2024-01-21 17:02:04
Football, and sports in general, are a dynamic thing. What is true this week, can look completely different next week, and certainly in a month and in two months. In the crazy pace of games we got this season following the forced break, this saying is even truer. Here, Maccabi Tel Aviv, which seemed to travel to the championship with a gap of 10 points, lost most of it within a week, and Maccabi Haifa suddenly looks like the best team in Israel again, or at least the one that is in the best shape in Israel at the current point in time.
Now, as we approach the halfway point of the season in the league, it’s time to look again at the champion, and especially at its professional manager and the strongest man in the club, probably when it comes to professional decisions, Gal Alberman. The man who, together with Barak Becher, led the club to three championships and an appearance in the group stages of the Champions League, made a decision this summer that changed Israeli football – the appointment of Masai Dago, an inexperienced coach with a problematic resume, to one of the most stressful positions in our football, and as the successor to the best Israeli coach Certainly in the last decade, and a figure surrounded by fame.
When I addressed this appointment here at the beginning of the season, I admitted that it was not clear to me. To put a club like Maccabi Haifa, with its media coverage and demanding audience in the hands of Dago, seems to me like an irresponsible, almost promiscuous move. At the time, we also didn’t know how much the staff Masai would get would be different from the one Bacher got. In the same column, I wrote that the responsibility for what happens will first of all be on Gal Alberman. Now that this bet seems to have succeeded, at least more than I expected, it is once again time to turn the spotlight on the professional manager.
Maccabi Haifa had to face quite a few challenges this year, and so far, the bottom line, it is doing so successfully. The departure of Azili, Abu Fani, Josh Cohen and Dylan in Tubinsika, the injury that disables Dolev Haziza, Charon Sherry’s family problems that eventually led to his departure until the end of the season at least, the Dia Saba affair, the player who was supposed to be the star of the club, the debut The nightmare of Lorenzo Shimich, and the return of Lior Rafalov, a move that could have ended in demoralization for all parties, but so far, has succeeded above and beyond expectations.
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seven Deleted (Alan Shiver)
First of all, the compliments go to Masai Dago, the man on the lines, who manages at least at this stage to neutralize almost every mine and has already managed to overcome one difficult crisis at the beginning of the season. Admit and confess that when Maccabi Tel Aviv opened a gap of 10 points in the table, I thought the fight for the championship was almost over. I still put the yellows as favorites, but the way in which the young and inexperienced coach not only managed to stop Haifa’s snowball, but turned the picture upside down, is impressive by all accounts. It is not only the victory over Maccabi Tel Aviv in Bloomfield that broke a negative streak of 12 years, but also the fact that Haifa knew how to leverage it afterwards for two victories and a goal ratio of 0:8, and did not suffer from a drop in tension as sometimes happens after victories in big games.
And if we return to Alberman’s work, he has received quite a bit of criticism from both commentators and his audience this season. The feeling was sometimes that he was a bit “over it”, to define it in a neighborhood way. Too many stars left Haifa’s squad in less than six months. Perhaps not all the cases could have been prevented, but when there is such a large accumulation, including cases where the conduct raises questions (Dia Saba, Josh Cohen), the raising of eyebrows is understandable, as well as the concern of the green crowd. But, and this should be said to Alberman’s credit, he turned Maccabi Haifa into a club with a strong and healthy infrastructure, and when the infrastructure is good, it is much easier to deal with the renovations on the upper floors.
As of the 17th round, Maccabi Haifa scored the most goals in the league together with Maccabi Tel Aviv, and it does so despite the departure of Omar Atzili and Beli Dia Saba most of the season. It conceded the fewest, and it does so despite the severe problems it had in the goalkeeper position and in defense At the beginning of the season. Masai Dago managed to combine in a great way Anan Halaili and Ilai Hajjaj as leading players in the team, certainly Halaili, and in the last few weeks it seems that Goni Naor is finally starting to remember why Haifa insisted on acquiring him. This patience, along with the ability to give a platform to young people, It’s a coach’s job, but it wouldn’t have happened without a system that makes it possible, and without the support of the professional manager, who also made sure to land Kenny Seif and Gadi Kinda, high-profile Israeli reinforcements already at the beginning of January.
If we want another example, we can look at Frentzi Piero. We sometimes tend to underestimate the striker from Haiti, he is clumsy, clumsy, and many times makes the Haifa fans themselves bang their heads against the wall, but his numbers don’t lie. He managed to upgrade himself this season, and a balance of 9 goals in 13 games is a balance that any striker in the league would be proud of. Even in his case, the system’s patience and backup proved themselves.
fished shadow
And of course, it is impossible without a word about Lior Rafalov. The last time Haifa brought home the hero of the crowd, it was Yossi Banyon. It ended in trauma and a scar that was not the ice cream for the green crowd. I’m sure that even though these are very different types, there was a fear among the same audience that this comeback would also smash you in the face. In practice, they could not have imagined a better scenario. These are not only Rafalov’s numbers, seven goals and added 5 assists so far. It’s not just goals against Maccabi Tel Aviv and in the derby. It’s also leadership, an example for young people, and a player who is currently a support for this whole team, someone to trust. Even the bet to bring him back in the summer, with all the risk that comes with it, has proven itself in a big way.
Gal Alberman has received and received criticism since last May. He received criticisms that in my opinion were mostly understandable in real time (from me as well, I will admit and not be ashamed), but in football we first of all judge by the results, and at least after half of this season, both him and Masai Dago, who was received with great suspicion and with the feeling that his failure is just a matter of time, can certainly look back on the half of the season that has passed for them, and be satisfied with their work so far. Now, it will be interesting to see if the return to the championship fight will cause the Greens to make more significant moves, and if the result of the last month marks the true direction in which Haifa’s season is going.
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