“Hero, hero! Hero! Hero—! He—ro—!!” The commentator's enthusiastic voice came from the television. On the screen, Chen Hero leaped high, heading the football into Tottenham Hotspur's undefended goal.

“This phrase is already an old cliché, and there's nothing creative about it. But every time this happens, I still want to say—in the air, Hero is invincible!”

“Liverpool has taken the lead on the road! Hero's aerial advantage is not only reflected in his height and heading technique, but also in his series of preparatory movements beforehand—look at his clever pullback just now! This is someone who truly uses his head to play football!”

“The defending champions have taken the lead on the road, demonstrating their strength as defending champions! Tottenham is helpless!”

Chen Hero's goal ignited people's passion and gave those who cared about and supported Liverpool a reassuring pill—if Chen Hero performed normally, then Liverpool performed normally.

※※※

When Chen Hero scored, on Liverpool's bench, the players stood up one after another to cheer and applaud the goal.

Götze, who wasn't in the starting lineup, was among them.

Since he wanted to integrate into the team, how could he not keep in step with the whole team in this kind of situation? Everyone else was celebrating, and he was sitting there looking profound and unmoved? Wasn't that deliberately looking for trouble? If the ubiquitous media used this incident to make a big fuss after the game, wouldn't Liverpool's atmosphere of unity in the locker room be ruined? At that time, even Chen Hero might not be able to protect him.

Götze wasn't a fool; he understood this principle very well.

So, although he was a little depressed about not being able to start, he still cheered for every Liverpool attack. He began to gradually regard himself as a member of Liverpool, looking at things and considering problems from the perspective of a Liverpool player.

Martin O'Neill didn't forget to pay attention to Götze while celebrating the goal on the bench. When he saw Götze cheering and celebrating with everyone, he smiled.

Some people thought that Martin O'Neill's decision not to start Götze was a kind of punishment for Götze's poor performance in the Community Shield, while others said that Martin O'Neill had lost patience with Götze.

But in fact, Martin O'Neill had never lost confidence in this genius. Putting him on the bench was just a way to protect Götze. Before he was ready, avoiding Götze's appearance in front of the mass media and avoiding prolonged exposure would help him escape the harassment.

He shouldn't have let Götze start in the Community Shield in the first place. At the time, Martin O'Neill hadn't considered so much and made a mistake, and now he could only try his best to make up for it…

※※※

Chen Hero scores, Liverpool takes the lead. This was the scene that people who watched Liverpool games saw most often last season.

Last season, Liverpool won many games this way—after they took the lead, they could play calmly and unhurriedly at their own pace, while their opponents became flustered because they were behind and had to temporarily change their game plan. One wrong step led to another, and in the end, they could only follow Liverpool's rhythm and get beaten black and blue by Liverpool.

So, when Chen Hero scored, those who were watching Liverpool, wanting to find the answer, breathed a sigh of relief. Some who knew each other breathed a sigh of relief, while others breathed a sigh of relief with helplessness or displeasure.

Because although the game wasn't over yet, Liverpool had already given their answer.

Victory.

In the first league game, which was relatively difficult to play, they didn't show any signs of being affected by their new identity as "defending champions."

They were still very strong, accustomed to attacking aggressively at the start and scoring the first goal.

This was still the Liverpool team that they were familiar with and afraid of.

For Liverpool's opponents, this was definitely not good news.

Was there really no weakness in Liverpool?

They would realize their surrender to the bench.

After the game restarted, Götze returned to his position and watched the game on the field with his teammates. His expression was calm, and it was impossible to see what he was really thinking.

But… those with ulterior motives felt that Götze definitely didn't want to be a substitute, but everyone knew what his performance would be like if he was allowed to play…

So, could this German super genius become a ticking time bomb inside the solid Liverpool fortress?

Many people were looking forward to it.

※※※

Liverpool's away game against Tottenham ended with Liverpool defeating Tottenham 2-1.

The defending champions also got off to a good start.

Chen Hero scored the first goal for Liverpool in the game, scoring Liverpool's first league goal of the new season, and he was also named the best player of the game for his outstanding performance.

After the game, reporters surrounded the best player, Chen Hero.

Someone asked, "Hero, this is the first time Liverpool has participated in the Premier League as defending champions. Does this new identity put any pressure on you?"

Chen Hero spread his hands. "How is that possible? Defending champions? I love this title! Don't you think it's cool and prestigious to be called 'defending champions'?"

He asked rhetorically, with a hint of excitement.

A group of people looked at each other, and then they all felt that they had asked the wrong person.

They dispersed and ran to ask other Liverpool players who they thought were more reliable.

Chen Hero enjoyed the treatment of being ignored for the first time…

He rolled his eyes and turned to leave.

※※※

Liverpool's away win against Tottenham answered people's questions before the game. There was nothing to argue about with this victory.

But at the post-match press conference, the reporters still engaged in a war of words with Martin O'Neill.

The topic of the debate was actually Götze, who didn't play.

Götze was on the sidelines for the entire game, and even warming up occasionally attracted several close-ups from the television broadcast. Ordinary players couldn't enjoy this kind of treatment; it was all because he was a star player.

However, he didn't get a chance to play, so all the reporters' questions were related to the fact that Götze didn't play.

"Excuse me, Mr. O'Neill, Götze has not been able to get a chance to play. Does this mean that you have lost patience with him?"

"That's not the case. I have full confidence in Mario."

"Hey, Martin, what do you have to say about Götze's performance?"

"He didn't play in this game, so I don't have anything to say…"

At first, Martin O'Neill answered these reporters' questions with patience, but when he realized that all the questions were related to Götze, he became impatient.

"Mr. O'Neill, Götze…"

He directly interrupted the reporter's question. "I'm sorry, from now on I will not answer any questions related to Mario Götze. I will only answer questions related to this game."

Seeing that he was so uncooperative, the reporters naturally refused to give up and insisted that he talk about Götze, to see if Götze had lost his trust, or whether introducing Götze was a bad decision…

In the end, Martin O'Neill directly slammed the table and left the press conference.

Leaving a group of reporters behind, everyone looked at each other.

Martin O'Neill's excessive reaction seemed to indicate that Götze was a difficult problem plaguing Liverpool. It seemed that what everyone thought was correct; Götze was a ticking time bomb buried inside Liverpool. If this problem couldn't be solved well, Liverpool would likely lose to Götze this season.

It seems that we have to keep a close eye on Götze… maybe we can really dig up some big news…

※※※

Did Martin O'Neill think that he could refuse to answer questions about Götze at the press conference and leave early, and that would be the end of it?

He was wrong!

Terribly wrong!

Completely wrong!

On many sports programs that night, when it came to the game between Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur, the main topic wasn't Chen Hero, nor was it the good start, but Götze, who didn't play…

"Götze didn't play in this afternoon's game. He warmed up on the sidelines for ninety minutes, but he didn't get even one minute of playing time…"

"Liverpool won, but this victory was once again unrelated to Götze…"

"The German genius's life at Liverpool doesn't seem to be pleasant. He was substituted early in the Community Shield, only playing for fifty-five minutes, and he didn't play a single minute in this league game."

"Götze seems to have encountered a serious crisis of confidence… Martin O'Neill seemed very impatient when we asked him questions about Götze. It can be seen that he has lost patience with Götze, otherwise why would he be so resistant to our questions?"

"There are rumors that Götze's agent is already looking for a new home for the German genius…"

…

Those criticisms and rumors targeting Götze not only didn't stop, but instead intensified, seemingly forming a storm.

This storm not only attacked Mario Götze himself, but also attacked Liverpool Football Club.

Martin O'Neill stared at the nonsense in the newspaper, his eyebrows almost twisted into the Chinese character "川" (chuān).

It seemed that his approach hadn't really protected Götze.

No matter what he did, it seemed that he would throw Götze into the eye of the storm. If he responded to their questions, they would take things out of context and draw conclusions that met their requirements. If he didn't respond to them, they would just be unreasonable like they were now.

Martin O'Neill really didn't have any good way to deal with these sticky media outlets.

He really wasn't good at fighting a war of words with the media…

Wait?

Speaking of war of words, Martin O'Neill suddenly thought of someone…

How could he have forgotten him?

It would be good to leave this matter to him to handle, right?

The more Martin O'Neill thought about it, the more he felt that this approach was reliable. He decided to have a good talk with Chen Hero when the team started training again the day after tomorrow, and let him protect Götze, so that Götze would no longer be harassed and disturbed by those damn media.

If this matter wasn't handled well, it would affect the whole team!