On 7 February, Nottingham Forest returned to the First Division, beating Coventry City 1-0 at home after a dozen days of rest. Although the ten-day pause gave Donn time to adjust the team's tactics and prepare again, it also interrupted the rhythm of the Forest team. It was a hard-fought game at home and it took a goal from a suspected offside to get out of the game. After the game, the Coventry head coach chattered about the decision, believing that his team should be the winners. And Donne, who got cheap, insisted that the referee was right, and didn't want to mention more about that goal.

It doesn't matter if the goal is offside or not for Donn and Forest, it should be the Coventry City manager, not him, who is the culprit on this issue. He just needs to know that his team has another valuable three points.

Victory is all that matters, and the process ...... It's just a stretch of the road to victory, no matter what way you go, as long as you reach the end.

A week later, Nottingham Forest's winning streak finally came to a halt as they were held to a 1-1 draw at home to Walchal in the 31st round of the league. Because of the game less, they are still in 14th place, and a draw does not affect much, after all, they did not lose.

It can be seen that Don En adheres to the correct surname of "don't lose if you can't win".

On February 17, in the 24th round of the make-up match, Nottingham Forest away to Gillingham, from the scene, the Forest team is still at a disadvantage, the young players' inconsistent form has been fully exposed, they can win in a row, or in a row. The final score was 0:0, and Don relied on the stubborn tactics to get a point away from home, and still did not lose, which is the result he is most pleased with.

He's become more and more aware of the pressure of being a coach...... Every time he saw the opponent bombarding his goal, his heart would be raised to his throat, and every shot that went out of the door would make his heart stop. It didn't taste good at all.

February 29 is the League Cup final, but before that, Nottingham Forest played three games a day: 14, 17 and 21. That's one of the points that made Donn quite a little bit in an interview, complaining that the league committee didn't know how to be flexible and that his team didn't have any time to rest with such a busy schedule of events before such an important game.

In fact, the league committee is understandable because one of the three games is a make-up game, and they have also postponed the 33rd round of the league between Forest and Bratford, which will kick off on February 28 if it goes on as usual...... On February 21, in the 32nd round of the league, Nottingham Forest continued their away trip, this time against Rotherham, and the final score was 1:1. Another draw, with Forest coming in for a draw after a winning streak and finally no losing streak...... Donn breathed a sigh of relief and was ready to go all out for the Carabao Cup final against Middlesbrough. With eight days to go until the final, the media coverage is already getting bigger.

Because Forest are a first-division team and are back in the final after 12 years, they have received more attention. Looking at the media reporters who wandered outside the training ground all day, even Don felt a little nervous. But this kind of nervousness can't be shown in front of outsiders, because he is the leader of these people, and the leader can't be nervous, can't hesitate, can't let them down.

※※※Des. Walker gave Don a new training schedule, and today is February 23rd, and they still have six days to train for their surname. Before the day's training session, the coaching staff will come together to discuss the schedule.

Donn looked at it and deleted all the offensive drills except for the "attacking set-piece drill". Then hand it to all of you.

Walker and the coaches looked at the "new plan" and looked at each other.

Seeing their puzzled expressions, Don smiled: "It's very simple, we won't play against Middlesbrough against them, we defend and let them attack." Not only that, but there is also a training plan in this table - increase the number of penalty kick training sessions, and add 20 minutes of penalty kicks at the end of each training session. ”

"Tony, you're going to bet on penalties?" Walker asked.

Don nodded, "Yes." From tomorrow, the training team's media and fans will be open to half an hour. For a week, we kept practicing defending. Middlesbrough look similar to Bolton, who suffered a semi-final injury, and have relied on loan or buying balloon stars to support the team. But they're more attacking and if we press out like we did with Bolton, McClaren [Middlesbrough] will be happy. Has anyone followed the media coverage at Middlesbrough? ”

Everyone shook their heads, apparently not many of them cared about those things. But Don cares, "I've been collecting all kinds of information from there lately, although we can't go directly to their team's training ground to find out. I can tell from the media reports that there is a general optimism in the Middlesbrough team. I think the Middlesbrough will be happy knowing that the final is against a team who are in the middle of the second tier. ”

The coaches understood what Donn meant, with Middlesbrough believing they had a better chance of winning against a First Division side.

"If they think so, they're very wrong!" Donn sneered, "When they hopefully plan to end the battle with an attack, we'll let them hit a wall!" He slammed his fist into his left palm.

※※※After this regular coaching meeting, the entire coaching staff began the "wall building project" according to Donne's request. Even Eastwood, who usually doesn't need to participate in defense, was specifically asked by Walker in training this time: if you lose the ball, you have to fight back on the spot, and if the local counter-attack is unsuccessful, you will immediately turn around and chase back, or give the target to the midfielder who comes up to defend and run back to replace the midfielder.

It's not just for Eastwood alone, it's for all attacking players to do it. If someone is just a symbol of their outstretched foot after losing the ball, they will immediately hear a shrill whistle and Walker's shouting.

Wing-backs, in particular, are almost used as second full-backs. When attacking, press to the opponent's bottom line, and retreat to your own bottom line when defending.

In addition, Don is determined not to practice offside tactics. For Nottingham Forest, who face a blistering Middlesbrough side on the wing, creating an offside position would be tantamount to suicide.

Defence is all about compressing the opposition's possession, passing space and time, and creating an offside position is not an ideal option. Forest's three lines had to keep tight distances during the game, so it was no surprise that the forwards were back in the centre circle.

For the current world football, it is very annoying to ask the team to defend like this is equivalent to a negative game. But Donn knew in his heart that after this summer, the world would recognize the benefits of this compressed defense. Why? Because the Greek team won the championship. At the World Cup in Germany two years later, Italy, who defended better, had the last laugh, and those teams who refused to compress their defenses and opened their doors wide were all dead in the end, although they played respectable and loved offensive football.

The players didn't understand that Donn would tell them between training that it was the only way to win the trophy. Those who want champions and honors do it, and those who don't want it do it...... Are you still a professional footballer? Are you still men?

Des. Walker has fully understood Donn's true meaning of "there are no static tactics, as long as you can win, I don't care if you can defend and counterattack or attack football". In order to qualify for the final, he can decisively abandon the intention of conceding fewer goals and defensive thinking when conceding one goal first, and attack against Bolton Wanderers at home and away to score goals. In the end, it was a valuable away goal that secured a ticket to the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.

And once he enters a final that is a winner, he throws the "attack" thing out of the clouds, and defends it with all his might, preferring to drag it out until the penalty shootout with half the chance, rather than fight to the death with the opponent in 90 minutes. Because that's "more risky" for him.

Donn once said this to Walker: "Des, you know I'm fascinated by Chinese culture, their food, their traditions, their history...... Even their art of war. Do you know "The Art of War"? ”

Seeing Walker shake his head, Don expressed his understanding, and then explained, "That's a very famous art of war in China, specializing in how to fight. With more than 3,000 years of wisdom, it's not just an art of war, but I think it can also be used in football. Football is war. There is a saying in it that says: 'The water is controlled by the earth, and the army is defeated by the enemy.' Therefore, the army is impermanent, and the water is impermanent'. ”

Walker was puzzled by Donn's sudden appearance of Chinese, and Donn explained with a smile, "Translated as 'Flowing water will change its direction depending on the terrain, and the use of troops should be based on different enemies to determine the winning strategy.'" Therefore, there is no fixed and single situation in the use of troops to fight, and the flow of water will not have an immutable form.' It's the same as football, I always avoid being seen through by our opponents, defending or attacking, it depends on what kind of opponent we are facing, what kind of game, what kind of situation...... I know that's probably a bit too much for the team right now. But ......"

Pointing to the players who were training on the pitch, he proudly said: "We train them and they can do it when we need them. ”

(To be continued)