The Greatest Manager of All time

The moment Lynn heard the referee's whistle and saw the direction he was pointing, he instantly exploded, throwing out an arm as he roared, "He already took the shot! How the hell is that still a penalty?"

Inside the Britannia Stadium, the Sky City fans were thrilled, applauding the referee's decision, while the Swansea supporters expressed their anger with furious boos.

"The referee has awarded Stoke City a penalty! Greenacre was brought down by Brunel as he took the shot, but Brunel didn't actually interfere with Greenacre completing the attempt. The twenty-three-year-old Irish forward put the ball wide, and now the referee has given Stoke another chance, allowing them an opportunity to take the lead. Oh, this is bad. Brunel doesn't look like he can continue. Greenacre seems fine after getting up, but Brunel is clutching his ankle and slapping the turf in pain!

"Let's watch the replay. Brunel slides in, Greenacre shoots, then after Greenacre completes the shot, Brunel's leg catches him and he goes down, landing on top of Brunel. Half his body presses down on one of Brunel's legs!

"Brunel is injured. He's clearly in real pain!"

Lynn's face darkened.

After the team doctor entered the pitch, it did not take long before he signaled to Lynn that a substitution was needed.

Brunel could not continue.

Lynn turned his head and looked at the bench. Although Albutches, a center-back, was among the substitutes, Lynn did not feel reassured about throwing him onto a stage like this today.

He walked to the bench and called Balitsch up, telling him to warm up.

Brunel was carried off the pitch on a stretcher. Swansea's players watched the entire process with solemn expressions.

At that moment, the referee signaled that Stoke City could take the penalty.

The Dutchman Peter Hoekstra walked calmly into the penalty area and stood in front of the spot. He placed the ball down again, took three steps back, and after the referee blew the whistle, he began his run-up before unleashing a powerful strike!

The ball flew straight into the top right corner!

The Britannia Stadium erupted with deafening cheers.

The Sky City fans waved their arms, excited like a swarm of demons dancing wildly.

Hoekstra ran toward the touchline with an excited smile. After throwing a fist upward, he was embraced by his teammates.

"Stoke City break the deadlock at home through a penalty! Peter Hoekstra converts it cleanly. That strike was crisp and decisive, and Owen Glendor had no reaction at all."

Lynn clapped toward the pitch, signaling for the players not to lose heart!

Hanno Balitsch came on as the substitute. After entering the pitch, he did not play center-back. Instead, he took the right-back position, while Danny Gabbidon moved inside to center-back, forming the central defensive partnership with Friedrich.

Steve Cotterill looked pleased. Swansea had not only conceded, but their starting center-back had also gone off injured. This was practically the best possible situation!

After restarting play, Swansea quickly organized an attack.

In the 30th minute, Balitsch pushed forward from the right. This time, even though full-back Marcus Hall had James Cook tightly marked, Balitsch, who had sprinted all the way up the outside, received Cromwell's concealed pass from the middle.

Near the side of Stoke's penalty area, Balitsch sent in a cross. Charisteas fought Clint Hill and managed to win the chance.

But his header was absurdly wide.

Three minutes later, Swansea won the ball in the back line. Pedretti cleanly dispossessed John Eustace, and after the interception, he distributed the ball to the left.

Tobias Rau ran forward to receive it, then sent out a direct pass.

Villa pulled left in the front line, successfully received the pass, and cut inside with the ball.

After becoming the team's third captain in the new season, Villa's performances on the pitch had grown more complete. He often dropped to the outside to receive the ball, using his footwork to tear open the opponent's defense and create chances for his teammates.

This time was no exception.

As he cut inside, he was intercepted by Clive Clarke and Wayne Thomas.

Facing the two of them, Villa decisively knocked the ball back. Cromwell, arriving from behind, met the ball and immediately sent a through pass forward.

After releasing the ball, Villa had already made his run. Cromwell's pass arrived exactly as expected, rolling in from behind him.

He had beaten the offside trap!

Paul Williams did his best to block Villa's shooting angle, but Villa, after shaping his leg as if to shoot, dragged the ball back instead and then squared it across.

Charisteas was a little slow to understand Villa's intention. By the time he rushed toward the ball, Clint Hill was a step faster, sliding in to sweep it out of the penalty area!

The Sky City fans in the stands let out a relieved sigh.

Phew!

A narrow escape!

Swansea's ground attacks could still create threats that made their hearts pound.

Even Steve Cotterill was worried for his team on the touchline. He had not expected Swansea's players to possess such an absolute technical advantage at their feet!

This was the result of Lynn's insistence on building a technical team for more than a year.

He focused on developing the players' ball skills.

Especially for talented players, the period before twenty-one was critical for improving technical ability. From twenty-one to twenty-four, strengthening the body became the main focus. After that, it was about maintaining.

Stoke City's wing attacks gradually became more effective. They seemed to have discovered the code to breaking open Swansea's defense.

Pedretti was the interception machine in front of the back line. First, they needed to pin him down. Then the wide midfielder cutting inside would become an excellent decoy, followed by a quick switch of attack.

In other words, they would either feint on the left and truly attack on the right, or do the reverse.

In the 37th minute, it was the Dutchman Peter Hoekstra again. On the left flank, he used agile footwork to escape James Cook's pressing, shaking him off on the spot before pushing the attack forward.

At first glance, it looked like a very conventional wide attacking route.

But he suddenly cut inside, driving diagonally toward Swansea's penalty area.

Pedretti and Cromwell both shifted toward his side.

Hoekstra picked the right moment and passed the ball across between the two of them.

Darel Russell, who had also moved toward the corner of the penalty area, had only just touched the ball when Tobias Rau and Grosso trapped him from front and back, but that left the flank open.

Darel Russell played a diagonal pass behind Tobias Rau.

Unexpectedly, right-back Wayne Thomas had quietly charged forward. Completely unmarked near the byline, he sent in a cross.

A high-quality delivery was lifted toward the far post. Glendor immediately moved toward the back post. Danny Gabbidon had originally been marking Greenacre there, but at the beginning of this attack, Greenacre and his strike partner Asaba had made a crossing movement.

Greenacre attacked the near post, while Asaba went toward the far post.

Their crossing runs disrupted Gabbidon and made Friedrich hesitate for a moment when switching his marking target.

As the ball dropped toward the far post, Gabbidon was not properly prepared to challenge for it.

He jumped hastily while retreating, but before he could reach the highest point of his leap, the ball had already dropped behind him!

Behind him, Asaba headed the ball into the near corner of Swansea's goal!

Sky City's high-ball style had been displayed perfectly in this match, and it had produced excellent results!

After scoring, Asaba opened his arms and roared wildly as he rushed toward the corner flag. Then he suddenly made a strange movement, like a silly little duck waddling and shaking its head.

The Sky City fans in the nearby stands burst into laughter.

Everyone knew Asaba was mocking Swansea as a bunch of stupid swans!

"Asaba scores with a header! Carl Asaba adds another for Stoke City!

"Swansea have also created plenty of chances, but they failed to take them. Stoke City, meanwhile, have persisted with the wing-crossing tactics they are good at, and the effect has been excellent!

"For this goal, Danny Gabbidon's missed header in the box was crucial. If he had been able to clear it with his head, Asaba would not have had the chance to score.

"Of course, we must also praise Stoke City's performance in creating the crossing opportunity. Hoekstra, Russell, and Thomas completed a very beautiful team move.

"2–0!

"Swansea need to think of a solution!"

The moment Lynn saw Asaba head the ball into the net, he could not help murmuring, "Are they using cheats?"

Stoke City's attack had been genuinely brilliant. Lynn had to admire it!

And he also had to admit that it was no wonder Stoke City would reach the Premier League in a few years and remain in the top flight for a long time. This second-oldest club in the world still had its own pursuit.

Their tactical commitment was firm, and their methods of creating crossing opportunities were not one-dimensional.

Swansea's midfield defense had a problem!

And this problem was a genuine weakness!

On the pitch, Swansea's players were filled with resentment.

Through a long run of victories, Swansea's players had also developed a special kind of temperament.

They believed, and had decided for themselves, that they were better than their opponents.

Especially when facing the almost identical long-ball tactics and simple, brutal physical battles of English football, Swansea were a team with a completely different style. When the players watched highlight compilations of their own matches, they felt proud.

They were often able to produce wonderful team combinations on the pitch, and that alone had cultivated a different kind of arrogance in them.

Because of that temperament, the players found it even harder to accept losing to an opponent like Stoke City.

Their tactics could be seen from beginning to end at a glance, just like their path. Swansea, meanwhile, felt full of endless variation. Their future seemed limitless, because when attacking, even they themselves did not know what the next brilliant goal would look like.

But now, they were behind.

Reality was sometimes this cruel. There was also a truth on the football pitch:

The stronger team does not always win.

The winner is the stronger team.

It was that simple.

Lynn often drilled this concept into them during training.

On the pitch, Cromwell shouted at his teammates, "Wake up! We need to pull the score back! Move more actively, and when you get chances, stay focused and take them!"

His teammates nodded to one another. Their expressions were grave, but their fighting spirit was burning even higher!

In adversity, the young captain was more serious and committed than ever.

He could inspire his teammates.

But that was not enough.

Because, after all, they were inside an eleven-versus-eleven match. They could see local situations, but it was difficult for them to see the overall shape of the game.

That was why a team needed a manager!

A manager who could analyze and judge from a broader perspective, then make the right changes.

The players did not realize exactly how they had conceded the second goal. To them, it looked like Gabbidon's missed header had caused it.

A coincidence.

No!

In Lynn's eyes, it was not a coincidence.

If Swansea did not make changes, then this match might see them bombarded by Sky City's aerial assault until they were covered in wounds!

The key lay in Stoke City's method of creating chances.

They really were different from other teams that played long-ball football, especially in how they had caught the weak link in Swansea's midfield setup.

Although Cromwell worked hard defensively, he also had to take care of attacking. As the team's organizing core, it was very difficult for Cromwell to be on the front line when attacking and then immediately return to his defensive zone to form effective defensive coverage.

No matter how fast Pedretti was alone, he could not cover the entire horizontal width of the pitch.

When Stoke City's wide midfielder moved inside and created danger, once Pedretti was pinned down, the other half of the defensive area on the opposite side showed a huge gap!

That was exactly how Stoke City's second goal had been created.

Lynn thought to himself, 'Looks like Steve Cotterill really isn't just a brainless idiot.'

Fleet Street had listed Stoke City as one of the promotion favorites, and that judgment clearly had professional reasoning behind it.

Lynn turned and swept his gaze over the bench. Because of Brunel's injury, he had already used one substitution.

That meant he had fewer tools available now—or rather, the risk had increased.

If he still had all three substitutions in hand, he would definitely use two of them now.

But at this moment, he had to keep at least one substitution in reserve as insurance for the second half.

He walked over to Robert Badenberg and said, "Go warm up!"

Robert Badenberg was surprised that Lynn had called him to warm up at this moment, but he did not hesitate at all. He immediately got up and went to the side of the pitch to begin warming up.

There was not much time left in the first half, but Lynn still sent Robert Badenberg to warm up.

He walked back to the touchline and gestured to the team before play restarted.

When Cromwell saw Lynn's signal, confusion filled his face, but he did not protest or show dissatisfaction.

Lynn was telling the team to drop back and defend!

In the Britannia Stadium stands, the Sky City fans were wild with joy. Their team was two goals ahead!

The Swans fans, however, were a little lost.

What was going on?

The first half had not even ended, and they were already two goals behind?

Steve Cotterill stood tall and proud, his posture filled with a somewhat overbearing confidence.

He saw Swansea slow down their tempo and voluntarily shrink back into defense. He glanced at Lynn, his eyes full of amusement and satisfaction.

The young Swans boss?

Had he been beaten stupid?

The match was not even halfway through, and he was already backing down?