Former Maccabi legend, Avi Nimni came on the program to discuss the team heading into the season and last night’s game:
About last night’s match against Hajduk Split:
“I liked the first half and really the first 30 minutes were excellent by Maccabi as they looked for a 2nd goal. But they looked a bit complacent in the second half and gave up an away goal which could be a problem. I hope that they’ll be able to head to Split and come away with a good result and be able to advance to the Europa League Group Stages.”
The long preseason:
“They may get tired down the road but not yet as it’s just the beginning of the season. They have a big squad and will be able to have a good rotation for the games ahead.”
A big squad:
“Last year Maccabi played in both the Champions League and domestically they fought for the title all the way to the end of the season, so they shouldn’t have a problem with the team as it’s a deep squad and they still may bring in more players. If Maccabi makes it to the group stages it will do the players only good and will keep them in shape. Should they not qualify it will leave a very bad taste in everyone’s mouthes.”
Current team:
“There’s a coach and Jordi Cruyff who are around the club day to day. Orlando Sa wasn’t included in the squad so I believe he may be on his way out of the Club. I don’t see any player on the current squad that can score 30+ goals like Eran Zahavi but if they can bring a striker who can score 15-20 goals that would be very good.”
Oscar Scarione:
“He should have a good influence in a variety of ways both on and off of the pitch, mentally, his professionalism, training and many other ways. Right now he looks like a great addition. I know him for a lot of years and he is a good guy also for the lockerroom. You have to remember that he didn’t spend training camp with the club and only joined afterwards so he is still getting into shape. He can play many attacking positions.”
Ori Cooper of Yedioth Achronot joined the show and began by speaking about the Hajduk Split game as well as Shota Arveladze’s style of play and what he can do with the assortment of players he has at his disposal:
“Maccabi was a much better team than Hajduk and you could see their quality in the first half. Maccabi are still favorites to go through, but we’ve spoken about some of Maccabi’s defensive problems last year and some of that popped up last night.”
Coach Shota Arveladze’s style of play:
“Coaches like to start training before there rival coaches at other teams as it will give them an advantage and it’s clear that Maccabi will have that as they begin the domestic league. I am not sure that we can say that we can name Shota Arveladze’s style of play yet, where we saw that Oscar Garcia used ball control and Paulo Sousa made many in match changes. But what is interesting is how he uses the midfield. Maccabi is playing a 4-3-3 with Medunjanin and Igiebor in front of Alberman and on the defensive side they play along the same line but on offense Medunjanin goes a bit back and to the right while Igiebor goes further up and to the left which allows Maccabi to open up the game a bit more.
The question is what will happen when Scarione goes back to his natural position in the midfield and I believe we will see that once a new striker comes in. We’ll see him play behind the striker and also what will happen to the other players once that does occur in the formation. That to me will be the most interesting thing to watch over the first few weeks of the season.”
The midfield and where the players fit in:
“I think that Scarione will play in Arveladze’s system very well as he did in Turkey and will play in the position that Eran Zahavi did before he moved up to be a striker. There will be four players that will fight for two positions, Alberman, Golasa, Medunjanin and Igiebor and that’s not an easy challenge to overcome. Medunajnin I think will be there as well and with Benayoun we will see him in a Micha type of position which is to the side of the striker. On paper it’s playing on the wing but we saw against Split that Micha really went inside much more.”
Playing with three central defenders:
“I think that we will be seeing more teams in Israel play with three central defenders and similar to what we saw in the Euro 2016 which is now becoming a trend amongst these bigger teams. Maccabi will use this a bit and some of the bigger teams will do the same as there are not a lot of quality defensive backs. This may be a way to get around this problem and it will also allow for other attacking players to be a key part to break down the opponent’s defenses. You need players who know how to use their bodies in small spaces which Maccabi has three players who can do exactly that in Micha, Medunanjanin and Benayoun. This will be very interesting to see how it will play out and we may see it already on Sunday against Kfar Saba.”
One of last night’s goal scorers, Capatin Gal Alberman spoke about making his mark:
“It feels good and it’s an accomplishment but the goal was to win which is what we did, perhaps we could have won by more but prior to the game we spoke about the importance to win.”
Playing at Hajduk Split:
“In football you always play in front of big crowds and it’s something we are used to doing. The atmosphere will be good and it will lead to a good game, but we aren’t really worried about it.”
About the play that helped him score the goal:
“The day before at training we tried out this play and it worked so we went for it.”
Leadership and goals:
“We are trying to have other players also push the team ahead and we are still making changes to the squad which I believe will continue on to the last day of the transfer window. Up until now we have accomplished the goals we set for ourselves and now we have to make sure we qualify for the Europa League group stages. We can see that when changes happen things don’t change overnight everything takes time.”
About Yossi Benayoun:
“Yossi is an incredible player who can really help us off the field as well on the field and in training. He really enjoys football. With his age and experience he can really be a big addition for the club.”
The upcoming season:
“A few years ago we made it to the knockout round of the Europa League and win the domestic title while last year we played in Champions League which is a different experience all together. The league title is not something we will want to leave behind.”
Harel Slutsky talked about what Olympic sports the Maccabi players would be goos at:
100 Meters: Winger Tal Ben Chaim
Trampoline: Predrag Rajikovic
Discus: Egor Filipenka
Shooting: Gal Alberman
Maccabi will finish with what medal? Like the USA and be as dominant as the Americans have been in the Olympic Games.
