Maccabi Tel Aviv travel to Doha stadium on Saturday for the MD8 league clash with Bnei Sakhnin (20:15) aiming to continue the run of form. Three days after recording an emphatic 3-0 victory in the Tel Aviv derby which put behind the disappointment following the defeat at Haifa, Maccabi’s coach Vladimir Ivic held an open training session at Bloomfield stadium which was attended by 1750 fans. At the end of practice, Ivic met the media and spoke of the importance in winning the derby as well as the match ahead against Sakhnin: “Every match and every victory is important especially when you play a derby after dropping points” Ivic said, “We prepared ourselves to play a tough match and win. We were the better side, we were more organized, we played attacking football and we won what we fought for”.
With a large squad at his disposal, the 45-year-old Serbian coach shared some of his selection problems he faces week-in-week-out: “When you have 24 field players and you play only in one competition, picking a squad is not easy. We initially prepared for something different, but we were left without Europe. We would like to give all our players the attention for their hard work and qualities they display. They are all quality players, but I only have 11 places in the starting line-up, and we can only use 5 substitutes who play each time so picking your 20-man-squad every time is not an easy task”.
Ivic, who has seen no less than 10 different players score goals in the league so far, said of his squad: “I satisfied with my players and their quality. I said in the past we might lack some balance but I don’t want to return to that. We have quality players and I am delighted with their qualities and what they show me every day. Obviously we are working very hard in order to improve both individually and as a team”.
Ahead of Saturday’s match against Bnei Sakhnin, Ivic added: “We face a very good side, they have experienced players and a good coach so we know what to expect from such a game. They are positioned well in the table and this is on merit. They deserve to be where they are so we know what to expect and need to be focused because it will be tough from the first second”.
Ivic, who confirmed that Oscar Gloukh is back to full fitness, spoke about the return of Yonatan Cohen who has yet to be named in the squad: “We are following the progress of Yonatan but don’t forget that he came here after a month without regular training. He hardly played last season (in Italy) in a similar way to Dor Peretz. This is a long period and players take time before they return to the fitness they were before they left. It is not easy and is a lot of hard work. We signed both of them as we believed they will return quickly to their fitness. Dor has been doing it and played in several matches. With Yonatan we need to be more patient as he had an injury a month ago, and we are making progress on a daily basis as I am the first one who wants him a 100% fit as he will help us a lot on the pitch”.
