Chapter 111: The Return Pass, Reverse Cut, and One-Two
Inside Brighton's Community Stadium, the top-of-the-table clash in the Third Division was finally broken open in the 38th minute!
In a match that had left both sets of fans barely able to breathe, Swansea struck first!
"Oliver Cromwell! Swansea's young captain, Oliver Cromwell, meets James Cook's pass inside the penalty area and smashes a volley into Brighton's goal!
"Goalkeeper Roberts had no reaction! None at all!
"That shot was simply too fast. Cromwell made a late run into the penalty area, and under the cover provided by Ibrahimović and Villa, he revealed Swansea's sharpened blade!
"One strike, one kill!
"Swansea lead 1–0 away from home. Does this mean the countdown to Swansea's league title has begun?
"Cromwell's eighteenth birthday is still two days away, so let us wish him an early happy birthday here. It is hard to imagine that a seventeen-year-old player has made such enormous contributions to Swansea this season, and as their captain no less!
"Oliver Cromwell's performances have already attracted the attention of the Wales national team. Wales manager Mark Hughes said in an interview that he is paying close attention to Swansea, and believes the Welsh players at the club may very well inject fresh blood into the national team. However, he does not want to put too much pressure on the players yet, and still needs to observe them further.
"I would like to tell Mark Hughes this: you should come and watch this match. Oliver Cromwell's performance is worthy of a place in the Wales national team, even if only to let him experience the atmosphere of international football."
After scoring, Cromwell showed a rare domineering side. He let out a wild roar, sprinted toward the away stand, and dropped into a knee slide in front of the Swansea fans. He kept slapping the crest over the left side of his chest, then repeatedly pointed at the grass beneath him, as if declaring:
Swansea would climb to the top of the league right here!
The fired-up Swans fans surged toward the edge of the stand. Some even looked as if they wanted to rush onto the pitch and embrace Cromwell. Several security guards stood in front of the stand to prevent any pitch invasion.
After seeing the goal, Lynn leapt up excitedly on the touchline. Then he took two steps forward into the technical area and repeatedly punched straight downward with both fists!
At last, the deadlock was broken!
James Cook, the hidden attacking point, had failed to finish his chance earlier.
No problem!
Lynn's setup still had Cromwell!
Brighton's reaction had already been quick enough. After James Cook created danger, they immediately adjusted their defensive line.
But once the line stretched wider, Swansea's attacking switches could make that defense sway left and right, creating openings. With the forwards providing cover, Cromwell's late run became even more concealed and unexpected!
How could Lynn not be excited?
This meant his team was progressing. They were not simply relying on individual ability to crush opponents, although crushing Brighton through sheer individual quality would not have been easy anyway.
Adams was extremely frustrated on the touchline. He thought he had seen through Lynn's setup and understood Swansea's tactical core, but in reality, he had only been looking at flowers through fog, glimpsing a leopard through a tube.
Swansea's attack this time, this attack, had truly been brilliant!
Adams was startled by his own thought.
Although he had already put away the contempt he had shown toward Lynn at the start of the season, he had still believed Swansea had built their success by catching others unprepared. If every Third Division team had treated Swansea as the top promotion favorite from the beginning, then Swansea could not possibly have achieved such dazzling results!
Perhaps that was indeed partly true.
But only now did Adams realize that Swansea had grown rapidly over the course of the season, reaching a level where their hard strength truly deserved to be called the dominant force in the Third Division!
In the contest between Brighton and Swansea, Brighton could be said to be overperforming today, yet they still had not managed to break down Swansea's goal. Instead, Swansea had calmly responded, solved one problem after another, struck back later, and repeatedly threatened them.
In the end, Cromwell's single strike shattered Brighton's goal and pushed Swansea another step closer to the league title!
Adams turned to look at Lynn. He realized he not only could not underestimate Lynn, but had to view him as an extremely dangerous opponent.
Brighton's players were a little stunned. The defenders knew better than anyone how difficult it had been to deal with Swansea's endless waves of attack.
But in the end, they still had not held on!
And they blamed themselves for it.
They had thought that as long as they marked Ibrahimović and Villa tightly, prevented the two forwards from getting clear shooting chances in the box, increased their vigilance against James Cook, and stopped Grosso from stirring up trouble again, they would be safe.
But just when they thought they could breathe, Swansea's young captain Cromwell struck them over the head and woke them up with a bloody dose of reality!
After the match restarted, Brighton quickly pulled themselves together. They were not Barnet. Conceding a goal would not instantly knock their confidence into the abyss.
Although their average age was younger than Barnet's, they were actually much clearer-headed and more rational on the road to victory. Their attack came roaring back!
Brighton showed the posture of a team growing braver after every setback!
Lynn nodded secretly on the touchline. Brighton were qualified for promotion for a reason. They really were different from the other Third Division teams.
Adams truly was not an arrogant manager with no substance. The team he had built had real fighting strength.
In the Community Stadium stands, the Swans fans continued to cheer joyfully, while the Seagulls fans did not sink into despair either. Instead, they immediately erupted with even louder support.
Just after the 40th minute, Brighton patiently built a fairly threatening attack in the final third.
Harding and Hinshelwood combined continuously down the left before reaching the byline. Harding played a short pass into the penalty area, where forward Hart controlled the ball with his back to goal. Brighton did not rush to shoot. Instead, they patiently tried to create a better attacking opportunity.
This wave of attack had depth.
They dragged Swansea's defensive line deep into the penalty area. Hart, from within the narrow gap, laid the ball diagonally back outside the box.
Seeing Carpenter arrive to meet the ball, seemingly about to unleash a long-range shot, Cromwell and Pedretti both stepped forward to block him. But Carpenter's choice shocked them.
Carpenter actually let the ball run past him, causing both of their blocks to miss. Behind Carpenter, Hammond arrived from the second line, nudged the ball diagonally with his first touch to create space, and then fired from distance!
The ball flew straight toward the bottom-right corner. Glendower threw himself across, and for a moment it already looked too late. Even Glendower thought this one was finished, only to watch the ball skim the outside of the post and race out over the byline.
Hammond's outside-of-the-foot shot had produced an outward curve, but during its flight, the ball eventually drifted away from the dead-center target of the corner!
"Phew! What a pity! Hammond's long-range shot misses by inches! He nearly helped Brighton equalize. That Brighton attack was very patient, but unfortunately, the final strike lacked just a little luck!"
Hammond's shot left the Swansea players with lingering fear. They truly had not expected their opponent to show such distinctive quality in attack.
There was a saying on the football pitch: a player who does not know how to pass backward does not really know how to play football.
And a player who can pass backward at exactly the right moment is a good player.
Clearly, the Third Division lacked players like that, but it did not mean there were none.
Brighton's attack just now had displayed surprising quality. Not only did they avoid rushing a shot inside the box, they also used a sensible return pass to create a chance for a teammate. That was a reflection of technical and tactical ability, something rare in the Third Division.
At least in the Third Division, the popular style was simple and rough long balls: forward, forward, forward. If it worked, it worked. If not, drop back and defend.
A faint smile appeared on Lynn's face on the touchline. Today's match really was making him excited.
Perhaps this was the most competitively enjoyable match he had experienced since becoming a manager.
Of course, Brighton were not Liverpool or Chelsea. Swansea had been thoroughly beaten by the Reds and the Blues, and one-sided matches like that had no joy in them. That was simply being abused.
But a match like this was different. Swansea were leading, but no one could say whether they might be equalized against in the next moment.
The subtle psychological shifts, the nerves being pulled by the flow of the match, every aspect of it made Lynn feel his blood boiling. His desire to forcefully knock down the opponent grew stronger and stronger. If he could do it, he believed the satisfaction and pride would leave his whole body feeling comfortable for days!
Before the end of the first half, Swansea failed to complete one wave of attack. Ibrahimović tried to beat Cullip just outside the penalty area, but he did not succeed. After Watson abandoned his flank to block him first, Ibrahimović pushed the ball away to escape, only for Cullip to recover from behind and win it back.
Ibrahimović was somewhat annoyed.
When the first half ended, Swansea and Brighton both returned to their dressing rooms.
Looking at his players, drenched in sweat but still incredibly serious, Lynn knew they were fully committed today. Brighton had definitely brought one hundred percent of their fighting strength against Swansea too!
"Their defending is very good. It's hard for us to find chances in tight spaces."
After taking a drink of water, Cromwell said this to Ibrahimović, who was sitting beside him.
Ibrahimović replied irritably, "I feel like there are people on all sides of me, and their defensive cover has strong layers! Whenever one person fails to stop me, another immediately comes up to press. There's too little space to work with!"
Villa wiped sweat from his head and said seriously, "Zlatan, you've been relaxing lately. The opponents we've faced made you feel like you could get past them easily and break through their defensive lines without much trouble. Brighton are different from the teams we met before. We have to treat them more seriously."
Ibrahimović thought about it and felt that made sense. If someone kept playing against opponents who fell apart easily, they would naturally relax and begin to think every opponent was that fragile.
Lynn walked to the tactical board in the away dressing room and drew out the team's formation.
"Our defending in the first half was fairly successful. Although we couldn't completely shut down Brighton's attacks, we still maintained a good situation where the opponent had no clear shooting chances inside the box. Now, I mainly want to talk about our attacking tactics for the second half."
The players immediately closed their mouths, raised their heads, and stared at the tactical board, listening seriously.
The team's massage therapists took advantage of the moment to loosen the players' thigh muscles one by one and reduce fatigue.
Lynn drew the 4-4-2 formation on the tactical board. The two forwards were almost parallel to each other. He erased the circles representing the two forwards and said, "In the second half, our forwards need to maintain this kind of layering in attack."
He drew the two forwards in staggered positions, one ahead of the other.
Then he drew an arrow forward from the circle representing Cromwell.
"Oliver's goal in the first half will make Brighton more alert to him. Once he enters the front line, Brighton will inevitably split their attention. Then, our forwards, on the front line, need to position themselves one in front of the other. Pay attention to the key point of our small-area combinations: we will focus on the return pass, reverse cut, and one-two!"
Return pass, reverse cut, and one-two?
For Swansea's players, this pattern was not unfamiliar. However, in actual matches, this kind of combination was not always the most efficient. Compared with a simple and direct through ball or a cross, the return pass and reverse-cut one-two could become messy if the manager did not emphasize it clearly. Without a specific focus, it might not produce good results.
Lynn began drawing arrows on the tactical board while explaining.
"Suppose Zlatan is the highest player. After receiving the ball, he lays it back. Originally, if he is moving toward the right-front direction, then after releasing the ball, he must run a reverse-cut line to catch the defender off guard. The key point is that the teammate receiving behind him, whether it is David, Oliver, or the wide players Fabio and James, must consciously send the pass into that reverse-cut lane."
Everyone nodded together. Playing this way could indeed throw the opponent's defensive line into chaos.
Because defending depended on anticipation. When the person in front of you is originally running left, but immediately changes direction after passing the ball, it becomes very easy to lose him when you stop and turn. On one hand, the defender has to turn around, and that alone easily creates marking mistakes. Add the gap in speed, and losing the runner becomes even easier.
What did it mean to be fast?
Villa was fast, but was Ibrahimović slow?
No.
Nelson and Bedenburg were also very fast, even top-level fast. But why could they not steal a starting position in the competition?
The reason was simple. Speed was tied to anticipation.
If I predict correctly and start first, then the defender has to turn around. Naturally, I will look very fast.
But if the defender predicts in advance that I am about to start, begins moving before me, and deliberately blocks my running lane, will I still look fast?
No. I will only look slow!
The slowness lies in the start, and the start is connected to anticipation.
The return pass, reverse cut, and one-two combination Lynn was emphasizing now was meant to let Swansea's attack consciously seize the initiative in anticipation during small-area positional combinations. If the opponent fell behind in anticipation first, and then fell behind in speed as well, Swansea could create dazzling quick attacks in the final third!
He continued, "I don't want you to be too rigid. This combination can also be upgraded. For example, Zlatan is in front. He lays the ball back and continues moving to the right, while Oliver keeps running forward. His movement just happens to cross with Zlatan's. That is also a reverse-cut line. Then, a teammate behind them sends the ball into that reverse-cut path. In this way, we can disturb the opponent's defensive line, create gaps, and obtain one-on-one chances!"
The eyes of Swansea's players lit up. They trusted Lynn's tactical arrangement completely, believing it could produce excellent results and destroy the opponent's defensive line.
Lynn clapped his hands to lift morale, and Swansea's players, full of energy, walked out of the dressing room once more, carrying fierce fighting spirit into the second half.
Lynn himself was just as excited, filled with anticipation for the second half!