Godfather Of Champions

On February 7th, Nottingham Forest re-embarked on the journey of the First Division. After more than ten days of rest, they beat Coventry 1-0 at home. Ten days of pause, although it gave Dunn time to adjust the team's tactics and re-prepare, it also interrupted the rhythm of the Forest team. In this game they played very hard at their home court, and finally defeated the opponent by a goal that was suspected of offside. After the game, the head coach of Coventry chattered about the penalty, thinking that his team should be the winner. And Dunn, who got the cheap, insisted that the referee was right, and he didn't want to mention that goal.

For Dunn and the Forest team, it doesn't matter whether the ball is offside or not. Coventry coach should be the head coach on this issue, not him. He only needs to know that his team has scored a valuable three-pointer.

Victory is the most important thing. The process... is just a way to victory. No matter how you go, you just need to reach the end.

A week later, the winning streak of Nottingham Forest finally came to a halt. In the 31st round of the league, they were drawn by Walshall 1:1 at home. Because of one less match, they still ranked 14th, and a tie did not affect much, after all, they did not lose.

This shows the correctness of Dunn's insistence on "If you can't win, don't lose".

On February 17th, in the 24th round of the make-up match, Nottingham Forest challenged Gillingham away. Judging from the scene, the Forest team is still at a disadvantage, and the instability of the young players’ performance has been fully exposed. It can be a winning streak or a continuous win. The final score was 0:0. Dunn relied on defensive tactics to score a point in the away game and still did not lose. This was the result he felt most gratified.

He has become more and more aware of the pressure of being a coach... Every time he sees the opponent bombarding his goal, his heart will be lifted in his throat. Shots from the door will stop his heart. It feels uncomfortable at all.

February 29 is the League Cup final. Before that, Nottingham Forest had three matches in one day: three league games on the 14th, 17th, and 21st. This is a point that made Dunn quite complain about when he was interviewed. He complained that the League Committee did not know how to work around, and arranged such intensive matches before such an important game, so that his team had no rest time.

In fact, there is nothing wrong with the arrangement of the League Committee, because one of the three games was a make-up, and they also postponed the 33rd round of the Forest and Bradford. If it goes on as usual, the game will start. The ball time is February 28th...

On February 21, the thirty-second round of the league, Nottingham Forest continued their away trip. This time their opponent was Rotherham, and the final score was 1:1. It was another draw. The Forest team ushered in a losing streak after winning a streak.

Dunn breathed a sigh of relief and had to prepare for the League Cup final with Middlesbrough again. There are still eight days to go to the final, and media reports have gradually increased.

Because the Forest is a first-tier team and is returning to the final twelve years later, it has received more attention. Looking at the media reporters who wandered outside the training ground all day, even Dunn felt a little nervous. But this kind of tension cannot be expressed in front of outsiders, because he is the leader of these people, and the leader cannot be nervous, hesitate, or let them down.

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Des Walker gave Dunn the new training schedule. Today is February 23. They still have six days to conduct targeted training. Before the training session on this day, the coaching staff should get together to meet and discuss the schedule.

Dunn took a look and deleted all the training related to offense except for the "offensive positioning kick drill" above. Then hand it to all of you.

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

Seeing their puzzled expressions, Dunn smiled: "It's very simple. We will not attack them in the Middlesbrough match. We will defend and let them attack. Not only that, there is an additional training item in this list Plan-increase the number of penalty kicks, and practice 20 minutes of penalty kicks at the end of each training day."

"Tony, you want to bet on a penalty?" Walker asked.

Dunn nodded: "Yes. Starting from tomorrow, the training time for the media and fans will be shortened to half an hour. This week, we have been practicing defense. Middlesbrough and Bolton, who was bruised in the semifinals, looked like They seem to be almost the same, relying on loan or buying those balloon stars to support the team. But their attacking ability is stronger, if we press out like Bolton, McLaren (Middlesbrough coach) will be very Happy. Has anyone of you followed the media reports in Middlesbrough?"

Everyone shook their heads, obviously few people would care about those things. But Dunn cared, "I recently collected all kinds of news over there, although we can’t go directly to their team’s training ground to understand. But from these media reports, I can see that the Middlesbrough team The overall attitude is optimistic. I think the Middlesbrough people must be very happy to know that the final opponent is a team that ranks in the middle of the second division."

The coaches all understand Dunn's meaning, Middlesbrough believes that the hope of winning against the first-tier team is greater.

"If they think so, they would be very wrong!" Dunn grinned. "When they hopefully intend to use offense to end the battle, we will let them hit a wall!" He used force. Hit the fist into the left palm.

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After this regular coaching meeting, the entire coaching staff started the "wall construction project" in accordance with Dunn's requirements. Even Eastwood, who usually doesn't need to participate in defense very much, was specifically asked by Walker in training this time: if you lose the ball, you must counter-grab on the spot. If the counter-grab on the spot is not successful, turn around and chase it immediately, or give the goal to The midfielder who came up to defend himself ran back to replace the midfielder.

This is not just a requirement for Eastwood alone, all offensive players must follow this requirement. If someone just stretches out their feet symbolically after losing the ball and gets caught up in the hands, they will immediately hear the harsh and sharp whistle and Walker's berating.

Especially the full-backs, they are almost used as second full-backs. Press to the opponent's bottom line when attacking, and withdraw to your own bottom line when defending.

In addition, Dunn is determined not to practice offside tactics. For Nottingham Forest in Middlesbrough facing extremely fast sideways, offside is tantamount to suicide.

The key to defense is to compress the opponent's possession, passing space and time. Offside is not an ideal choice. The forest team must maintain a tight distance between the three lines in the game, so it is not surprising that the forwards return to the center circle.

For today's world football, requiring the team to be so defensive is equivalent to a negative game, which is very annoying. But Dunn knew in his heart that after this summer, the whole world would realize the benefits of this compressed defense. why? Because the Greek team won the championship. In the World Cup in Germany two years later, the better-defensive Italian team had the last laugh. Those teams that refused to compress the defense, but opened up, played offensive football that is respectable and favorite, but in the end They all died miserably.

The players did not understand that Dunn would tell them during the training gap that this was the only way to win the championship trophy. Those who want championships and honours just do what they don't want...Are you still professional players? Are you still men?

Des Walker has fully grasped the true meaning of Dunn's "there is no set strategy, as long as I can win, I don't care about defensive counterattack or offensive football". In order to advance to the finals, he can decisively abandon the intention of conceding fewer goals and defensive thoughts when he loses a goal first, and fight Bolton at home and away to score goals. In the end, relying on a valuable away goal to get a ticket to the Cardiff Millennium Stadium.

Once in a final, he would throw the "offensive" thing out of the blue, defending with all his strength, and would rather delay the penalty shootout with half the chances, rather than fight his opponents to the death within 90 minutes. Because that is "more risky" for him.

Dunn once said to Walker: "Desi, you know I am obsessed with Chinese culture, their food, their traditional customs, their history... even their art of war. Do you know the "Art of War"?"

Seeing Walker shook his head, Dunn expressed his understanding, and then explained, "That is a very famous art of war in China, specifically about how to fight. With more than three thousand years of wisdom, it is now more than just a art of war. I think football can also be used. Football is war. There is a saying in it:'Water controls the flow according to the ground, and soldiers win because of the enemy. Therefore, soldiers are impermanent and water impermanent.'"

Walker was puzzled by Dunn’s sudden emergence of Chinese, so Dunn explained with a smile, “The translation means'flowing water will change its flow due to the topography and terrain, and the use of troops should be based on different enemies to determine the winning strategy. Therefore, it is said that there is no fixed single situation in the use of soldiers in war, and the flow of water will not have an immutable form'. Fighting is the same as a football game. I always avoid being seen through by our opponents. Defending or attacking depends on our face. What kind of opponent, what kind of game, what kind of situation...I know that this requirement may be a bit high for the team now. But..."

He pointed to the players who were training on the field and said proudly: "We train them and they can do it when they need it."

(To be continued, if you want to know the future, please visit WWW.CMFU.COM, more chapters, support the author, support genuine reading!)

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