Maccabi coach Pako Ayestaran is getting ready for Hapoel Petach Tikva: "I like seeing them playing at the moment"
This morning Maccabi Tel Aviv held a press conference ahead of Saturday night's match against Hapoel Tikva at their "Moshava" Stadium, the final encounter of the first round of contests with all the other Israeli Premier League clubs. Asked if he'd noticed that Saturday's opponents had recently changed their formation, Maccabi head coach Pako Ayestaran responded: "Yes, a few weeks ago they played against us with four in the back at the beginning but I think they are doing well. We've seen a few games, I've even seen them at their stadium and I think this is a team that at the moment are able to build a game, they are treating the ball well, they arrive quite high on the pitch with fullbacks and I think the last two games I have seen they have played better in their positions. Maybe in the last third they are a little bit not strong enough but it's a good team. I like seeing them playing at the moment".
One journalist present noticed that the Spanish coach was growing impatient towards the end of last Monday's dramatic draw against Beitar Jerusalem: "Yes, because I realised we were losing control of the game. We were losing the ball, and one of the things that has happened in the last few games, and in the previous ones as well, we are a team that when we lose the ball, we've got problems. And every time we've conceded it's when we lose possession of the ball. And this is what was happening. We stopped closing down in the right way and gave enough options to get to our goal". Another journalist asked if there were lessons to be learnt from the result, also in attack: "I hope everybody will learn, not only myself, also the players. I think from every defeat, well, not a defeat, a draw, because at the end it was a game that was already in our pocket. We're going to try to improve our last third because I think the start of our game and the progression of our game is quite good. We arrived to the last third quite easily but in the last third we probably are lacking a little in aggressiveness in our movements and it's probably one of the things that we are not in our best at the moment".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fgCJHRwTLY&list=UU-oWQqnf8B8a_TsmVi0mTUg
In light of the post-match confrontation between Nigerian midfielder Nosa Igiebor and a number of Maccabi fans, the question arose whether Pako thought he, and other players like goalkeeper Juan Pablo and midfielder Mahran Radi, might be playing better if they weren't subjected to such unpleasantries: "Of course. No-one likes to be booed from the crowd, even them, some who have a strong personality, it always affects you when you don't get the warmth of your fans. If the players are wearing a Maccabi shirt they have to be supported. Because I think it's the decision of the club if they are the right ones to be here. And if the club think they are the right ones to get the performance that the club expect from this year, the fans have to support them. Of course it's not right what he (Nosa) did, but sometimes it's understandable. You can understand that sometimes the reaction can happen, when you are treated in the wrong way, because I don't think anybody should be abused from the crowd. The question is he's a human being. For me I am surprised that this happens anywhere, but I am even more surprised that it happened here in Israel. I think you are a country that has suffered a lot. We have to learn from history and accounting that you have suffered so much I can't understand that you don't try to learn from what happened in the past and don't have a better attitude in this situation".
Continuing on the same topic, Dor Micha replied to a remark that perhaps as a result of a number of these recent incidents supporters had become more extreme in their reactions to players: "I don't want to lump all these events together, but clearly we're trying to avoid these kinds of incidents and focus on the more positive things about our fans, because there's an awful lot of positives to focus on. I can understand how Nosa feels, it goes without saying that we'll stand behind him and I hope the matter can be resolved".
The young midfielder, who has appeared in the first eleven for the last three matches, talked a bit about the team's preparations for the forthcoming match: "Honestly, it's a very short week, but we have our methods and our formation that we're working on and practising all the time. And that's what we'll be trying to put into practice on Saturday. Of course every match is different and it's not just our flank play that wants improving, we need to work on all our positions on the pitch. We haven't been at our very best the last few games, about a month ago we were playing much better, and still our results have been good. But obviously we'll have to improve our performances".
Towards the end, Micha had a word to say about the personal effect fellow midfielder Eran Zahavi was having on his performances: "Eran's involvement in what we do helps us an awful lot, he's always there and I think it's perfectly legitimate that a player that has such a positive effect on the team should get most of the balls and shots on goal. That's the way it ought to be and it's not like he's preventing anyone else from having a go. Right now Eran's our main go-to guy but it's also important that more players take responsibility and help him, because just with Eran we won't make it".
