Godfather Of Champions

Nottingham Forest had been in closed-door training again since they finished the game with Sunderland. The English media complained that there had never been a manager like Tony Twain who used closed-door training so often to prepare for the competition.

Carl Spicer then said it was proof that how terrified Tony Twain was—he dared not let the media and his opponent know what he was doing. This implied that he had no confidence.

Twain obviously did this to keep things confidential because he wanted to give Juventus a “big surprise.” But he did not feel that he had no confidence. Self-confidence and blind arrogance were two different things. Anyhow, he was up against the group’s most powerful opponent. Superficial arrogance and true arrogance were two different matters.

In fact, Twain’s remarks to the media before he came to Italy were not entirely intended to create some trouble to Ranieri’s mind. He truly had to be careful.

That was what he said to the team.

When the team arrived in Turin, they trained at Stadio delle Alpi to adapt to the pitch. For the first fifteen minutes, the media could come in and film. It was what the rules must allow, or else Twain would not have even given them a second. But the media could not really shoot anything meaningful within these fifteen minutes. Because the team had been doing simple physical training. After the fifteen minutes were up, the team really began its tactical practice after they saw all the media pack up and leave. But it was just drills for set pieces.

Twain knew there would be people from Juventus in some corner of the pitch observing them. He would not reveal the real stuff on the enemy’s turf.

Once the training was over, it was the pre-match press conference. Twain saw Ranieri again. Both parties acted low-key. It was normal for Ranieri to maintain a low profile, but it was irregular for Twain to keep a low profile. Twain repeated the words he spoke in England, but he deliberately acted as if he was teasing and not serious about his speech.

He just wanted others to not be able to guess what he was going to do.

“Juventus is a very strong opponent … Did I say before that the teams to advance were Nottingham Forest and any other team? Well, yes. But isn’t Juventus among them? Do you really want me to state an exact name? In that case, if I say Team A advances, how would Team B and C take it? I’m not stupid enough to make enemies everywhere…” Twain grinned and completely overturned his previously arrogant image.

Many media muttered below, “He had just said those words not long ago and now he refuted everything. He’s so shameless!”

“If he still had a sense of shame, he wouldn’t be Tony Twain…”

Twain seemed to want to express goodwill toward Juventus, but the Turin media would not give him the chance. Over and over again, they mentioned the two group matches two seasons ago and asked Twain what he thought.

“What do I think? It’s normal to win or lose on the football field. Besides, what’s the point of talking about what happened two seasons ago now? Winning or losing before held no meaning for tomorrow’s game. I only care about tomorrow. I don’t care about the past.”

“Have you ever thought about how to successfully take revenge at the Stadio delle Alpi, Mr. Twain?”

“I have a lot of respect for Juventus. It’s a great team. Since it was founded in 1897, it has gained a total of …” Twain began to recite a brief summary of Juventus, which took about two minutes. After the summary, he said to the reporter who asked the question, “Do you understand what I mean?”

The Italian reporter’s mind had temporarily lost its ability to think.

But it was impossible for the media to let him go so easily. Another reporter took over and piped up, “You know Juventus very well, Mr. Twain. But you still did not say whether tomorrow’s game will be a revenge battle for Nottingham Forest.”

Twain stared at the reporter who stood up for a while. His eyes slowly became cold and the reporters anticipated Twain to suddenly slam on the table, become hostile and abuse roundly. Then there would be a good show. But that kind of expression only appeared for a second, and he suddenly smiled, “If revenge breeds revenge, will there ever be an end to it? I’m not interested in revenge. I’m only interested in winning.”

The answer greatly disappointed the reporters.

They had to throw the question to Ranieri and ask if he was worried about Nottingham Forest’s revenge at Stadio delle Alpi. Ranieri was not tricked by the media either. His answer was precisely the same as that of Twain, “I’m not interested in this kind of question.”

Due to Twain’s sudden anomaly, the press conference, which should have a lot of attention-grabbing news, ended in an awkward silence.

As they left the press conference, Twain stopped Ranieri and offered to shake his hand, “Hopefully tomorrow is a great game.” He smiled and said in Italian.

Ranieri was a little surprised, “I didn’t know you speak Italian, Mr. Twain.”

“A little.” In actual fact, he did not know any at all. Twain made a concentrated effort to quickly memorize the sentence by rote at the last minute before coming.

So Ranieri smiled, “I hope so too, Mr. Twain.”

After Twain’s farewell, the smile on Ranieri’s face gradually vanished. He felt that he was unable to make sense of the man. Ever since he had to play against him, his performance had become more and more unusual. In the face of the reporter’s numerous provocations, he did not get angry on the spot. Did his temper improve because of the heart attack?

Did his unusual behavior had anything to do with the game?

Ranieri shook his head and did not think about such meaningless things. Anyway, Juventus would only play their own football. No matter what tricks Twain pulled would be pointless in the face of Juventus.

It was a team that was so stable beyond hope.

※※※

“No one asked me how I was going to play against Juventus. Their attention was diverted to other places.” In the hotel room, Twain was talking to Dunn about the press conference that took place in the afternoon. “We’ll surprise them tomorrow!”

Meanwhile, at the hotel Juventus stayed in, Ranieri gathered all the players and coaches for a final tactical meeting. At this meeting, he would make clear the tactics to be used by the team tomorrow and the countermeasures to the tactics that the opponent might use.

It was a meeting directly related to the outcome of the next day’s game and everyone must take it seriously.

“Nottingham Forest emphasis on the flank attacks is their tradition. No matter what opponent it faces, no matter what situation, Tony Twain will not give up on that.” Ranieri explained the Forest team’s tactics to everyone in front of the tactical board.

“Matías Fernández has been in good form lately and Twain will be focused on the wings in tomorrow’s game. But judging by the last two games, Fernández and the other Forest players had not been able to work well enough with each other. He frequently fights alone in the wings. This is our chance. There’s nothing to fear about him once we cut him off with the rest of the Forest team.”

“Our defense is focused on the flanks. As long as we don’t let the Forest team play in the two flanks, their offense will be of no threat. I think in tomorrow’s game, Twain will deploy the same starting lineup as when they played against Atlético Madrid in the away match. There will be two defensive midfielders in the midfield—George Wood and Tiago. Their primary role is to intercept our attacks. Their attack focus is on the left and right side. But we also have to be prepared to deal with the two opposing defensive midfielders. Sissoko.”

Ranieri called the name of the team’s defensive midfielder, Mohamed Sissoko.

“You’re in the middle tomorrow. Stop them.”

Sissoko nodded hard and was clearly pleased with Ranieri’s arrangement. Because the manager did not select Poulsen and Marchisio, who were also defensive midfielders. It showed that in a hard-fought game, the manager trusted him more than the other two.

He had already wanted to pit his skills against the opponent’s George Wood long ago. Similarly, as a physical excellent defensive midfielder, he saw Wood as his biggest competitor. Over the years, Wood had relied on the team’s fame and results which made his value soared like a rocket. Whereas he came to Juventus from Liverpool and was always in a middling state.

He believed he was no less inferior to Wood whose strength was more likely to be hyped by the English media. He had played in England and was well aware of the media’s attitude.

When he was at Liverpool, he had played against Nottingham Forest a few times. Wood was a high-profile rookie at the time, but in Sissoko’s view, he was no different from himself. They were both physically good, technically rough, and good at defense. That was all. But just because Wood was an English player and hyped by the media, he was suddenly a world-class level player…

He was sidelined at Liverpool during that time and could not even play as the main force. Despite having a dedicated defensive midfielder like him, Benítez still brought in Mascherano, whose role overlapped with his. That was when he knew his days at Anfield were over.

Juventus played against Nottingham Forest two seasons ago. He had missed those two matches after he had received a red card in a previous match. He would not miss it again this time.

Defensive midfielder versus defensive midfielder? He looked forward to it.

Ranieri only left Sissoko in the middle alone and then placed the others to focus on the sides. Despite this being a home match, he intended to use defensive counterattack tactics to play against Nottingham Forest. Two seasons ago, he used this tactic to beat the insufferably arrogant defending champion, Nottingham Forest. He believed he could still do it two seasons later.

“First, solidify our defense and then wait for the opportunity to fight back. A team like Nottingham Forest is used to counterattack. However, they are not good at dealing with the opponent’s counterattacks. The five minutes at the start and end of every half are good opportunities for us to score goals. So do your best to seize them. If we’re going to attack, we’re going to use the middle. Nottingham Forest places its focus on the sides and the middle will be our chance.”

Ranieri announced the starting list for tomorrow’s game after he explained the tactics.

The soon to be 36-year-old next month veteran, Del Piero was not in the starting lineup. But he was on the squad list. If they could not breakthrough, Ranieri could bring him on and use his experience and skills, as well as his ability to position the ball to break the deadlock.

The starting strikers were Amauri and Iaquinta. Lined up apart in the midfield from left to right were Malouda bought from Chelsea for a fee of seven million pounds this summer, the talented young player, Sebastian Giovinco, who was trained in their youth academy, the tough defensive midfielder, Sissoko, and the old and tough, Camoranesi. In the rear defensive line from left to right were Cristian Molinaro, Chiellini, Legrottaglie, and the Czech, Grygera. The goalkeeper was, of course, Buffon.

Also, on the substitutes’ bench was the veteran captain, Del Piero, Christian Poulsen, Iago Falque Silva, Mellberg, Criscito and other strong players.

This was the strongest lineup Ranieri could come up with in recent time.

One could see how much importance he placed on the game.

※※※

But after watching for a few minutes after the start of the match the next day and observing carefully at Nottingham Forest’s formation for the game, he was immediately stunned—for the first time, Tony Twain did not adhere to his signature flank offensive. Instead, he placed the players heavily in the middle!

4-1-3-2!

This was the formation Tony Twain arranged for this game.

The goalkeeper was Akinfeev and the center backs were Pepe and Kompany. The left back was Leighton Baines and the right back was Rafinha. The defensive midfielder was George Wood while the three midfielders from left to right, were Matías Fernández, Tiago and Şahin. The striker were Ibišević and Eastwood.

“What is this?” Ranieri stood on the sidelines and muttered.

None of the information he collected suggested that Nottingham Forest had ever or tried to use such a formation. Anyone would know that the flanks were the foundation of the Forest team’s success. Looking at the signings each summer, Tony Twain always put the most focus on the wingers. Almost every winger in the Forest squad was world class.

In contrast, the abilities of the players in the middle were slightly inferior. Van der Vaart might have been the best player in terms of offense in the middle and midfield after they were promoted to the Premier League. But he had since been sold to Real Madrid. Şahin had talent, but never gave the impression that he could take on the heavy responsibility, not to mention Tiago. He was not the kind of star player who could change the course of the game.

By relying on this midfield layout, how could Twain think that he could play with the configuration of three midfielders?

While Fernández could also play as a midfielder, he was still most suited to play as a winger. Was it not self-destructing to put him in the middle?

Soon Ranieri knew why Twain had arranged it in such a way.

Juventus planned to score a goal in the opening five to ten minutes and then drag the game into their familiar rhythm. But their attack was doggedly blocked by Nottingham Forest in the midfield. This time, even Fernández was instructed to defend aggressively.

With four players in the middle, three in the front and one behind, it formed enough depth for the players to protect each other. At the same time, they could also attack directly from here. Once they attacked, Fernández and Şahin on the left and right would pull to the sides, with Tiago in the middle managing the team’s offensive order. George Wood would protect behind him. Sometimes the two of them would switch positions, with Wood moving forward and Tiago cruising behind him.

At the same time, Eastwood frequently retreated to receive like a shadow striker and also a little like a free agent in the front field. He did not have a fixed position. Ibišević stood up to Juventus’s rear defensive line in the front, leaving them afraid to make a move. With such a lineup, it seemed he had given up the flanks, but it greatly enhanced the defensive and offensive abilities in the middle. Şahin and Fernández were given the chance to face the goal directly.

In addition, the Forest team did not really abandon their flanks. Twain instructed Baines and Rafinha to plug in ahead in the game when they had a chance and be actively involved in the assists.

The combination between the flanks and middle, stumped Juventus all of a sudden. They appeared to be at a loss in the first ten minutes of the game—the pre-match tactical arrangement was to keep an eye on the flanks and steadily fight back. However, Nottingham Forest treated the middle as the main direction for attacks. And after placing four players in the middle, they were not afraid of a possible counterattack from Juventus.

Ten minutes had passed. Even though Juventus’ attack was fierce, it was of no avail. More often than not, their attacks were stopped once they advanced into the midfield. Nottingham Forest’s midfield and middle blocked the way as if there had been a series of crashes along the highway. Even the fastest attack had to slow down or even stop completely.

Ranieri stood on the sidelines, listening to the cheers from the home fans in the stands at the Stadio delle Alpi, and again looked at Tony Twain, who, like him, stood on the sidelines to direct the game. He felt a headache coming on…