Peter Bosz, the Yellow-and-Blue Dutch coach spoke to the media following his side’s 1:1 Derby draw with Hapoel Tel Aviv on Matchday 22 at Bloomfield Stadium. The Maccabi boss discussed the result, Eran Zahavi and comparing the Hapoel match to the Beitar game from last week:

“This was a disappointing result, 1:1 at home against Hapoel. We started the game terribly and we were one nil behind against a team that played very compact. We scored the equalizer and it was hard to create a lot of chances when a team is playing so defensively. If we would have scored then they would have opened up. We had to play more opportunistic in the second half but we had few chances and weren’t able to score on Haris’s chances and Peretz’s header at the end of the game.”

Starting Barak Itzhaki for an injured Shlomi Azulay:

“Barak is a fantastic player to play in small spaces and he was able to move the ball from one side to the other. Barak is able to think very quickly. Peretz is a player that needs to play more behind the ball.”

Today’s match compared to the game against Beitar Jerusalem:

“What will help me is our way of playing. There was a difference between the game today and the game against Beitar. Hapoel played compact and it was not so easy. Hapoel had very few chances and we did a great job controlling the ball. We did this better tonight than we did against Beitar. But we didn’t create enough chances today.”

Creating more chances:

“I want to see a Maccabi that creates more chances and we must learn how to play against teams that play compact like Hapoel did.”

The thought of playing Eran Zahavi as a midfielder:

“Eran has played as a center forward in a 4-3-3 since I came here. I would not want to put a player that has scored every game in the midfield where he will also have more defensive responsibilities.”