For the fourth time: Jose Rodriguez will miss a game against Maccabi Tel Aviv. Maccabi Haifa continues its preparations for the big battle at Sami Ofer Stadium on Monday, with the absence of several players such as the midfielder, the injured Yellows, who will be Barak Bachar’s most significant disadvantage when he is in excellent shape recently and even played in a variety of roles.
Maybe this is the hand of fate, since as mentioned, this is the fourth time since he arrived at Maccabi Haifa that Rodriguez will miss the Tel Aviv ex, out of six meetings, due to injuries. Last year, for example, just before the season game against Maccabi Tel Aviv with Sami Ofer, the contact was injured in the warm-up and had to miss the game.
Once again the Spaniard missed the encounter during the previous season because of nine yellow cards. Either way, Rodriguez gets a very big appreciation in Haifa and according to all estimates during the month of January the team will enter into negotiations with him in order to continue in the team for another two years. By the way, Josh Cohen is also expected to sign an extension of his contract during January
Apart from Rodriguez, Mahmoud Jaber and Neta Lavie will also be absent. The one who is expected to return to the squad is defender Raz Meir, who was already on the roster in the last game against Bnei Sakhnin, but in Haifa they preferred not to take unnecessary risks with the player who has just recovered from injury. Ali Muhammad, who will open with a link and carry a yellow card on Wednesday, will have to be careful not to absorb another yellow otherwise he will miss the State Cup game against Betar Jerusalem, just before the big meeting against Hapoel Beer Sheva.
Maccabi Haifa is aware of the importance of the game against Maccabi Tel Aviv and the desire to break the deadlock after five years and achieve a home victory, but at the same time the club says that if the team comes to the game modestly and plays its normal game – it will achieve the goal.
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