Tonight (Monday), Maccabi Tel Aviv recorded a huge 1: 4 victory over Betar Jerusalem in Bloomfield, at the end of which the Yellows climbed to the top for the first time this season and overtook Maccabi Haifa in the table, just before the end of the regular season.
Patrick Van Leven He said at the end: “Great night for us, our good performance, good goals, we deserved to win tonight. We tried to play our game, they too had difficulties and they will have to deal with them, have to ask them about their difficulties. We had situations, we could have conquered even one or two more. ”
The change since becoming a coach: “You see it on the pitch. We have an idea that we try to apply every week, play high and press, return the ball as fast as possible when losing. “Our players have high quality, we use their qualities, the players are united and they have a close relationship, even when players sit on the bench they encourage each other and cheer.”
He added: “I do not stop and think to myself whether what I do is crazy or not, but I enjoy, even in training, I enjoy seeing the players implement it in games. We are still trying to get better, I enjoy working with the team and the progress of the players. We did not talk about what would have happened if I had coached from the beginning. We want to play like this every week, success will come from the desire to improve. “
Itay shechter He added: “There is no doubt that we made an important victory, I waited for this goal, as you know I work very hard in training and played less, but when you are in a club like Maccabi Tel Aviv you should know that there is rotation, there are foreigners and quality players, and when you are called you should be there , No matter how many minutes. I am very happy with this victory and I have to move on. “
He added: “In the first round I played very little, I hardly played, but since Patrick came the rotation has become much better and deeper in the team. We heard the crowd warming up, it gave us strength and we thanked them. “In the first half we were not good enough and they embarrassed us with a few passing attacks, but in the second half we broke free.”
On Maccabi Haifa: “We need to know how to deal with pressure, when we were 8 points behind, we knew that it would not be easy and that we should not stumble, but that we could close. We knew from the game against KS that we would be in trouble if we stumbled, we certainly had some luck that in the games in the 90 minutes we won, but luck goes with the good ones. We or they? Looking at us, we will continue in modesty and hard work, do not like to talk about who is better. Whoever takes the championship is the better team. If we win this season too it will be amazing, it will be my biggest season here, but modesty is the most important thing in football. championship? With God’s help”.