Chapter 832: Gerrard’s Challenge

Rafael Benítez realized 15 minutes into the game that he was wrong to think of George Wood as the weak spot that Liverpool could capitalize on.

George Wood’s poor performances from previous games had not been carried over to this game.

Gerrard ran into trouble in the midfield. George Wood’s resolute defense made it hard for him to progress any further up the pitch. Left with no other choice, Gerrard passed the ball over to Mascherano.

Mascherano was not having an easy time either, because he still had to deal with Gago’s attacks.

The two were teammates in the Argentina national football team. Mascherano was regarded as a ‘guaranteed’ starting player in the team, whereas Gago was a player who would start in some games and sit on the bench for others, and he has not been able to perform very well.

Contrary to his performances in the national team however, Gago has been performing brilliantly as a Forest player. This could be attributed to a difference in tactics used by the manager of the Argentina national football team and Twain.

In Nottingham Forest, Gago is able to receive overwhelming protection and support from George Wood. However, he does not get to enjoy the same benefits in the Argentina national football team. In the national team, Gago has to focus on defense more. This causes him to not be able to go on the offense, because he was not the kind of player who could attack and defend at the same time. He could only focus on one thing at a time.

Mascherano believes that Gago is at his best when he plays for his club rather than his country, because he is forced to sacrifice some of the things that he is good at in order to play in games for his national team.

However, Gago is only able to perform well on the premise that George Wood is playing well too.

Wood had not been able to perform well during the past few games, and Gago’s performances also became rocky as a result.

It looks like Forest’s No. 13 has come alive in this match?

Liverpool focused on attacking down the middle of the pitch as per Benítez’s pre-match instructions, but their attacks proved to be futile and ineffective.

George Wood ran about tirelessly in the midfield and was also able to make sharp judgements as to where he should run to in order to intercept the ball. He not only made use of his strong physical build to engage in physical battles with the opposing players, he also knew when he needed to commit fouls to stop Liverpool’s offense. It was as though he had regained his form overnight.

Liverpool was hardly able to attack the area that Pepe defended as a result, and Akinfeev had nothing to do in the match so far either.

Benítez realized that he had made an error of judgment. Hence, he walked to the side of the pitch and gestured for the team to change the way they attacked Forest. He wanted them to carry the ball forward down the flanks instead.

Nottingham Forest’s offense started becoming livelier after the shift in strategy by Liverpool led to less pressure on George Wood to defend.

Wood made pass after pass to Gago for him to initiate the attack. This move might look insignificant to some, but it was actually very crucial.

A team’s offense always starts from its defensive midfielders, and this makes them very important assets to the team.

It did not matter how good a striker or winger a team might possess. They are not able to do anything if the defensive midfielders always end up losing the ball when trying to pass it forward. The defensive midfielders’ inability to pass the ball forward would not only cause the team to encounter issues in their offense, it would also lead to frequent counterattacks by the opposing team.

Thus, a defensive midfielder who is able to snatch or intercept a ball is only considered to be decent at best. In contrast, a defensive midfielder who is able to snatch the ball, control it and pass it over to where it should be passed to is world class.

George Wood is a player who is capable of the latter.

As for Gago, his passing accuracy would drop significantly every time he focused on defense. Additionally, he is poor at maintaining possession of the ball as well, and his opponents are often able to snatch the ball from him. It is easy to see why Gago is unable to become a regular starting player in the Argentina national football team…

Gago had to face off with his teammate from the Argentina national team, Mascherano, after he received the pass from Wood. However, Gago was not afraid of battling with Mascherano, because he knew that his teammates would help him to snatch the ball back if he lost possession of it. Hence, he concentrated on trying to make passes that relied on technique and awareness, such as crossing the ball over to the empty space at the flank by using the outside of his foot, or performing a feint to get the ball past Mascherano before making a long pass into the space behind Liverpool’s defense.

If Mascherano tries to snatch the ball from him aggressively, Gago would pass the ball back to Wood and then act as a ‘decoy’ by running forward. Doing so would attract Mascherano over to him and it would provide Wood with the opportunity and space to move forward and attack.

If Mascherano did not follow after him, then Wood would just pass the ball back to Gago.

In a nutshell, both Gago and Wood are capable of attacking and defending, but the former is stronger at attacking, whereas the latter is better at defending.

Simply defending against Gago or Wood would not be enough to stop Forest’s offense. However, it would be too exhausting to defend against both of them at the same time. Thus, the best strategy to stop Forest’s attacks is not to battle with either Gago or Wood in the midfield, but rather to freeze Forest’s strikers or wingers, who are positioned nearer to the goalpost, in their tracks. This is because they are the ones who will put the finishing touch to the team’s attack by shooting at the goal.

Whenever Twain employs a 4-5-1 formation in a match, the players who needed to be marked would be the player positioned at the forefront as well as the attacking midfielders, because they might sometimes be playing as a ‘second striker’. However, ever since Eastwood’s retirement, there has not been another player who is able to play as a ‘second striker’.

Twain’s 4-5-1 formation often becomes a 4-3-3 in the match. Hence, the player who is most likely to score a goal is not the player playing at the forefront. Their attacking and side midfielders were the threats instead, because they would play in a way that a winger would.

The formation that Twain employed in this match was not a 4-5-1, but a 4-4-2 instead. The onus of scoring a goal rested on the shoulders of the forwards.

Benítez gestured for his team to pay attention to Forest’s two forwards. However, it was a difficult task to accomplish for the Liverpool players, because the two forwards that Twain employed in the match were not easy to deal with…

One was the 1.88m tall Ibišević who has been nicknamed ‘Super Ibi’, and the other was the 2.02m tall Aaron Mitchell.

This combination would give any manager in the Premier League a terrible headache…

Ibišević was accurate with his shots and was the more complete player between the two. Mitchell, on the other hand, would easily dominate in the air against any other player, and he also possessed great technique and was also good with headers. His only flaw was that his shooting was still slightly poor.

Sometimes, all Nottingham Forest needed to do to score a goal against their opponents was to bring the ball forward down the flanks and then pass it into the middle.

It was rare for Twain to play both Ibišević and Mitchell in a match, but when he does, the combination almost always brings victory to the team. Clearly, Twain does not intend to let Liverpool jeopardize his important day today.

Liverpool’s center back, Martin Škrtel, who stood at 1.91m tall, was assigned to mark Mitchell.

It was a job that made Škrtel feel immense pressure.

Mitchell was no longer the inexperienced youngster who made his debut during the match against Barcelona. He has grown more mature and reliable ever since, and Twain has also stopped banning him from showing off his techniques during matches as well.

It would be a mistake to think that Mitchell was less threatening when he tries to control the ball at his feet. He might not be good with the ball, but he was still capable of getting past defenders and making passes to his teammates without losing the ball.

Ibišević was positioned close to Mitchell for support. Daniel Agger was the Liverpool player assigned to mark Ibišević.

Mitchell performed a feint and made it seem as though he wanted to pass the ball over to Ibišević, who was heavily marked by the Liverpool defenders. However, his real target was Fernández, who was running down the flank. After passing the ball over, Mitchell started to make his way into Liverpool’s penalty box.

This was how Forest typically carried out its attack. The forward would pass the ball over to the flank before making his way into the penalty box without the ball at his feet. The winger would then pass the ball into the penalty box, and the forward would fight for the ball and try to shoot for goal.

Liverpool was very familiar with Forest’s attack pattern. Agger charged towards Mitchell the moment he made his way into the middle of the pitch. Both he and Škrtel closed in on Mitchell from the front and the back, and they tried to make it difficult for him to jump up and fight for the aerial ball.

Liverpool was going to defend against Forest like they always did in the past, since the latter was also making use of an attack pattern that they always have as well.

Unfortunately, they had forgotten that Forest was not playing a 4-5-1 formation, but rather a 4-4-2 instead…

Mitchell tried his best to fight for the ball despite being surrounded by two burly center backs. He successfully attracted the attention of all the Liverpool defenders. Even the goalkeeper, Pepe Reina, had turned his body towards him.

They had all forgotten that there was another Forest player dressed in yellow behind Mitchell…

Mitchell was not able to reach the ball due to the interference from both Agger and Škrtel. Likewise, both center backs were not able to reach the ball either due to interference from Mitchell.

The ball flew right over their heads…

Ibišević jumped high into the air. He saw the frenzied look on Reina’s face from the corner of his eye.

“Ibišević has headed the ball!”

There was no way he could miss. The goal was right in front of him…

“The ball has gone in!” The commentator roared. “It has only been 21 minutes since the start of the match, but Nottingham Forest has managed to take the lead! 1:0! The away team leads!”

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Tony Twain, who had been sitting at the technical area, jumped off his seat and raised his fists into the air. He then turned and waved his fists at the spectators standing at the stands behind him. It was his way of demonstrating his might before the Liverpool fans at Anfield.

It looks like you are not capable of ruining my banquet later!

His actions were met with deafening boos from the crowd.

Benítez felt like he was truly down on his luck. His team had only committed one error during its defense, and Forest had capitalized on it right away.

It was as expected of Forest. They have always been known to be a highly efficient team.

Despite being a goal down however, Benítez did not make any adjustments to his team’s formation or tactics. He believed that his team would be able to stay strong and make a comeback, because they were a team that had gone through even more difficult situations in the past.

Chris Beesley had only just typed the words, “Nottingham Forest’s attacks do not appear to be threatening. They are playing their usual boring tactic of passing the ball into the middle from the flank…” when he saw Forest score the goal from the press box.

Thereafter, he heard loud cheers coming from the television situated above his head, “GOOAL!”

He raised his head to look at the scenes of Ibišević celebrating the goal wildly with his other Forest teammates on the television screen, before looking down at the very last sentence he had typed in his Word document.

He swore under his breath, then proceeded to delete the words that he had just typed.

The screen subsequently cut to a scene of Twain performing provocative actions before the Liverpool fans.

“Stop being so cocky!”

He pointed his middle finger at the Twain in the screen as he held a cigarette in his mouth.

Not far away from him, the reporters from Nottingham were all cheering for the goal with both hands high in the air.

The match restarted soon after, and the song ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ resonated throughout Anfield. It was as though the Liverpool fans were singing the song to hit back at Twain for doing provocative actions at them earlier.

Their voices increased in decibels gradually. The Liverpool players appeared to have been motivated by the song, as they began trying to attack Forest even more vigorously than before.

The match completely turned in Liverpool’s favour from that point onwards, and Nottingham Forest was being dominated completely.

Many of the Forest players were still immersed in the ecstasy of the goal from earlier. They did not expect the Liverpool players to get back in the game as quickly and as ferociously as they did.

The song was clearly a source of strength for the Liverpool players.

George Wood found the Gerrard before him right now to be much more difficult to deal with. The latter’s actions have become much faster than before, and he seemed to be much more relentless as well.

Perhaps the thought that they are currently losing has set him off?

Gerrard was well-known for his mental toughness in England’s footballing scene. He has a tendency to perform better in times of adversity. As a result, Wood did not dare to let his guard down around him.

“A battle between George Wood and Gerrard!” The commentator became excited.

This was the kind of scene that viewers wanted to watch. Many people are not able to understand the brilliance behind the tactics used in a match, but they would undoubtedly get excited when they see two football stars get into a battle with each other.

Gerrard did not pass the ball away when he met resistance in the form of Wood’s defense this time round. He behaved in a way that suggested that he wanted to try and force his way through. Wood decided to retreat slightly to establish a distance between himself and Gerrard. Doing so would prevent Gerrard from making his way past him.

Gerrard was able to see through Wood’s plan. It was too obvious.

He was indeed intent on trying to force his way past Wood earlier, but he had changed his mind now. He was going to shoot from a distance instead!

George Wood did not expect Gerrard to perform a long shot at goal. He was at a loss and failed to respond to Gerrard’s actions. He watched as the ball flew by before him.

Akinfeev did not think that Wood would allow Gerrard to shoot at the goal that easily. Fortunately, Gerrard’s shot flew straight at him. He clumsily blocked the shot and sent the ball out of bounds.

“Hey, George.” Pepe shouted behind him. He was worried after watching Wood’s performance earlier.

Wood waved his hand at him to signal that he was all right.

He then turned around and tried to locate Gerrard, but he realized that the Liverpool player had already made his way into the penalty box and was preparing to fight for the ball in the air.

Wood quickly ran over to mark him.

However, Gerrard suddenly retreated right before the corner ball was kicked.

Wood had a foreboding sense of danger.

He did not have the time to warn his teammates. He chased after Gerrard straight away.

But, he was still a little too slow…

Both Agger and Škrtel rushed into the penalty box. Their actions made it seem as though they were both trying to join in the attack. However, Liverpool’s corner was not kicked into the penalty box. Instead, it had been kicked to a spot outside of it!

Gerrard waited till the ball was right over his head. He then looked up at it, before adjusting his body towards the goal.

Wood charged past the crowd of players in the penalty box and headed towards Gerrard at full throttle. He was confident in reaching the ball and stopping Liverpool’s attack after Gerrard stopped the ball at his feet.

Don’t even give me a second, Gerrard! You’d be finished the moment you do!

All right. I’d do as you wish.

Gerrard raised his right leg with his eye on the ball.

Everything was in place.

The ball.

His foot.

And him.

“Gerrard has shot at the goal with the ball still in mid-air!”

The ball flew past Wood’s face at breakneck speed. Wood felt his cheeks tingle in pain due to the wind that had been induced as the ball whizzed by.

The shot from Gerrard was just like a cannonball. It smashed its way past Forest’s defense and all the players standing before the goal. The ball was already in the back of the net before Akinfeev could even react…

“A worldie! An absolute worldie! That was utterly fascinating! The captain of the Reds has finally unleashed his prowess! He has won the battle between him and George Wood!”

Gerrard did not run to the side of the pitch to celebrate after scoring the goal. Instead, he stood rooted at the spot, raised his fists and roared.

It might look like he was celebrating his goal, but his eyes were fixated on George Wood the entire time.

Is that a challenge?

Wood clenched his fists.