Nottingham Forest.

The history of this team is much more glorious than Millwall, they won the European Champions League in 1978-1979 and 1979-1980, becoming the only club in the history of the Champions League to have only one domestic top flight title and two Big Ears Cups, but since the time entered the 90s, especially the English top flight was restructured into the Premier League, Nottingham Forest's results began to decline, and they have been hovering between the Premier League and the Championship.

The current Nottingham Forest is only a team similar to Millwall.

They sit 15th in the Championship.

This position can start to think about the relegation crisis.

In the eyes of the media who followed the game, Millwall had a good chance of losing because they had a 'dressing room crisis' because they had an incompetent manager.

The third reason is that Millwall are playing away.

Playing away from home certainly has a disadvantage, and Nottingham Forest can approach the game with a more relaxed mindset at home.

So Nottingham Forest have a higher win rate.

Zhang Yang doesn't think Nottingham Forest can threaten Millwall, let alone a Millwall with a 'five-star' strength evaluation.

The day before the game, Millwall trained openly.

It's a rare open training.

This is only possible when there is a gap between matches similar to an international break.

The purpose of the open training is to open up to the media, to promote the club and to give the supporting fans a chance to see the team training up close.

Zhang Yang attaches more importance to the latter.

After a series of 'negative presses', he didn't have much of a liking for the media.

Except, of course, from some media outlets, such as BBC Sport.

Since Zhang Yang worked as an intern at the BBC, the BBC promoted him as a 'head coach trained by the TV station', and when there was news, it was natural to increase publicity.

So the official BBC website, reports about him, always see good news.

Zhang Yang once saw that the report described him as 'the most influential head coach in 20 years', and then he saw that the writer was Frida, and he was somewhat clear, and the friendship and support can sometimes give people comfort.

Regardless, the BBC is a media outlet to be close to.

This time for the public training, the BBC also came to interview reporters, but it was not Frida, it was Gale who had met once, and a cameraman, Zhang Yang particularly noticed that the BBC, there were many other media outlets, and there were nearly 20 reporters in a cursory sweep.

For a public training session in Millwall, the number of twenty reporters is unimaginable, and in the past only a few reporters could be photographed.

As the saying goes, 'flies don't bite seamless eggs', or 'nothing does not go to the Three Treasures Palace', the meaning is similar, and the arrival of a reporter means that there is news material worth interviewing.

That's certainly about Millwall.

To talk about Millwall, you have to say that as a manager, you have to say that you are flamboyant. At this time he was standing in the stadium and was dividing the players into teams.

After a week of training, the new tactics are almost familiar, and there will be an open training match, which will be divided into two teams.

Zhang Yang divided into two teams.

This time, it was directly divided into the main force and the substitute.

Zhang Yang did not clearly state the 'main team' and 'substitute team', but if you look at the list of players on both sides, you can see that almost all the players who always play are in the same team.

Training matches are all about testing new formations.

It's no big secret, it was revealed in one game, and perhaps more media, fans and opponents are not interested in Millwall's new formation at all.

In the Championship, that's the way it is.

Swapping a striker, a midfielder, there's nothing special to look out for.

Most media reporters are concerned about whether Millwall has a 'dressing room' problem, and there have been many reports about it in the past few days, and they also want to see how a young man in his early twenties trains the team.

What many media wanted to see was that Zhang Yang had no authority in the team, or as Braniff said, 'he doesn't care about anything', but unfortunately, they didn't see it.

There was a lot of laughter on the field at Millwall.

In the public eye, the atmosphere in the team is obviously good, and when Zhang Yang is directing the training, there are no players to refute it, or there are any other problems, indicating that his authority is not bad, at least no players resist his arrangement.

Some fans who are worried about the team have also discussed this—

"Looks like the team is fine, Braniff is lying!"

"Zhang Yang knows every player very well, everyone listens to him, even Jody."

"When I was in charge just now, I could see that Zhang Yang's prestige was not bad, and no one refuted him. If you think about it, this division of the main force and the substitute team is the easiest to offend people, and no one wants to be a substitute. ”

The reporters next to this sentence all nodded.

If there is a problem in Millwall's dressing room, or if there is a lack of prestige in the team, it can be seen by such a team alone, especially the players who are between the main team and the substitutes, they certainly do not want to be assigned to the substitute team.

But the absence of player resistance shows the majesty of the manager.

This is a pity for journalists.

They didn't think of the imaginary picture, and naturally they couldn't talk about the news material they hoped for.

Some media reporters wanted to leave.

In the absence of 'gossip' news, Millwall's public training was nothing to interview, but they soon found a new focus—

David Livermore!

He was actually assigned to the main team!

When someone brought it up, everybody noticed, the fans started talking about it, and the reporters started talking about it.

Livermore?

He's like a Millwall joke!

A genius who was praised a few years ago, a stupid big man who can't play now, how could he be assigned to the main team?

Everybody doesn't understand.

Many onlookers are still discussing, and media reporters are already excited.

Livermore becomes the main player!

It's going to be the funniest topic in English football!

————

'Livermore enters Millwall's main team' has become a topic of conversation in the media about Millwall the day before the 29th round of the Championship.

Of course, the media reporters are not optimistic.

Livermore?

After a few seasons of fame, Livermore is a stupid big man, he is physically strong, but his technique is terrible, and it is amazing to be able to play in the professional league.

The fact that he started Livermore and added him to Millwall's 'main team' seems to mean that he is very optimistic.

What kind of vision is this?

Even Aldous frowned, and couldn't help but ask, "Why let David enter the main team, you know he is not suitable, he has always performed ......"

Aldous shook his head as he spoke.

Frederick simply said, "I don't think David is qualified to be in the main team!" It was a bad decision! ”

Whether it's Aldous or Frederick, it's all for the sake of the team, but Zhang Yang is quite stubborn, he doesn't care at all, just smiles, "I think a team won't have the main force and the substitute, I just want David to try and give him a little more time." Yes, as you understand, I'm bullish on him. ”

'But if he doesn't play satisfactorily, he'll still be a substitute.'

This reassured Frederick and Aldous.

But when arranging the starting lineup for the game, Zhang Yang put David Livermore in it.

Frederick was rather dissatisfied.

Aldous can only put this down to 'willfulness', "He's still young, and after a game, he knows what to do. ”

"No, maybe it's only half time, he'll replace David!"

Frederick affirmed.

————

The confidence of Zhang Yang to make Livermore the first is the calculation results of 'word and spirit divination'.

With the addition of Livermore, the 'squad prospects' have reached 'five-star', and Millwall's 'five-star' strength is enough to beat most Championship teams head-on.

Nottingham Forest is no exception.

In addition, the 'lucky' calculation of this set of lineup is 'lucky', strong and lucky, and Millwall has already won half of the game before it starts.

Zhang Yang did not have any carelessness.

He found time to study Nottingham Forest on the night of the two nights leading up to the game, with videos from past matches showing a wide difference between Nottingham Forest's defence and attack.

They didn't do a good job defensively, but they were strong in attack, but when they couldn't find the back of the net, it seemed like the mentality of the whole team would be affected and the formation would become a bit chaotic.

Whenever Nottingham Forest face a defence-oriented team, such as Ipswich, they will be quite poor.

The best way to play against Nottingham Forest is to hold on defensively, and as long as they can keep the goal, the team will have the advantage of both heart and play.

Before the game, Zhang Yang talked to the players about this.

He repeatedly stressed the defense.

"As long as we can hold on, we've already won half of it, and the other half depends on whether we can score or not, and there is some element of luck!"

January 15th.

The Millwall squad took the bus to Nottinghamshire and entered the Town Square Stadium.

Zhang Yang went to the press conference.

He's the focus.

When Zhang Yang walked into the venue, he was locked by various interview equipment, and under the light of the flash, he walked to the stage with a smile and sat down, and also greeted Nottingham Forest coach Hardt.

The interview officially began.

Hart had arrived a little earlier than Zhang Yang, and he had already answered a few questions.

Now it's Zhang Yang's turn.

Media reporters would prefer to interview Zhang Yang, especially if they want him to talk about Braniff, or talk about Livermore, they 'like' to hear Zhang Yang praise Livermore, which will be a clear proof that "this young Chinese has no vision".

On the front point, Zhang Yang doesn't want to satisfy the media.

"Braniff? No, he was late in a row and I gave him a penalty and it's that simple, please pay attention to the questions and the game-related questions, Braniff is not in the squad. ”

In the latter point, Zhang Yang met the needs of reporters, "David? I think he has a lot of potential. Yes, he's 24 years old, but so what? He just didn't find the right direction. ”

"I gave him the right direction and I'm sure he's going to surprise him!"

So the media had something to say before the game—

"Zhang Yang is optimistic about Livermore? That's really interesting, a 'professional player' whose skills are so rough that he is not as good as an amateur player can actually be expected to come one day. ”

"Millwall will lose the game because of it!"

"This young Chinese is very stubborn, which may be a common problem of the head coaches, maybe it is a merit in the eyes of his peers, but the judgment of Livermore is obviously wrong."

Zhang Yang is almost familiar with the routines of media reports.

Journalists first find a topic that the audience is interested in, and then look for evidence to prove their point and attract more viewers.

That's the routine.

If you stand in the perspective of an outsider, of course, it is not a big deal, but it is very unpleasant to use it on yourself.

Zhang Yang didn't want to give reporters a chance to ask questions, so he answered a few questions and left directly.

Then he updated a Weibo message—

"I think Livermore has a lot of potential, but other people probably don't see it that way.

There is a lot of talk about it in the media.

I don't think it should be published, because it's 'ridicule', 'sarcasm', it can be a psychological blow to a player, it will affect his performance, but I always believe that Livermore can succeed! ”

The Weibo message was quickly reposted by media platforms.

Most of the comments were not optimistic, but there were many Millwall fans who expressed their support for Livermore.

Before the game started, Zhang Yang took the Weibo message on the tablet to David Livermore, "David, look at what these people said, I believe that when you get to the game, you know what to do!" ”

That's the biggest motivator!

In the face of many remarks that were not optimistic about himself, Livermore's face turned red, and the sentence on Weibo "I believe Livermore can succeed" also made him very grateful to Zhang Yang.

Livermore nodded fiercely!

This guy from Limuna on weekdays has become a little fierce in his eyes.