After Maccabi Haifa’s victory on Saturday, Maccabi Tel Aviv wants to return to first place: tomorrow (Monday, 20:30, live broadcast on 5SPORT) they will advance to the main game of the ninth round in the Premier League – when they host Maccabi Netanya in Bloomfield. Today (Sunday), the team called a press conference ahead of the game, which was attended by the team’s coach, Vladimir Ivitch, and midfielder Gabi Kanikovsky – a former Netanya player.
The main topic that came up, naturally, was the situation of Yonatan Cohen – the acquired player who returned with great fanfare hours to the end of the transfer window, but was still not in the squad for any game, and should not be included in the squad for Maccabi Netanya. Ivitch commented on his situation and said: “Yonathan came here overweight, a few extra kilos, he’s not ready yet.”
The coach also referred in general to the question of excluding players from the squad: “It’s never easy to leave players out, but it’s part of the job. Sometimes the selection is related to the opponent, sometimes on a physical level.” As for his next opponent, Ivić said: “Maccabi Netanya may have lost a few points, but they are a team with quality players, an aggressive team that will give everything and we have to come and fight.”
Next to Ivić, the team’s midfielder stood up Gabi Kanikowski. Although he started the season in a great way, he was not included in the lineup in Doha against Bnei Sakhnin and remained on the bench. Kanikovski commented on the situation and said: “Obviously it’s not fun to be on the bench, but I’ve gotten used to Maccabi Tel Aviv having the deepest squad and there’s a fight. You have to be prepared for the fact that sometimes you won’t be in the lineup, and still give it your all.”