautiful upfield combination that Gerrard picked up the ball and caught Wood's attention, and then he managed to take Wood out of his zone and then shoot from distance. Just when all the Forest players were focused on him, he pushed the ball straight out at his feet, Torres cut in from the front of the backline, came in a small anti-offside position, received the ball behind the Forest defenders, and the rest was simple, he took advantage of the fact that Van der Sar had not blocked the angle of the shot, pushed the ball into the far corner, and the ball rolled into the goal with ease.
Liverpool led 1-0 in the 11th minute. This caused the Reds fans at the Stade Louis II to cheer, while the Forest fans were temporarily silent.
Don sat in the dugout and scratched his head. It was the only action he made after seeing the goal conceded. He didn't jump up from his seat in anger and dropped the water bottle in his hand. The opponent's tactical coordination was very exquisite, and their own defense made habitual mistakes, and at that moment, the defenders only cared about whose feet the ball was. There was no need for him to be too angry at the goal.
Besides, the game was only eleven minutes into the game, and the Forest team still had time, so he was not in a hurry.
Thinking so, Don adjusted his sitting position, and he lifted Erlang's legs again.
If the spring is pressed too hard, it may be crushed and deformed. But for Donne, it's just one spring into two, two into four, four into eight, eight into sixteen...... That's it.
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Liverpool, who were leading the way, continued to intensify their attack against Forest in the first half, and they were not happy with a single goal, and Benitez also knew that a one-goal lead was the least safe.
Nottingham Forest are completely underdog against a strong Liverpool side. Of course, this is still an outsider's opinion. Don doesn't think it's as simple as "being at a disadvantage". He still remembers that when he was a fan of martial arts in high school, he watched Jin Yong's "Heaven and Dragon Slayer", and there was a sentence in it that is very applicable to the current situation, and it is also very suitable for summarizing the football tactical style of the Forest team:
He is strong by him, and the breeze blows the hills; He is horizontal, and the bright moon shines on the river.
No matter how strong and vicious the enemy is, he can be treated as if he is a breeze blowing the mountains and a bright moon reflecting the river, although he can inflict on me, but there is no damage in the slightest. But how can I do it without harming me?
He is arrogant and he is evil, and I am full of true anger.
In the world of football, it means that as long as we are strong at home, we will not be led by the nose of the opponent. No matter how fierce they attacked, our defensive formation remained intact, disciplined, and ideologically unified, and the opponent's attack was nothing more than a breeze blowing over the hills, and the projection of the bright moon on the river, there was no threat at all.
It's the temperament of a strong team, it's a sign of self-confidence.
Perhaps in the eyes of outsiders, the besieged Forest team is in danger and may concede another goal at any time, but the Foresters themselves know how safe they are now.
That goal was just an accident. One accident is enough.
The Liverpool players on the pitch have now experienced Nottingham Forest's "immobile as a mountain" style of football. It looks like they are attacking around the opponent and have several times the chances of the opponent, but what about the number of times the opponent's goal can really threaten? Handful.
Moreover, everyone knows that the Forest team is good at defending and counter-attacking, which will make Liverpool's players always unconsciously think of behind them after attacking - although Benitez's tactics are arranged for this, but people's psychological habits are terrible. Nottingham Forest have repeatedly staged a quick sneak attack to kill their opponents in all competitions, and you don't let them think about it, don't you think about it?
The result of this in the long run was that the Liverpool players were visibly tired before the first half was played. In addition to that goal, the front court can no longer open the situation, and the possibility of being attacked by the opponent at any time in the back. Can you not get tired?
As we all know, Tang En is actually a Chinese through and through, he has a very strong Chinese background, and these things are not only reflected in the relatively superficial ability to speak Chinese and like to eat Chinese food.
After he became the head coach of the Forest team, he slowly began to think about how to integrate Eastern wisdom with modern football.
This set of tactics of the forest team is integrated with the wisdom of "The Art of War".
"Wind Forest Volcano", due to the influence of the anime and games, many people think that it is from the book. In fact, this is pure "Made in China".
In order to fool Yang Yan, there were a lot of books related to China on the bookshelf in Tang En's house. There are very few that Don often reads, such as the kind of "×× Travels" and put it on the shelf, but "The Art of War" is a book that Tang En often reads and studied.
The Art of War. There is a cloud in the "Military Struggle": "Therefore, it is as fast as the wind, its Xu is like a forest, it is like a fire, it is not moving like a mountain, it is difficult to know like a cloud, and it is like a thunderstorm." ”
This sentence is a high-level summary of the Forest's tactics:
Swift as the wind when you attack, as tight as a forest when waiting for an opportunity, as swift and merciless as fire when attacking, and as calm as a mountain when defending, so that it is difficult for the enemy to guess your intentions, in that case, once you move, it will be like thunder and unstoppable.
Quiet is defensive, and offense is moving. Stillness is the root of movement, movement is the minister of stillness, and offense is based on defense. In a game, most of the time the two sides are in a standoff, and the offense that solves the problem is often a matter of a moment. It's as if the Forest, after eighty-nine minutes of stubborn defense, settled the battle with a lightning-fast sneak attack that surprised the opponent.
Of course, Donn didn't read "The Art of War" to his teammates, and although there was a translation from the British Museum, he didn't have to worry about his own bad translation. He just felt that telling these words to his subordinates as they were was proof of the leader's low level, because they had no understanding of their own and could only copy books. He himself incorporated many of the wisdom of Sun Tzu's Art of War into his regular training and competition command.
The things of China's ancestors have been tested for more than 2,000 years, and have not been eliminated, and are still being carried forward, which proves that it is indeed unique, and there is indeed a place that makes modern people sigh at themselves. Although the level of Chinese football is extremely low, Tang En never thinks that everything in China is low, at least he thinks that with the ancient wisdom of the East, he can also command the team to victory.
I love Chinese culture, and that's not just a vulgar excuse for me to speak Chinese in the future. I really love the culture of this country because they have never gone out of style and are beyond their time.
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Unmoving, Xu Rulin's Nottingham Forest finally found a good chance in the final moments of the first half. Three passes were made by three Forest players on the edge of the Liverpool penalty area, and then the ball flew into the Liverpool door.
George. Wood cut off Liverpool's counter-attack and launched a counter-attack on the spot, passing the ball to Ribery, who in turn passed to Ruud van Nistelrooy, who scrambled to the post.
Reyna was blocked by his own men and reacted half a beat slower, only having time to watch the ball go into the net.
It was a sneak attack, a sneak attack that was as fast as the wind and as fierce as fire.
Benitez knows that Nottingham Forest have been defending like this and must fight back, but he doesn't know when Forest will fight back - if it is known, it will not be called a sneak attack.
He didn't expect Nottingham Forest to strike back in the final moments of the first half, when Liverpool's players were generally physically and mentally exhausted after 45 minutes of tense fighting.
Being beaten around is not necessarily the most embarrassing, and beating around others is not necessarily the easiest.
Swift as the wind, as slow as a forest, as plundering as fire, immobile as a mountain, difficult as a cloud, moving like thunder.
The ancestors are honest and do not deceive me.
(To be continued)