Chapter 1 The Final Battle with Manchester City

Having returned from Germany to England, Liverpool had to prepare for the final battle with Manchester City without a moment's rest.

If they could beat Manchester City on their home turf, they could win the title four rounds early, freeing up ten days to prepare for the Champions League semi-finals.

Therefore, Martin O'Neill attached great importance to this game against Manchester City.

He didn't let his guard down just because the current Manchester City was not as good as before.

His consistent caution, although making him seem less domineering, was due to the fact that dominance was built up with championships, not arrogance.

Liverpool's reserve team had faced Manchester City in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup.

Manchester City had basically no power to fight back that time.

However, that game could not be used as a reference.

Because that was a game that Manchester City had intended to give up from the beginning. They sent out their entire reserve team lineup. If Liverpool thought this was Manchester City's true strength, then there must be something wrong with their brains.

Martin O'Neill knew very well what Boas's goal was. With no hope of winning the championship, Boas now hoped that the team could reach the top four and qualify for the Champions League—he now looked down on the Europa League. Having adjusted the strategy and cleaned up the locker room, Manchester City's combat effectiveness was indeed much stronger than before, and their performance had also improved—this was also the reason why the Manchester City club executives chose to stand on the side of coach Boas. After all, the results were solid and visible to everyone.

They were now only one point away from Newcastle in fifth place in the league. And Newcastle in fifth place were only two points behind Arsenal in fourth place.

That is to say, if Manchester City could beat Liverpool, and Newcastle lost, Manchester City could jump to fifth place. They could then compete for fourth place in the league. At that time, there were still four rounds left in the league, and anything was possible.

This was also why Boas gave up the FA Cup.

Both he and Manchester City looked down on the Europa League. The Manchester City club believed that only the Champions League was in line with Manchester City's status.

Therefore, Manchester City would definitely not give up this league game.

Moreover, this was at their home stadium, and they had even more confidence.

In this game, Boas was determined to win. He had to let Liverpool end their undefeated season here.

With such a strong desire to win from the opponent, Martin O'Neill had to be more careful.

What he was most worried about now was that the Liverpool players would be arrogant and underestimate the enemy.

After all, the team was currently in high spirits and in good form, and there were almost no external factors that could affect them.

Then the only thing that could threaten the team was themselves.

Winning for a long time, not losing a single game so far this season, whether it was the league, the Champions League, or domestic games, was a glorious record that Martin O'Neill had never encountered in his coaching career.

But that didn't mean he had no experience in dealing with it at all.

Because he was a player who came out of Nottingham Forest.

Who was the holder of the longest consecutive unbeaten record in the English top league before Arsenal?

It was Nottingham Forest.

From November 26, 1977, to November 25, 1978, in one year, Nottingham Forest created a record of forty-two consecutive league games without defeat, which shocked England at the time. This record was not broken by Wenger's Arsenal with forty-nine games until twenty-six years later.

At that time, Martin O'Neill was the team's main player, and he personally experienced all forty-two unbeaten games.

Although he had not participated in such a grand event as a coach, he knew what a coach should do in this situation, because he knew what his mentor Brian Clough did.

He just had to do as he did.

The most important thing was not to be arrogant and underestimate the enemy. Arrogance could make a team that was always full of fighting power ignore many things, and these things might become fatal to them in the game.

When Nottingham Forest created a record of forty-two unbeaten rounds, "take every opponent seriously" was the most emphasized requirement by Brian Clough. Although the current Nottingham Forest had just been promoted back to the Premier League, the Forest team at that time was a veritable strong team. They were not even afraid of Liverpool, the double champion of England and Europe at the time, let alone other teams. It was good enough not to underestimate the enemy... So not being arrogant and underestimating the enemy was the most important thing.

In addition, Brian Clough constantly instilled the belief of victory in the players.

You should know that many unexpected problems may be encountered in each game. On the road to pursuing consecutive victories, the second most important thing is to always have a heart of victory no matter what problems you encounter. Only in this way can you break through many extreme environments and ultimately achieve victory.

Every game is actually a final for those who want to break through their limits. Therefore, every game must be taken seriously and treated with the mindset of playing in a final.

Clough's teachings benefited Martin O'Neill a lot at the beginning, and they can still play a vital role now.

This was a valuable experience he had before he became a coach.

Now he passed these experiences on to his disciples, and he hoped that his disciples could also benefit from it, and recall it like recalling Clough many years later.

"...Manchester City is actually very strong, which can be seen from their player configuration. So I don't allow you to have the slightest bit of slackness. Even if you have defeated them once, twice, five times, ten times, or even hundreds of times! It has nothing to do with this game! I tell you, lads, any single game is illogical. Don't try to analyze any reasonable results from past games. What you have to do is very simple. Take the most serious attitude, play to your highest level, and then beat them on the road like you do in other games!"

Perhaps every Liverpool player's ears had heard these words so many times that they were calloused, but Martin O'Neill was still tirelessly instilling them into his players.

He didn't even expect every player to take his words to heart, as long as they could form a kind of physical instinct. In intense football matches, the body's instincts are often faster than the brain's reaction speed.

As long as their bodies remembered his words, that was enough.

※※※

Under Martin O'Neill's insistence, Liverpool's preparations for the game against Manchester City were carried out in a very serious and cautious atmosphere.

Martin O'Neill even organized a closed training session to avoid too much contact between the outside world and the team.

At the same time, it also made some complacent players calm down.

The league title was just around the corner, and inevitably some people would have a feeling that "the end is in sight, I can take a breath."

Once this awareness appears, they will relax—without exception, this is human nature. Many people have this experience. When a task is about to be completed, if there is a lack of effective supervision methods, they will have the idea of "there is only a little bit of progress left, we will complete it casually, let us rest and relax first." Then the work that could have been completed in one day will eventually be delayed for a month...

In intense games, this kind of slackness is even more fatal, because in the game, when their relaxed spirit wants to tense up again, it is too late. Such examples are common in football.

Liverpool's cautious, even excessive, attitude surprised the outside world.

This season, Liverpool had swept across Europe. Although the season had not yet ended, everyone knew that Liverpool was invincible.

Such a team was facing Manchester City again. Ever since Chen Hero joined Liverpool, Manchester City had been extremely unlucky, and had been transformed from a thriving, rapidly developing emerging force into a miserable mid-range team struggling for a Champions League qualification.

It can be said that Liverpool had an absolute psychological advantage when facing Manchester City.

In the eyes of outsiders, Manchester City had long been beaten by Liverpool and had no courage.

They were afraid that they would have to walk around when they saw Liverpool.

Just like Boas giving up the FA Cup, this was a typical manifestation of walking around. They believed that Boas gave up the FA Cup not only because the FA Cup would cause the team to fight on two fronts and consume energy. Another very important reason was that Boas knew that even if his first team met Liverpool's reserve team, as long as Chen Hero was still there, it would cost a high price to win the game.

It was so difficult to meet a reserve team plus a Chen Hero, so what if they met a Liverpool first team?

There was no chance of winning at all!

The media analyzed that in this game, Manchester City would be considered victorious as long as they could draw. Even if they could draw, the probability was actually very low...

The media couldn't figure out why Liverpool were preparing so carefully.

Closed training camp, Liverpool had not done such a thing a few times before...

Moreover, even if something unexpected happened in this game and they could not win the title four rounds early, with Liverpool's huge advantage, winning the title was only a matter of time.

Could it be that Liverpool could lose all five league games and let Manchester United surpass them?

They could not understand Martin O'Neill's caution.

This incomprehension was transformed into ridicule of Martin O'Neill in the media.

The Sun even published a cartoon ridiculing Martin O'Neill's caution. In the cartoon, there was a pile of shit in front of O'Neill, and O'Neill was holding a magnifying glass in one hand and reaching his mouth with the other. Then he said: "Well, that's right, confirmed, this is indeed shit!"

Such ridicule was really vicious.

Martin O'Neill turned a deaf ear.

These false names had long lost their influence on him. What did it matter if he was scolded as a turtle? As long as he could win the championship, he would see who laughed last!