Maccabi Tel Aviv will arrive for tonight’s game (Monday, 20:45, live on5SPORT) Against Maccabi Petah Tikva with two goals – to maintain a reasonable gap from Maccabi Haifa at the top, and to avenge the loss in the first round of the season against the Malabuses.
It is clear that the players in the team are satisfied with the change on the lines. This week, for the first time in a long time, was a full training week without a game in the middle of the week, and for the players it was enough to draw conclusions, which are: Patrick Van Leven is much closer to Vladimir Ivitch than to Yorgos Donis in terms of philosophy.
One player said: “The training is much longer, there is a greater emphasis on the whole issue of tactics, including in the video assemblies. Patrick is tougher. Although he is not as tough as Ivica was, but at the level we in the team need.” Another player expanded: “Let’s say that tactically it is clearer to us now what we need to do. The level of training is much higher. The difference is very big professionally.”
Today the coach will actually have another and very big test, and so will the players, against the team that defeated them in the previous round. The team commented on this: “We must not lose points. We have lost points all season, we want to continue the momentum. Maccabi Petah Tikva is a strong team, a victory today will definitely show that we are on the right path.”
In terms of lineup, there will likely only be a change in the right-back position, as Sharan Yeni sits seven on the death of his father and the other two defenders in that position, Maor Kandil (suffering from a groin strain) and Ben Bitton (a tear in the back thigh muscle) are injured. Shahar Phiben seems to be either a defender or a stopper, when the same can be said of Luis Hernandez.
Estimated composition: Daniel Tennenbaum; Shahar Phiben, Eitan Tibi, Luis Hernandez, Enrique Seborit; Dan Glazer, Eyal Golsa, Dor Peretz; Yonatan Cohen, Tal Ben Haim, Alexander Peshich.
