From the very first round of the new season, Swansea had to face the test of fighting on two fronts.
The first round of the League Cup kicked off on August 12.
Swansea had drawn an opponent from the sa level, Division Three side Macclesfield.
Unfortunately, Swansea would have to play away from ho.
After observing the players' physical condition in the opening league match, Lynn left several first-team regulars behind in Swansea when the team set off for the League Cup fixture.
He needed to rotate the squad.
On one hand, it would give players match practice and allow the youngsters to maintain steady playing ti so they could improve. On the other hand, it was also preparation for the long season ahead.
If Swansea's geographical disadvantage had to be described, it was this: the club was located in the southwestern corner of Wales.
Since they had to play many English clubs, the journeys for away matches were often long.
Macclesfield were based in Cheshire, in northwest England. The journey was not too far — about the sa distance as Lynn's trip to Liverpool.
If the whole squad traveled together by coach along the motorway, it would take around three hours.
But that already counted as close.
If they had to go to London, the team would need to sit on a coach for around five hours.
Taking the train could reduce the journey by two hours, but when factoring in the ti spent getting to and from the stations, the total travel ti would still be around four hours.
Sitting in a vehicle for such a long ti would certainly affect the players. Anyone who frequently traveled by coach would know that it was not comfortable at all.
Sotis, it was practically torture.
But for now, there was nothing they could do. At this stage, they could only adapt to the circumstances.
As for the future, Lynn had asked Mo Yuan to prepare a proposal.
If the club owned a private plane, how much ti could they save when traveling for away matches?
That proposal would not be easy to prepare.
It would need to include the cost of buying the plane, the yearly maintenance and operating costs, and even the issue of contacting airfields all across Britain, checking whether they complied with air traffic regulations, and negotiating with British governnt departnts.
This was only one of Lynn's ideas. It was not so sudden whim that had to be realized imdiately.
Lynn led the team to Macclesfield in Cheshire.
Macclesfield's ho ground was Moss Rose, a small stadium that could hold just over six thousand spectators.
With more than 125 years of history, Macclesfield had little glory to speak of. In the modern era, they did not even seem to have much ambition, having lingered in Division Three for years.
However, their manager John Askey was extrely arrogant. Before Lynn even arrived with his team, Askey had already made bold remarks to the outside world.
He wanted to teach Lynn a lesson!
British arrogance was on full display.
When the Swansea and Macclesfield players walked onto the pitch together, Lynn stood calmly in front of the away dugout, waiting for the match to begin.
John Askey took the initiative and ca over to greet him.
The ho supporters' cheers for their team were deafening.
A small stadium like this could still create quite an impressive atmosphere.
Askey shook Lynn's hand, then said to him, "I really dislike you. I also read the job application letter you once sent to Macclesfield. The baseless confidence in that letter was absolutely laughable. My colleagues and I laughed at it for three whole days."
Lynn's expression did not change as he replied, "Compared to , I think Fleet Street should be reporting you lot as ntal patients instead. I know what you're trying to do. You want to provoke ? Disrupt my thinking? Perhaps you're feeling very pleased with yourself, thinking a rookie like will fall for it. Sorry, but I don't even have any interest in looking at you."
Askey's expression changed slightly in an instant.
Just as he was about to walk away after making himself look foolish, Lynn suddenly asked from behind him, "Oh, by the way, what was your na again? Forget it. A nobody isn't worth rembering."
Askey abruptly turned around, only to see Lynn standing there calmly with his hands in his pockets, as though he had completely ignored him already.
Fire burned in Askey's eyes. He gritted his teeth, then turned and walked back to the ho technical area.
Macclesfield were not especially strong, but Swansea's second-string lineup was more or less on the sa level.
Without proper chemistry, Swansea's actual combat strength was still very limited.
The match unfolded in a state of chaos and disorder. The shooting quality from both teams was poor.
By half-ti, the two teams had combined for nine shots.
Shots on target: zero!
Charisteas, who had co on as a substitute in the previous match, started today, but his performance was not particularly outstanding.
Perhaps he perford better when coming off the bench.
The second half was the sa: plenty of noise, but little real danger. Both sides fought fiercely for possession.
Lynn's midfield trio of Poulsen, Kahlenberg, and Nilsson could battle and press, but their creativity was poor.
Starting forwards Charisteas and Robert Bettenburg received almost no support.
Evra, who started on the flank, stood out with an eye-catching performance, but one man alone could not dominate a match.
Just when everyone thought the ga would end in a draw after ninety minutes, Lynn used all three substitutions in the 80th minute.
Jas Cook, Villa, and Ibrahimović ca on together.
Once again, he ford a front three of Villa, Ibrahimović, and Charisteas.
Macclesfield failed to react in ti, and the pressure on them suddenly increased.
Jas Cook and Evra attacked from both flanks, constantly supplying ammunition to the front line and throwing the Macclesfield penalty area into chaos.
In the 89th minute, Evra reached the byline and sent in a cross.
Villa's near-post header was blocked, but the Macclesfield defender failed to clear it properly.
The ball dropped to Nilsson, who had been waiting outside the box.
Nilsson mishit his shot.
But that miskick turned into an assist.
Inside the penalty area, Ibrahimović t the diagonally rolling ball and stabbed it first ti toward goal, guiding it into the bottom-left corner!
The whole stadium was stunned!
Swansea had produced another last-minute winner!
Ibrahimović had co off the bench and imdiately made the decisive contribution.
On the pitch, he perford an arrogant, utterly domineering celebration.
He raised his arms slightly and swept a contemptuous gaze around him, as though he were the god of the pitch.
On the touchline, Lynn pumped his fist hard.
Then he glanced at Askey, who was not far away and was now furious with frustration, before withdrawing his gaze and paying him no more attention.
Just as Lynn had said himself, Askey was only a nobody. There was no need to take him seriously.
There was no reason to treat soone like that as a rival.
Swansea defeated Macclesfield 1-0 and successfully advanced to the second round of the League Cup!
When the team returned victorious to Swansea, the Swans supporters finally began to feel sowhat reassured.
Swansea had opened the new season with two consecutive wins!
...
After returning to the club, Lynn exchanged for another Super Sub card and used it on Villa.
Even so, Lynn still did not feel optimistic about the upcoming schedule, because the physical drain on the young players was far greater than expected.
They could not continue enduring high-intensity matches with short intervals between gas.
After two days of rest and adjustnt back in Swansea, Lynn had to lead the team to London for the second round of the Division Three campaign.
Between taking the train and the underground, Lynn chose the train.
Even if the journey, transfers, and all the accompanying hassle were sowhat troubleso, at least the players could move around a little.
If they sat on a coach for five hours without moving, their bodies would probably be horribly stiff before the match even began.
Arriving in the relatively chaotic east side of London, Swansea's second league match against Leyton Orient was calm before kick-off.
Leyton Orient manager Andy Hessenthaler made no comnt on Lynn.
So of Fleet Street's smaller tabloids had actually hoped Swansea's opponents would mock and attack Lynn as much as possible, so they could stir up a topic.
That way, regardless of whether Swansea won or lost, there would be sothing to report afterward.
Only seven days had passed since Swansea's previous league match, and they had played a League Cup tie in between.
Now the first team had to play away from ho again.
At Brisbane Road, the drop in performance caused by their inability to keep up physically was obvious.
Leyton Orient, anwhile, had co prepared.
Their manager Andy Hessenthaler kept a low profile and showed no sharp edge before the match.
At ho, Leyton Orient played cautiously.
Swansea's overall teamwork failed to produce the desired effect.
Instead, they were left dizzy and disoriented by Leyton Orient's sudden wave of attacks in the second half.
By the 70th minute, Swansea were two goals down.
Lynn once again threw out his desperate approach.
He removed a defender, added two midfielders and another forward.
But this ti, the combination of Charisteas, Villa, and Ibrahimović could not find any advantage in front of Leyton Orient's iron wall.
Instead, Swansea were caught by another late counterattack before full-ti.
Swansea suffered a complete 3-0 away defeat!
After the match, Andy Hessenthaler walked up to Lynn and shook his hand, saying calmly, "Your team played well."
Lynn wanted to say sothing, but stopped himself.
In the end, he simply shook the other man's hand, then turned and left.
Fortunately, this was only Division Three.
Reporters from Swansea would not travel such a long distance just to wait for an interview with Lynn.
After the match, he rely dealt casually with a few unfamiliar Fleet Street reporters before leaving.
On the return train, Lynn gave a brief speech to the players.
"It's only one defeat. There's no need to take it to heart. By tomorrow morning, I'll have forgotten all about it. We'll get better and better. Lift your heads. I'd rather hear you lot talking about dinner or which pretty girl you saw."
The players' moods improved considerably.
Everyone passed the ti on the journey in their own way — listening to music, reading, chatting, or playing handheld gas.
Lynn sat alone in the last row of the carriage, thinking about the team's future tactical direction.
Swansea's current tactics were not exactly ideal.
They were rely conventional.
From the team selection and formation, it looked like a balanced approach between attack and defense.
But in reality, because the players were still so young, the demands exceeded the limits of their current ability.
This made Lynn begin to consider readjusting the tactics, while also making full use of the cards he currently held.
Super Sub was the most imdiately effective card.
Charisteas, Villa, and Ibrahimović all had it now.
But if two or three more players also had Super Sub cards, then Swansea would be able to produce better results when rotating players, sending on substitutes, or making changes during normal matches.
Lynn decided that once he returned to the club, he would carefully review the past three matches and combine the players' physical condition with their competitive performances to make tactical adjustnts.
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