Great frustration at Maccabi Tel Aviv after the 1: 1 derby against Hapoel. Precisely after 10 consecutive victories, precisely in Bloomfield in front of about 4,500 yellow fans in the stands, precisely in the closing round of the regular season – Patrick Van Leven’s amazing run was stopped with a bad performance by the team. The loss of points in the derby also increased in the loss of the summit and Maccabi Tel Aviv will reach the playoffs for the first time after two seasons, from second place.
“We hysterically started the game, things did not connect and there was a sudden pressure, we made a sea of mistakes. We made every possible mistake, in all parts of the field,” Maccabi Tel Aviv concluded the 1: 1 against Hapoel. “There were no energies as there usually are. , It was clear that too many heavy and tired players, it makes sense and it is expected, we tried to survive one more game before the break with all this congestion, when we are still without super significant players like Dan Glazer, Jonathan Cohen and Andre Geralds. “It’s unfortunate that the fall came in a derby, in front of a team that came to interfere and even when we are not good, at no point did they try to win, sucks a lot.”
Maccabi Tel Aviv was a big disappointment with Dan Bitton’s ability, and his substitution at the break testifies to that more than anything else. Sharan Yeni fished in. It was a weak play by the captain who looked very exhausted as well as Maor Kandil on the right side of the defense. But Bitton finds himself in a problematic situation as he continues to get chances from Van Leven and quite a few of them .
Bitton, who was much fresher than most of his teammates since he played less recently, should have been the key figure for the Yellows. But he was not of course to blame for this draw. The problem of Maccabi Tel Aviv last night was the great weakness that caught almost everyone. The entry of Matan Hozaz did change the game, but he also messed up with one big miss especially after the cooking attempt of substitute Ayalon Almog. There was also disappointment from Alexander Peshich for the way she Entered the game and the silly red he absorbed at the last minute.Wan Leven also has quite a bit to do with what happened.His substitutions were late, the original plan with the lineup did not work and the reactions came late.
The decision to bring back Peshich, who has clearly not recovered yet and when the consequences of the Corona virus are known to leave a mark in the first few games, instead of betting on someone much fresher like the fast Eduardo Guerrero or even Nick Blackman, turned out to be another mistake. The decision not to exclude Enrique Sborit, who returned from injury and looked exhausted, is also puzzling, since there was room to try Matan Balteksa for at least the last 15 minutes after his very good performance against Hapoel Haifa.
Now the team is going on hiatus and if the load that is not enough in the great fatigue in the center of the field is not enough, then the Israeli team is expected to be based in its games on Dor Peretz and Eyal Golsa, which of course will not change the load map on these two. The Yellows will hope that at least players like Dan Glazer and Yonatan Cohen will be able to return and the decision not to play with them in the last few games will pay off in the playoffs.