Jordi Cruyff, the Yellow & Blue Sports Director addressed the assembled media prior to his club’s Matchday 19 encounter versus Bnei Sakhnin at the Netanya Stadium on Sunday January 22nd at 21:00. Cruyff spoke about the search for a new coach:
“At the moment I’m still here and when we have something to announce we will. It’s a process and we know who we want as the new coach and we are working on it. I hope that an announcement will come soon. No matter what, for the first few days and weeks there will be some sort of collaboration.”
Still on the sidelines for the upcoming matches:
“I don’t think in all of them, at least I hope not to be. But I’ll be there to help the new coach and tell him what each player can give. There is an adaptation period.”
Changes in Starting XI:
“I think yes. The normal thing to do in a regular squad is to change players. Perhaps the old philosophy was that you have to keep the same players in the lineup, but in modern football you make changes to meet the needs of the opponent.”
Tal Ben Chaim not being available to the media:
“I don’t have a deal like I had with Eliran. But since I’ve come here, I’ve tried to keep the relationship between the players and the media at a distance. From a professional standpoint it needs to be done. If I had a choice of players who talk too much or too little, I’d prefer that he doesn’t speak too much. He should have a bit more responsibility because he is a captain.”
Responsibility to stop the game last season:
“We’ve always said that the referee has the responsibility to stop the play and not ours. If something is really clear like we had a few days ago when there was a clash of heads the players are intelligent enough to stop. But this is all in the past and they’ve already taken revenge as they drew against us and we didn’t win the league. Last year’s situation is behind us”
Status of Gal Alberman and Eyal Golasa for the Sakhnin match:
“Gal has no problems and Eyal we will have to see how his head injury will recover, it’s not easy.”
Was the Derby too tough:
“I’m not complaining, a Derby is a game of passion and they are always tough. It’s sometimes decided how the referee reacts and it could get tougher and tougher.”
Coaching decisions:
“Everyone makes decisions, when you win it’s the right and when you lose it may be wrong. Some matches you need one thing and another match you may need another. This has nothing to do with me or Shota.
Eden Ben Basat leaving Maccabi:
“The player had 4-6 more months left on his contract and he was a bit unlucky. I’m convinced he will be very good at his new club, score many goals and we will think about what we did. Eden was always willing to stay here and fight even if he had offers during other windows. He was a good worker and a hard worker.”
