Maccabi head coach Pako Ayesteran reflected on last Monday night's match against Maccabi Haifa: "We have to have the control we want to have for 90 minutes"
This morning, Maccabi Tel Aviv held a press conference ahead of Sunday night's Israeli Premier League matchweek 5 fixture against Hapoel Acre, which due to Acre's home-match ban will be played at Netanya's Municipal Stadium. Pre-match tickets will be sold at a flat price of NIS 55 at the official Maccabi Tel Aviv shop and at the "Leaan" agency's website and ticket offices. It is not yet known whether injured defenders Yoav Ziv and Yuval Shpungin will be at head coach Pako Ayesteran's disposal. Central defender Carlos Garcia, who walked off with an injury in Monday night's game against Maccabi Haifa, is also in doubt. "Right now he's not training with the team, so for now he's out for Sunday". Defender Omri Ben Harush, midfielder Dan Einbinder and winger Tal Ben Chaim, all recovering from injury, trained off the pitch.
At the press conference, Pako was asked if he intended to make any changes ahead of Sunday's encounter against Hapoel Acre: "No, no changes. We are still doing a few things with no consistency, things that we wanted to become regular. We play well for ten minutes, we lose control to the other team for another ten, then we take control again. In this case we're not consistent enough. The question is that we have to be more consistent during the game, have the control we want to have for 90 minutes. This is the target. But you remember two days ago, Bayern Munich head coach (Pep) Guardiola, even after the 7-1 (against Roma) said it wasn't a perfect game. Even when you win, even playing well, you have many things you can improve that have not been done in the right way. For us it's the same. We won 3-1 but we know we have things that we have to improve because if not one day you will lose".
Questions were also asked about why on Monday night he played midfielder Eran Zahavi in the striker's role: "Because I thought the game was asking for this. It's not a position that is new for him because I know last year he played sometimes as a striker, sometimes in the midfield with three, sometimes he played in the wide areas. In this case it's a player who is used to playing in different positions. If he's not a natural scorer, someone who scored 34 goals (last season), who is? He (Zehavi) can work anywhere, and the question is sometimes you have to adapt the team depending on the situations of the game. He can do well in many positions". Asked if he would continue with Zahavi up front, the head coach responded: "I know what I have done until now and depending on the performances of the rest of the players, and how we are going to approach each game, for sure we will play with a natural striker".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54_p_VqEUvA&list=UU-oWQqnf8B8a_TsmVi0mTUg
As the league enters its fifth matchweek, Pako was asked his impression of his rivals in the title race: "A few teams are doing well. Nobody is talking about Hapoel Ra'anana. Hapoel Ra'anana are playing well. They play a good game. In a different style but they played well against us and last week as well they played really well. In this case there are three or four teams, like in Spain. In Spain, everyone is always thinking that Barcelona or Real are going to win the league. Last year it was Athletico Madrid. If the main teams don't keep the level, there's always someone that can go through. In this case we have to be more focused in keeping our level. If we keep our level we can beat anyone at any time. In this case this is the target, and the difficulty, because sometimes the worst enemy can become yourself".
Mahran Radi, who was substituted on the hour mark against Maccabi Haifa, agreed with his boss regarding the match: "Last time out we dominated only parts of the game, other times we lost that control a bit. We're working hard to improve on things like that because we're good enough for it and all we have to do is bring it into play. I don't want to make any broad statements or talk about who's better but I think we've proved in the past two years that we're a top-form team and this particular win does nothing to change that. If we improve as a team our way, we'll go into the game more confident and we'll be able to get good results, but it's nothing to do with whether or not we can beat Maccabi Haifa or Hapoel Acre or for that matter any other opponent".
The veteran midfielder was asked whether new head coach Pako Ayestaran had given him more attacking duties so far this season: "Things like that also depend on your nature as a player. The way I see it, it's the coach's job to get us playing according to plan, almost like on auto-pilot. At the end of the day it's football we're talking about, you have to attack and score goals. You've seen how many goals we've scored in the past two years, we're very strong going forward, even the fullbacks move up and join in on the attack. I think that's made a big difference to how we've improved. Nowadays I get the ball higher up the pitch and that makes it easier for us to attack in the opposition half. In general I think I'm getting my chances to do what I do best, both tactically and as a player, I feel freer. It's still not enough but I have the coaching staff to help me pick up the slack. As long as I'm working hard, I'll be able to improve".
