On 15 December, Everton's home game against Millwall officially began.

Everton boss David Moyes has prepared a lot for the game and he is confident that he will lead Everton to beat Millwall, and his confidence comes from two things: one is that Everton are good at playing against strong teams.

There is a reason why many media call Everton a '-stirring stick', Everton has always regarded the team as a top team that is 'not inferior to the top four teams in the Premier League', they have the confidence of a strong team, and the strength is not mentioned for the time being, at least they will not have any fear when facing a strong team.

Millwall is one of the strong teams.

The 'dark horse' does not represent a really strong team, but at least it is not worse than the strong team in terms of performance.

The second point is that Everton have been in very good form of late, winning four of their five games is enough to prove it, including tough opponents such as Newcastle United and Middlesbrough, but Everton have done it and the results show that they have found their form from last season.

In this home game, Everton is full of confidence.

David Morris also believes that 'Millwall should lose', no team can be unbeaten all the time, Millwall played too well in the previous games, but they can't continue to be so good, otherwise Chelsea can't be competitive, Millwall's bench depth is a big problem, and when the schedule goes to the middle of the season, Millwall's results will definitely slip.

However, the rhetoric in the media did not lean towards either side.

Many media are optimistic about Everton, but Millwall does not show signs of 'declining results', in the last game with Blackburn, Millwall was indeed at a disadvantage, and it was a bit of luck to win, but Millwall did not send all the main players, even Josh Simpson did not play.

Millwall will definitely give it their all.

This is speculation in the media.

When the two teams took to the field, they also found that their guess was correct, with Millwall's starting eleven being mostly the main players, with minor changes: Josh Simpson up front and Smitchell at right midfield.

This adjustment is incomprehensible to many people.

Smitchell is still playing right midfield, his position at Liverpool is not fixed, it is best to partner Gerrard in the middle, it is not surprising to play right midfield, Josh Simpson is playing forward for the first time.

"Can Simpson play up front?" Many people thought suspiciously.

This is also a tentative adjustment made by Zhang Yang.

Josh Simpson played well on the right side, but only because he was good at free kicks, except for free kicks, Simpson did not contribute much to the right side, almost did not contribute much defensively, and most of the offense just relied on speed to fight.

Zhang Yang put Simpson on the front line, and his partnership with Darren Bent is still something to look forward to.

————

The competition has officially begun.

Everton and Millwall have no historical grudges and have gone head-to-head for the first time this season, but there is no doubt that both teams will be hoping for a win, and the scramble became fierce from the first minute of the game, although both sides were mostly entangled in midfield and did not push too far forward into the opposition half.

The situation of the game surprised many people.

Millwall is a balance of attack and defence, and it is normal for a strong team to be suppressed, but Everton also played conservatively, and in the first ten minutes of the game, their four defenders all stayed in their own half, and did not even run across the halfway line once.

That's enough to show how much Everton take defence.

Everton's conservatism has also led many media outlets to reassess Millwall's weight in the hearts of various Premier League teams.

Many media have labeled Millwall as a 'dark horse', 'dark horse' means good performance, but also means 'average strength', but other clubs in the Premier League pay more attention to Millwall than the media, they studied Millwall and found that Millwall's front-court offensive efficiency is very high, if you push forward head-on and suppress Millwall with strength, the chance of winning is not great, because Millwall's counterattack efficiency is very high, just like the last game, Blackburn suppressed Millwall all over the field, But in the end, Millwall scored two goals.

A lot of media said it was 'luck', and talked about 'God help', but there were many games before, Millwall were 'not strong, but they could score', David Moyes observed this situation, he decided to change his strategy, let the team play more conservatively, do not give Millwall any chance, if you want to beat Millwall, you must first defend the goal, football has always been 'defense wins'.

This is also one of David Moyes's confidences.

Millwall have all the main players in the field, but Everton are not bad, and with the home game, the targeted set-up and the recent good form, Moyes will be full of confidence.

After a while, Moyes's mind changed slightly.

His face became solemn.

The game was as expected, with Everton still in control despite the emphasis on defence, with more time in possession and more attacks, while Millwall were relatively less, and at the same time, Everton's attacking threat was quite small, and the team did not once hit the ball into the Millwall box in the previous time.

This illustrates the lackluster Everton attack.

Millwall's defense is full-field, the team does not have a fixed defensive strategy, half of it relies on players to play, and half of it relies on man-to-man defensive tactics, Millwall's defense also starts from the midfield, and the middle line to the penalty line is the most heavily defended area.

In this area, Everton played very hard.

If you want to break through Millwall's goal, you must break through Millwall's defense, but after the football reaches the key area, because the backfield players have not kept up, it is difficult for only the frontcourt players to break through, Everton has a lot of time on the ball and a lot of attacks, but it can't play a threatening offensive.

Millwall is different.

Millwall's tactics have not changed, when there is a chance to counter-attack, when there is a match, to cooperate, every player plays well, and the attack always brings a certain threat.

Fifteen minutes into the game, David Moyes discovered that the tactical strategy was wrong and that the problem was the team's performance.

If they play a normal defensive counterattack, Everton can also perform well.

For example, when playing against strong teams such as Manchester United and Arsenal, Everton has always chosen to defend and counterattack, but Millwall did not bring so much defensive pressure, and they still had the upper hand in the situation.

The team's defensive counterattack is just a situation, and when it is time to attack, the backcourt does not go up, so that the offense is somewhat unable to play, and the opponent is the offense, the defense is not affected at all.

Everton should have been pushing head-on, but they chose to be conservative in terms of tactics, which is the wrong approach.

Zhang Yang sat on the coach's seat, and the corners of his mouth couldn't help but smile.

The game was unexpected.

He didn't expect Everton to be so 'conservative', and the other party was frightened by Millwall's results? That might be something to be proud of.

It's the form on the pitch that's all about it.

It would have been a difficult game to play, and if Everton had opted for a normal encounter, Millwall would have faced a lot of pressure from the defence, and it would not be easy to beat their opponents.

But the other party did not do this, but chose a conservative style of play.

That's interesting!

Everton still seem to have the advantage in the game, but it is clear that Millwall are more efficient, which is the inevitable result of Moyes's tactical failure: in the absence of defensive pressure at the back, the attack will definitely play higher, and the concrete performance is that Millwall's attacking efficiency is much higher.

Millwall's efficiency was not too long to show.

In the 26th minute, Millwall played a fluent link-up, led by Jody Morris, and made six quick passes in quick succession on the right and in the middle, all six of which were quite fast, and Everton were caught off guard by this succession of quick passes.

"Watch this offensive!"

The commentators at Ewood Park were surprised by Millwall's cooperation, staring at the screen for a while and being speechless, until they found striker Darren Bent with the ball, and then subconsciously yelled, "Danger——!! ”

Darren Bent ran out of the air.

Everton's defense was a bit of a mess, and when Darren Bent got the ball, he couldn't defend at all, and he was turned around and volleyed!

This is a very effective hit!

The ball flew straight into the far corner of the goal, and goalkeeper Martin only had time to wave his hand before watching the ball fly into the goal from a distance.

"The ball went to ——!!"

“Gooooooooooooooal！！！ Darren Bent !! ”

"0 to 1! Millwall, who were a guest at Ewood Park, took the lead in breaking through the home team Everton gate! Millwall played a very fast and effective attack, allowing striker Darren Bent to get the opportunity to finish very decisively! Darren Bent has once again shown everyone his mastery in front of goal! ”

“……”

The moment the ball flew into the goal, David Moyerston stood up in shock.

David Moyes was already worried about the game, but in the middle of the game, it was impossible to make major changes, and he could only hope that the team could perform well, at least until half-time, but he still underestimated Millwall's efficiency.

At this moment, Moyes has some understanding of why Millwall has achieved good results, while focusing on defense, the front court can still have such high efficiency, which is by no means something that ordinary teams can have.

In the attack just now, Millwall's players in every position performed very well.

Midfielders: Josh Morris, Marvin Elliott.

Right wing: Smitchell, Alan Hutton.

Forward: Darren Bent.

Each of the five players who were directly involved in the attack showed outstanding game form, which allowed a wave of attack to be played so quickly and fluidly.

This also shows that the analysis of Millwall in the media is correct, their tactics are specially designed for players in various positions, so that players in various positions can perform well, maybe Millwall's individual players, the strength level is not as good as Everton, but the team's overall performance is much better than Everton.

How will the next game be played?

David Moyes suddenly realised that Everton were in a difficult situation and he could only hope for a better performance.