The Midfield Master

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Everton drew Ajax in the Europa League play-offs. As soon as the news spread, it immediately caused an uproar in the British media.

Compared with the good signings of West Ham United and Liverpool, Everton's signing luck is really bad.

The media who were optimistic about Everton a day ago slammed Everton badly, thinking that they could not continue to advance in the Europa League and win glory for English football.

Regarding the media public opinion, Everton has been very indifferent. The media in England and even the world are like this. As long as your grades are good, they will be optimistic about you, and if you have a little trouble, they will speak badly about you.

And for the media, it is obviously more enjoyable to criticize a team than to praise a team. After all, praising each other when the team's performance is good is just icing on the cake.

And if the team can still pour cold water when the team's performance is good, when the team's performance drops, the media can claim to be prescient.

If the team's performance continues to rise, the media can say that their public opinion has made the team more vigilant and brought extra motivation to the team.

In any case, the media is right.

So Everton, after learning the result of the draw, only discussed it a little bit, and then focused on the upcoming league.

After all, the first round of the Europa League play-offs with Ajax will not be played until August 20. For them, there is still enough time to prepare.

In the first round of the Premier League, Everton sat at home to meet the challenge of newly promoted Watford.

Watford were runners-up in the Championship last season, just one point behind Bournemouth. And they have two powerful forwards Dini and Ighalo in the British Championship last season. These two forwards scored 21 goals and 20 goals respectively. They are the most attacking striker combination in the British Championship.

So although Watford is a newly promoted team, it is definitely not an easy team to deal with.

But after all, Everton ranked sixth in the league last season and runner-up in the FA Cup. Even if the opponent is aggressive, they must continue.

Although the result of the Europa League play-off draw is not optimistic, Everton still has to prepare for the first league game.

Because I just played the qualifying round of the Europa League,

So the game against Watford will be on Sunday.

In Saturday's first few league games, Manchester United beat Tottenham, while defending champions Chelsea were drawn at home by Swansea. In the match between Chelsea and Swansea, Swansea's winger Montero became famous in the first battle, and Chelsea's right back Ivanovic was a dog, which was beyond people's expectations.

...

Outside Goodison Park, Sunday, August 9, 2015.

"This fan, do you think Everton can win the first game of the new season?" A TV host interviewed Everton fans.

"Of course it's no problem. You have to know that we just beat our opponent three days ago."

"You didn't ask this question well. You should not ask whether we can beat our opponents, but how many goals we can win, haha!"

"Win at least three goals!"

"4 to 0!"

"I don't think we need to win too much, as long as we can score three points, the most important thing is to be able to advance to the Europa League group stage."

"Whatever the quarrel, you win anyway."

...

The reporter interviewed many Everton fans, and almost all of them believed that Everton could win this game. Of course they were interviewing Everton fans, and it would be weird if the fans didn't want their home team to win.

However, most Everton fans believe that the team can win easily, which proves that they are full of confidence in the team.

"Who do you think will score the first goal in this game?" The reporter found that his question could not be answered differently, and asked another question.

This question is much more interesting. After all, there are more than 20 players in Everton's first team, and there are more than ten midfielders. One ball, this is indeed a very interesting question.

"I think it's Lukaku, after all he scored the most goals last season."

"Deulofeu, he was a blockbuster last game."

"I think it's Xia Ze. He failed to score a goal in the last game, so he must have been overwhelmed."

"Captain Bynes, the first goal is a penalty!"

"Howard..."

There were all kinds of answers, even goalkeeper Howard, which really surprised the reporter.

Leaving aside some unpopular choices, Lukaku, Deulofeu and Xia Ze were the most answered.

Lukaku is the team's main shooter, while Deulofeu made two passes and two shots in the last game, and his performance was outstanding.

And Xia Ze was the team's best signing last season and is currently the most popular player in the team. His number 20 shirt, Everton's best-selling shirt, has carried over from last season to this one.

The three of them also represent the three most popular attacking players in Everton.

After the reporter raised this question, he continued to ask other questions, such as asking fans to predict Everton's final ranking of the season, who will win the top scorer, best player and other awards in the team.

Of course, the fans' answers made him very satisfied.

As the game time approached, the field outside Goodison Park became more and more lively.

"Hey, old Smith, did you come to this game too?" a fan yelled at a gray-haired Everton fan.

"Yeah, I won the bet in the last game. I saved a lot of money for drinks, so I went to watch the game!" Old Smith was obviously in a good mood. The team won a big victory and advanced, and he won the bet again. It can be described as the best of both worlds.

"Then this game, how many goals do you think the team can win?" The fan threw the question asked by the reporter to Old Smith.

"Haha, at least 2-0 in the first half, as for the whole game, I won't guess!" Old Smith said confidently again.

"Old Smith, you are here again. Can you really see through the team's performance in the first half?" The fan obviously heard about what happened to Old Smith on Thursday, and said suspiciously.

"If you don't believe me, you can bet with me, just bet on the Ajax ticket!" Old Smith was obviously confident, with a wise smile on his face.

"This..." The fan hesitated.

"Haha... Coward, with your character, there is no way to win the tickets!" Old Smith laughed twice, turned around and was about to leave.

"Wait, I'll make a bet with you!" The man was most afraid of being told that he didn't have a seed, so even though the fan was a little apprehensive, he gritted his teeth and agreed to Old Smith's bet.

In the high-five of the two, the new season of the Premier League started again. c