The Midfield Master

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Xia Ze did not expect that although Everton's board of directors and coaching staff had ambitions to challenge for the top four positions before this season, they also gave up such ideas after their poor performance in the first half of the season. Instead, shift your energy to the cup, hoping to make a difference in the FA Cup.

That's why Martinez decided to hide Xia Ze in the snow and let him concentrate on the weekend's FA Cup semi-final.

After all, their opponents in the semi-finals were not weak. After defeating Southampton, Tottenham Hotspur also advanced to the semi-finals and competed with Everton for a seat in the final.

This is also a choice of balance of gains and losses. If you blindly pursue to restore the decline in the league, it is likely to exhaust the team up and down, so that they lose to Tottenham at Wembley Stadium.

So in the next league game, Martinez hid more than half of the main players. Although some main players were placed on the bench to cope with the sudden change, the overall strength of the team was still affected.

In the league match a day later, when Everton played against Sunderland at Goodison Park, the news that Xia Ze was hidden was spread early for some reason.

So Sunderland's head coach Allardyce had already prepared for it. The away game against Everton turned out to be a very offensive lineup and played against Everton.

Martinez obviously did not expect that Sunderland, which has been in a mediocre state recently, would dare to attack his team away from home. You must know that the opponent's position in the standings is not stable, ranking 14th in the league, and the relegation zone. There is only a 5-point gap between them. If one is not careful, they may fall into the quagmire of relegation.

Sitting in the stands in a suit and leather shoes, Xia Ze was also at a loss when he saw Sunderland attacking his side after the opening game. He didn't know what the opponent's head coach was thinking.

But Sunderland's head coach Allardyce is a veteran of the Premier League. His technical and tactical ability can be said to have been recognized by everyone in football. The arrangement of such a tactical master is obviously not random.

If not, under the sudden onslaught of Sunderland players, the semi-main players of Everton obviously did not adapt to the rhythm of the field as quickly as their opponents, so Sunderland scored a goal shortly after the opening and fell behind 0-1. .

Xia Ze was terrified watching from the stands, worried that the team would repeat the mistakes of the previous game, losing the game in a daze when they were obviously superior in strength.

The Everton fans in the stands obviously had the same idea as Xia Ze. After Sunderland's goal, the whole stadium was dead silent, and everyone's eyes were full of worry.

After Allardyce made a successful start, he also knew that his team would not be able to maintain the advantage in the away game, so he deliberately asked the players to recover the formation and return more control of the midfield to Everton, who was playing at home. .

However, most of the Everton players on the field were not the main force. Without Xia Ze, Osman was not able to take on the important task of organizing the offense. Although the team had a slight advantage in possession, they still had no way to equalize the score.

Martinez stood on the sidelines frowning. In the second half, he had no choice but to replace Miralas and other main players, hoping to equalize the score.

Fortunately, Miralas played and helped Everton equalize the score, but he could only score 1 point at home.

After two winless games, the gap between Everton and the top four has widened again, and the hope of qualifying for the Champions League is even slimmer. In the standings, city rivals Liverpool are also catching up, and Everton's qualification for the Europa League is also in jeopardy.

At the price of losing 2 points, in exchange for Xia Ze and other main players' rest, preparing for the FA Cup semi-finals, this is a consideration between gains and losses, and it is also the same reason that you can't have both.

...

It was difficult to draw with the visiting Sunderland at home. After hiding most of the main players, Everton suffered two rounds of the league without a win. Liverpool also surpassed Liverpool in the standings, ranking only 8th in the league.

With such a ranking, not only is there no hope for the Champions League, but it is also quite difficult to advance to the Europa League.

After two rounds of invincibility, the entire Everton team has set their league goal to get tickets to the Europa League. The Champion of the League Cup is currently No. 1 Chelsea, so now the top 6 can get a seat in the European War .

Now Everton is 2 points behind Southampton, ranked 6th, and 4 points away from Tottenham Hotspur, ranked 5th, and Liverpool, who surpassed them after this round, is 1 point ahead of Everton.

Behind Everton, Stoke City, Swansea and themselves are only one or two points away. If they are not careful, they may fall out of the top 10. With a block before and a chase after, Everton doesn't have many choices.

But for now their focus is still on the FA Cup semi-final, because Saturday's semi-final will face Tottenham Hotspur, who are currently fifth in the league, at Wembley Stadium.

If they win, they will be able to compete with another team that advanced to the final in May for the FA Cup championship, and the FA Cup champion is also the winner of another Europa League ticket.

The other two teams that advanced to the semi-finals of the FA Cup are Arsenal and Liverpool. These two FA Cup semi-finals are a contest between Liverpool and London. All four teams are from these two cities.

This means that this season's FA Cup final may stage a London derby, a Merseyside derby, or another contest between the two cities.

In these 4 teams, the league rankings are 4, 5, 7, and 8 respectively, and they all have to do their best in the league for their respective goals.

Tottenham are 4 points behind Arsenal, and the opportunity to compete for a place in the Champions League still exists, which will test their balance between the Premier League and the FA Cup.

Everton and Liverpool are currently ranked seventh and eighth in the league, basically hopeless to hit the Champions League, but Europa League qualification still needs to work hard. Judging from Everton's abandonment of the league in the middle of the week, this FA Cup semi-final They were expecting the best.

Saturday, April 11, 2015, London, UK. Xia Ze and his teammates appeared at the London airport together, boarded the bus prepared for them by the organizing committee, and headed to Wembley Stadium.

As the largest city in the UK and one of the largest cities in the world, London is much larger than Liverpool in terms of population and city size.

Xia Ze looked out from the window of the bus, and saw a lot of traffic on the road, a lot of shops, and high-rise buildings compared with Guangzhou.

An international metropolis like London can be compared with Shanghai in mainland China. Although Beijing is the capital and largest city in China, its international urban atmosphere cannot compare with that of Shanghai, let alone Greater London. c