At his pre-match press conference, Maccabi Tel Aviv head coach Paulo Sousa said of Beitar Jerusalem: "It's not easy to find space to score goals against them"
This morning the Maccabi Tel Aviv squad held their final pre-match practice ahead of tomorrow night's final Israeli Premier ("Winner") League matchweek 25 encounter against Beitar Jerusalem. The Maccabi players who were on international duty last week returned yesterday to training as the team look ahead to a somewhat calmer fixture schedule than they've enjoyed up till now this season. Ahead of the match, head coach Paulo Sousa spoke about the team's preparations for tomorrow night's encounter in the shadow of injuries and the international break: "Our players are recovering quite well. We still have 24 hours to make some decisions, but my decision will always be not to risk anything. But there's a good probability we'll have some of the injured players back, with the exception of Barak Itzhaki of course, he'll be operated upon during the week, but the others we may possibly have in tomorrow's game. A coach likes to have all his players but we need to accept the situation because it's part of the game to have moments for the national team, to lose some players at these moments. It was important to recover all those players in good condition, players who played a lot of minutes in high intensity international games, and also in our league. But in practice, only yesterday we trained with all the players who could train with us in the preparations for tomorrow's game and today is the last training in these preparations".
Sousa also talked about the changes Beitar Jerusalem have undergone in the past few months: "The first game was already tough. We started well but in the second half we had some difficulties. Beitar are a team that have conceded only one goal in their last five games and that shows defensive consistency. It's not easy to find space to score goals against them. It's a team that since January have made decisions to bring in only experienced, quality players. They're well organised and they're difficult to beat. It will be a tough game".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOBKzvqB7vI&list=UU-oWQqnf8B8a_TsmVi0mTUg
The coach was asked time and again about the consequences of Hapoel Beer Sheva's winning mentality and repeated the same answer: "We always focus on ourselves, all the time, everything depends on us. I keep repeating, this is a club who want to create a strong culture with a winning mentality, building principles of the game. Most of the principles of the game are to have a team who want to be dominant, on and off the ball. We're focused on developing that, and having the right strategy in each game, winning the games and looking ahead to the end of the season and getting the best result. One of the targets of the club is to win the league and to do it consistently over the next few years. I've said before that it's difficult, but you know it's even more difficult to implement that culture when the national football environment is always looking to draw us off our path. But we are consistent and strong enough to focus on ourselves, to work on our culture and to win game after game so that at the end we get what we are looking for, to win the league".
Asked if the pressure of a crowded fixture schedule might be affecting the quality of the team's performances, Sousa responded: "At certain moments it could affect that quality, but you need to be consistent in your ideas because if you start to change things in the middle of the problems you'll never create a culture or a football philosophy and this was our proposal from the beginning and it will also be so in the present and the future".
Maccabi's Serbian midfielder Nikola Mitrovic was also asked if Hapoel Beer Sheva's consistent good form was making an impression on him: "For me, and I think also for the team, no because if we win every game we are going to be champions. We don't look at Beer Sheva and at the points difference. We have to look just at how we play, how we perform and that's it. I think we are the best club and the best team in Israel so we don't have to look at the other opponents. When I say we are the best I mean that most of the time we've shown it and as for the next two games against Beer Sheva and working for the future we're going to perform and give our best to show that we are the best team".
Mitrovic responded to the possibility that in light of the injuries to defensive players he might be in the back line again for tomorrow night's match: "I will play what the coach asks me to play. If it's centre back or any other position, I'm a professional and I'll agree to whatever the coach asks of me".
