Maccabi continue their preparations for Saturday night's match against Hapoel Haifa. Carlos Garcia: "It's time to look forward"

Today the Maccabi Tel Aviv squad are rounding off their preparations for their Saturday night 8pm encounter with Hapoel Haifa at Netanya's Municipal Stadium. Season ticket holders are urged to consult the table of seating arrangements before embarking on their journey to the stadium.

Before today's practice, the club held their traditional pre-match press conference, attended by head coach Pako Ayestaran and central defender Carlos Garcia. About the venue for Saturday's match the head coach remarked: "We have seen quite good performances in Netanya. It's a good opportunity to show that we are at the level we were before". And the first eleven? "The only ones I have tell why I choose the first eleven is the players.  Apart from that, one of the things I would like to say here, because I think someone in the media has said that it was disrespectful to say that we are our own worst enemies, I continue saying it. We are our worst enemies. And this is not disrespectful. The first one who said that sentence was Winston Churchill, who said, 'I have opponents across, enemies by my side'. We've got opponents, yes. We've got tough opposition in Kiryat Shmona, yes. We've got tough opposition in Beer Sheva, yes. But our worst enemies are ourselves. Why? Because the only part of the performance you can control is yourself. Because in football you follow the stats and the level of predictability is the lowest in any sports team. In this context when I said our worst enemy is ourselves it is not disrespect for our opposition".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fcn8bYfg5OA&feature=youtu.be

As for his role in the defeat at Kiryat Shmona earlier in the week, the head coach said: "I was part of the defeat. If I win, I share the win with my players. If I lose, I share the defeat with my players. I am part of the defeat, but the one that won the game was Kiryat Shmona, against Maccabi, and I am part of Maccabi. If we lose I don't just blame the players. I blame myself. Do we have to improve things? Of course we have to improve things. Do we need to stop conceding goals? Of course it's going to be. Can we score more goals? Of course. I have confidence in my team. Can I improve myself? Of course I can improve. When I lose, the first thing I look at is what I could have done better. Before I bring the players, the first thing I think after one defeat is "Have I been right? Have I chosen the right eleven? Did I take the right decisions tactically? Did I respond quickly enough to the game? This is the first thing I do. I am very critical of myself. At this moment we are third because we are not better than Kiryat Shmona".

The Spaniard was also queried about the wisdom of his half-time substitutions against Kiryat Shmona: "If you follow the stats, the effectiveness of the changes are quite clear. Depending on the minute you make the substitutions, they affect the game or they have no effect. You know the substitution I am not pleased with? The one I did with Carlos in Beer Sheva. I know because I made this change. Maybe because I didn't do it earlier. If you want to affect the game you have to make the changes earlier. And the first eleven is not after. I am pleased with my decisions because my decisions are before the game, before the planning of the positions. And after the decision to say, no, the best player is on the bench. When you lose a game, he's always the best one. Because he's got the chance to say, no, I wasn't a part of the defeat. But he is part of the defeat. If a player on the bench thinks he is not part of the defeat he is not a healthy player to be with you because everybody is part of the defeat".

Asked if he thought the team's performances were too dependent on the abilities of midfielder Eran Zahavi, Pako responded: "Of course we are lucky to have Eran Zahavi and he's a magnificent player, but this doesn't dismiss the quality of the rest of the players. At the end if you want to be a winning team you need a team and we can see Messi. Messi has been at Barcelona winning so many things and with Argentina he doesn't win at all. He's a magnificent player but he's not surrounded for the World Cup, no chance to win anything". But perhaps that's still the perception of the other players? "No, not at all. I think they are all responsible for their own performance. They know if they are not at their peak they cannot help Eran Zahavi or Rade or whoever. Because you can attack even with the right performance of the centre back or the goalkeeper".

The assembled press were curious if the head coach felt that after Barak Levy conceded two goals deputising for the suspended Juan Pablo in goal, the young international was still up for the task: "I'll tell you something about that, that I have wanted to say for a long time. The first thing is, of course he can compete. If he's in Maccabi Tel Aviv he's here to compete, with Juan Pablo or whoever. But I think in general the supporters and the media have been quite disrespectful with Juan Pablo. Because I think he's a goalkeeper who has given so much to this team and has a championship with this team. He is someone who has shown by far he has enough good quality to play for Maccabi Tel Aviv or even a better team and I think we have to respect the professional when they have been performing for a long time. And I tell you as well he has been fantastic for us during this season".

A matter that seems to come up quite frequently of late concerns the Maccabi midfield. He was asked if he felt any of the players had specific advantages: "No advantages. Level of performance at this moment. Mahran Radi is a fantastic player, his work is in Maccabi. But Nosa is a fantastic player, they are both the same. The media see the game in a different way. But Nosa is lucky enough that the coach is Pako Ayestaran and not the media. And I think that he's good enough for Maccabi and stay in the eleven. I don't know but I always said you shouldn't be worried about the critics".

Asked about Saturday's match against Hapoel Haifa in the context of the defeat against Kiryat Shmona, Pako concluded: "If someone has beaten you, they've been better than you, that's all. But I tell you as well we have won seven games before and I don't see anything that should be changed. We had our chances at Kiryat Shmona too, and the result could have been different. Of course every game is different, especially because the quality is different, because the current performance of the teams is different, because the quality of the squad is different. We should be focused now on what is possible because the league is like a marathon – everyone behind you is working harder now, but what's important is how the marathon finishes ".

Central defender Carlos Garcia was also asked about the team's performance so far this season. He reminded the journalists present that the team also had difficulties in the prior two championship seasons. Right now Maccabi may have six points less than Kiryat Shmona but he's confident the squad have the ability to compete with them or any other opponent in the league. It's not a question of problems at the back, he said. Personally, he felt he was focused and played well at Kiryat Shmona. While opponents may have had their chances, and that happens, Maccabi have had plenty of chances of their own and so far he's concerned the rest of the season will see them winning at every opportunity.

Quite naturally the two-year Maccabi veteran was asked to express his feelings about events at the abandoned Tel Aviv derby earlier this month. He responded that it was more important to look forward. He was surprised he'd been involved in the whole process of accusations. He related that during the fracas no-one was sure anymore from which directions spectators might invade the pitch. It seemed to them like stadium security weren't reacting quickly enough, so his calls were to them and not to other spectators. Pako added that the club had been punished enough and that the time had now come to move on. Carlos was also sanguine about his "sentence" of community service with children. He had done such work in Spain, he said, and would continue to do so all his life. So far Carlos is concerned his community service was more like a reward for the court's recognition of the fact he'd done nothing wrong.