Vladimir Ivic, the Maccabi Tel Aviv Head Coach addressed the assembled media ahead of Saturday night’s Matchday 9 Israel Premier League Ligat Japanika contest against Bnei Sakhnin at 20:30 at the Netanya Stadium:
“I want to smile at the end of the season. When I finish the job then I can relax. I have to be serious now. We are playing a team with a lot of experienced players and I’m surprised where they are now because they have a lot of quality players. We have to prepare and give 100% to take the win and all three points.”
Improving:
“We still have a lot of things to improve. We analyzed our play after last game and we have space to improve. What we want to improve? I will keep that for my players.”
About Bnei Sakhnin:
“They have quality players in the middle and know how deliver good balls. They have fast players in front who know how to attack the space and can score. They have showed it in the past as well. First of all we have to concentrate on ourselves and how we will play. We have to watch their quality players because they can create chances and do something good for themselves. We have to be careful and believe in ourselves.”
Continuing to work hard:
“We need to improve our game which makes me happy. We worked a few months at the start of the season and we needed some time to show how we wanted the team to play. You have to work hard to prepare the team to take the result and game by game show how we want to play. We have a lot to do to improve but we are in our way.”
Fighting for the points:
“I am thinking about ourselves and we are in the position to continue to work on ourselves. We may be first, but we have to keep the position, fight to stay there and fight for every point. Fight game by game and fix the things we need to along the way.”
