Head coach Pako Ayestaran gave his take on tomorrow's opponent Bnei Sakhnin: "They always have a four and two in a good position"
This morning the Maccabi Tel Aviv squad held their final practice ahead of tomorrow night's mid-week fixture against Bnei Sakhnin. Prior to the practice, the club held their traditional pre-match press conference with head coach Pako Ayestaran and midfielder Nikola Mitrovic in attendance. Asked if he intended to use squad rotation in face of a busy upcoming fixture schedule, the coach responded: "I have to use the depth of the squad, because I really believe they all can add to the team and this is the time for them to show it. It's not important only now. It's a long run, it's a marathon. It's so important to arrive to March, April in good shape. But sometimes you have to look after the guys and be sure they don't burn out on the way. But of course I'm going to try to line up the best eleven that I hope will be successful and in the end we'll have a good performance".
Asked if the loss to Kiryat Shmona was his reason for squad changes against Hapoel Haifa, Pako responded: "I never take off a player for one bad performance or because of a result. Sometimes a result has many owners and even a defeat as well. It's just because I've got 25 players, I believe in all of them and I have to take the best of the performances. Not the performances, the state of the form of each player at each moment. And sometimes when a player drops a little in his level there are other ones who are craving to play".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gzmcv7m7IP8&feature=youtu.be
The press were keen to know what he felt were the strong points of tomorrow's opponents, Bnei Sakhnin: "Firstly their aggressiveness is in that they play really compactly. In a transition it is difficult to break them because they always have a four and two in a good position, and I would say the way they are organised. They've got quite a good counterattack. Probably the transitions are the main characteristic". Asked if he felt his team were likely to win, the Spaniard replied: "You know that in football the predictability is no more than 52%. I think I mentioned to you, there's one great book called 'Numbers Game'. And football is the team sport with the lowest predictability, in this case just 52 or 53%. I think it's research made since 1888 with 300,000 games and in 43,000 the one everybody expected to win didn't win. In this case it's around 14% the chance for failure in the prediction, so you never know".
Pako was also asked if he'd be following the results from tonight's contest between the numbers one and two in the league, Kiryat Shmona and Beer Sheva: "I don't know if tomorrow I will know the result or not. Sometimes after two days I don't know because I cannot do anything, you know. I have to be focused on my team. I have to be focused that we are in the right mental state to approach the game against Sakhnin and it's something that now is not so important. We are still in early days, in December. Imagine from now until May how many things can happen and I don't think any result is definitive at the moment". So you won't watch the game? "I will see, I will see, but sometimes I don't see, especially if they are not the teams (I'm going to play). I was also not concerned about the game yesterday, Beitar Jerusalem, but I saw it because they are the team we are going to play in two weeks' time. But Kiryat Shmona and Beer Sheva I think there is still a long time to play against them".
Nikola Mitrovic is of one mind with his coach where it comes to team priorities: "The question is that we must always be looking at our team, how we play, how we perform, we don't look at Sakhnin or the other clubs in front of us or behind us. Everything depends on us. I don't expect any result. We don't need to look at Beer Sheva or Kiryat Shmona, we have to look only at how we play. If we win we don't need to look at them". Asked if he was satisfied with the way Maccabi are playing, the Serbian midfielder responded: "I think we play okay but we can play better for sure". He himself seems to be very much in favour at the moment: "Of course I thank Pako and the club for giving me the chance. What's happened is past and what's important is building the future".
