Chapter 146: The Cunning Allardyce Part 1
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
The stands of City Ground Stadium were already fully seated. At a glance, almost everyone appeared to be Nottingham Forest fans wearing red jerseys. There were only one thousand, three hundred Bolton fans there to root for their team.
The match had not started yet, and both teams' fans had just finished one round of "antiphonal singing." They temporarily lowered their banners and muffled their drums, deciding to resume the sounds of battle after the match began. The broadcasting system in the stadium started playing the Forest fans' favorite songs. Some of them were the newest and most popular songs, while some were oldies which had been popular during the seventies and eighties. These oldies had witnessed Nottingham Forest's first tastes of glory. As such, whenever they resounded throughout the air of City Ground Stadium, it was as though the older fans had travelled back in time twenty years. There, Nottingham Forest triumphed over their opponents one after another. They were fearless, and nobody could defeat them. They were England's champions. They were the Kings of Europe!
Now, even though the oldies and City Ground stadium remained, the people have changed.
Many fans looked forward to this EFL Cup semi-finals. Do we still have a chance to witness the start of another round of glory? they all wondered. Brian Clough, the legend of Nottingham Forest, once led the team to obtain three EFL Cup championship titles. Can Tony Twain, who has been deemed by most people as the person who resembles Clough the most, prove his own ability?
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Martin Taylor was a tall old man with white hair. From his looks, he did not seem to be any different from any other old gentleman from London. He wore a neat suit, had neatly combed hair, and had a natural smile. However, everyone that was familiar with English Football knew who he was. He was one of England's best football commentators, and one of Europe's best commentators. He was, in fact, one of the best football commentators in the world. His voice was widely considered "the nicest-sounding sports commentary in the world." His voice and pronunciation were clear, and his commentating style was humorous and interesting, calm and neutral, yet not lacking in passion. He had almost no shortcomings to speak of. He was the idol of many sports commentators throughout the world.
Andy Gray was an ex-professional football player who had, upon his retirement, become a commentator. Unlike Martin Taylor, his voice was quite passionate, especially when a goal was scored. The combination of these two men has been regarded as the "golden duo" of English sports commentary, and their voices have been used as the commentary for several generations of the famous football game series, "FIFA". At the same time, they were also the two most reputable English commentators in China.
If the two of them appeared at a stadium at the same time, then there could only be one reason for it—they were there to commentate a match.
Gray smiled and looked at the man in front of them. "John, the Sky plc is the one in-charge of broadcasting. What are you doing here? Be careful not to let those news reporters from smaller firms get a picture of you, or else they would publicize widely: BBC's best commentator John Motson intends to switch over to Sky plc!" Gray imitated the reporters and shouted like he was trying to make a fuss.
Motson smiled and said, "Andy, why can't it be 'Sky plc's golden duo intends to betray their former company, joining the BBC as a pair?'"
The football commentators relied solely on their words and their wits. When it came to bickering, they would never lose to anyone.
Martin Taylor clapped his hands off to the side and said, "Alright, if the two of you continue on like this, the argument will go on for another three days. Motson, what are you doing here?"
Motson had thirty-one years of experience commentating football matches, while Martin Taylor was very experienced as well. Before the German World Cup, he had already commentated for seven consecutive World Cup matches. With these statistics of his, it could be said that there was no one else more experienced than him in the entire commentating industry.
"Watching the match," Motson said as he shrugged his shoulders.
His reply surprised Taylor slightly. "John, I seem to remember that you aren't a fan of Bolton, am I right?"
"I'm not here for Bolton, Martin."
"But you aren't a Nottingham Forest fan, either," Gray, who was beside them, added on Taylor's behalf. No wonder they were the golden duo.
"Can't I watch their match if I'm not their fan, Andy?" Motson asked back, smiling.
He had a point. Gray scratched his head while Taylor immediately continued, "John, you seem very interested in Nottingham Forest. I've noticed that you've commentated on almost all of their recent matches. What made you regard them so highly?"
"Hmm, instead of saying that I'm interested in Nottingham Forest, I think it's more accurate to say that I'm interested in their manager."
"Tony Twain?" Gray asked.
Motson nodded his head and said, "Martin, you guys have always commentated on the Premier League, so you might not know much about Twain. But, I advise the two of you to pay more attention to him during the match; you'll discover that he is a very interesting person."
"Very interesting? How so?" Gray asked.
"In every way." Motson smiled and waved goodbye to them. "Alright, the match should be starting soon. I'm going to the stands."
He turned and left the lounge, heading towards the passageway leading to the stands.
Gray stared at Motson's back and shook his head before asking Taylor, "Martin, what do you think of that? It's very unlike him. Motson has actually come down to watch a live match of a team he doesn't support, simply because he thinks that Tony Twain is interesting!"
Taylor laughed. "Exactly what kind of person he is, I suppose we shall see for ourselves. I've done some research on Tony Twain as well, but that's only the homework that I did in order to commentate this match. I believe that seeing him with our own eyes will help deepen our impression of him. Let's go, Andy. Our work is about to start."
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John Motson was seated in the third row of the stands, and he looked just like the normal fans seated around him. Nobody knew that this person, who wore a dull grey overcoat and had a head full of white hair, was the commentator whose passionate voice they heard every weekend.
Motson was seated very near to the Nottingham Forest's manager's seats, and he could see Tony Twain, who was standing at the side of the field, if he stood up. Twain had just exited the changing room, and his team was already on the field preparing for the match.
This was not the first time that Tony Twain was leading his team to play against an English Premier League team. Motson still remembered the FA Cup match held last year on January 4th, when Nottingham Forest had faced off against West ham United in this exact stadium. Two days prior to that match, he had still been laughing at Twain's clumsy first appearance on the field in a television broadcast. However, on the actual match day, he had been completely fascinated by the second half.
Cup matches seemed to be where Tony Twain was catapulted to fame.
The previous time was the FA Cup, and this time was the EFL Cup. What kind of match would the man bring this time?
The clear sound of the whistle resounded throughout the stadium, but it was quickly buried beneath the sound of cheers. The match had begun!
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What kind of team was Bolton? It was certainly not a team that adhered to the currently popular technique-centric play style, nor was it a team that subscribed to the standard style either. They had a very traditional English play style instead, with the team adopting a sturdy formation. Their midfield and backfield defense was fierce, and they would make use of long passes to assault the enemy's back defense line.
This was clear just from their two frontline shooters on their starting line up. The first, Kevin Davies, was extremely adept at headers, despite the fact that he was only six feet tall,. The other was Henrik Pedersen. Although his techniques were not that refined, he had the build of a classic Northern European player.
When these two were paired together, the strength of their assault should not be underestimated.
To Tang En, the main flaw in Bolton's frontline was Kevin Davies' injury, as well as Bolton only having one method of offense.
Even an idiot knew how Bolton would play—they would send a long-ball through the air to get the ball in front of Nottingham Forest's goalpost, then rely on Davies and Pederson's header abilities. Even if they ended up unable to shoot the ball, they would still be able to cause chaos in the penalty area.
As such, Tang En sent out Wes Morgan and Robert Huth as center-backs. They were not fast, but they were strong and good at headers. They were the only combination that could guard against Bolton's frontline. As for Clint Hill, he was awaiting further instructions on the substitutes' bench. The right back was still John Thompson, but Tang En decided to use the younger Leighton Baines instead of Davy Oyen for the left back. Baines was much better in terms of stamina and speed, and he was also able to do long shots and free kicks.
For the midfield, the starting line up sent out by Bolton was Kevin Nolan and Ivan Campo. The left side was Okocha while the right side was Giannakopoulos. Among them, aside from the Nigerian, the other three were adept at sprinting and intercepting, reducing the opponent's room for offense. It was as though they had set up an iron fence in the midfield hat prevented their opponent's offense from passing through easily.
In response to this, Tang En removed Rebrov from the midfield, and instead sent out players who were very similar to Bolton's. The two defensive midfielders in the middle were Gunnarsson and George Wood. The left side was McPhail, who was still on loan from Leeds United, while the right side was Ashley Young, who had just joined the team.
Tang En hoped to stabilise the backline defense with those two defensive midfielders. At the same time, with a lack of an organizational midfielder, the team's offense would have to rely heavily on the two wings. McPhail and Ashley Young were both individually strong and skilful players with the ability to dribble and break through with the ball before passing to the middle and shooting, all by themselves.
Tang En's tactic for this match was still to counterattack. After all, Bolton was still an English Premier League Team and should not be underestimated.
Tang En felt that there was an irrefutable truth on the football field: victory for a match must be built upon the foundation of a sturdy defense. Without defense, a team might as well forget everything else.
McPhail and Ashley Young had both demonstrated exceptionally strong individual abilities and exceptional conditions during training. During the tactics briefing before the match, Tang En had told the two of them that if they were on the offense during the match, the team might not be able to lend them much support. However, he would not excessively ask them to return to defend either. Rather, they had to rely solely on themselves for offense. Tang En encouraged them to be in less of a hurry to pass the ball out once they got it. Instead, they should be more willing to break through and engage in a one-on-one face-off. If they lost possession of the ball, they should try to regain possession on the spot without panicking. Wood and the others were still behind them. The key was believing that their own techniques would be effective against Bolton's defense line.