The despair did not become more comfortable. A lot has happened to Yannis Sapropoulos and Maccabi Tel Aviv this season, but the Greek coach has never shown a shred of disbelief or lack of hope – at least not outwardly. Last night (Sunday) after the second loss in one month in a derby, 78:77 to Hapoel Tel Aviv , For the first time Sapropolos sounded desperate.He really could not explain the sharp extremism in his team’s ability, which seemed to be climbing out of the pit, but once again degenerating into a new abyss.
“It’s a bad loss for us, obviously we wanted to win and the worst is how we performed,” Sapropolos said at the end, “I did not expect such a bad ability, so many losses not committed to reality. We were not stable for 40 minutes, we missed some layups, crucial free throws “I have to find out why we did not play like three days ago. Only 2 assists in the first half, it bothers me a lot and it shows that we did not win as a team.”
Seemingly deja vu. The bipolar disorder of the Yellows deprives sleep from the eyes of the coach. Here they make a big victory in Jerusalem, only to lose a few days later in a disgraceful way in Herzliya. Here comes the back of the Corona with a huge victory over Olympiacos, only to be humiliated again in the derby.
Sapropolos admits he finds no explanation: “Our chronic problem is the instability. To come here after 4 losses in a Euroleague game and lose 15 in one half, it has no explanation and it repeats itself over and over again. The players must understand that we need them all. Maybe when we win We come with Uber motivation and lose ourselves. Where’s Thursday’s team and where’s the team I saw today? It’s my responsibility to make sure of that. We are not good in the league, not good in the Euroleague, and we are in trouble.
The coach was asked if the hostile atmosphere in the drive did not make it difficult for his players and replied: “This can not be a serious reason. We have experienced players, we are used to playing in such halls. Maybe except for players it is first time but as a team we are used to it. This is not an excuse”.
John Dibertolomeo Sounds bewildered like our coach: “If we knew why we were suffering from instability we would have already solved it. It’s a problem from the root, top to bottom. We struggle while playing, we struggle during the season. We have a problem of mental toughness, it’s not a matter of Talent and nothing else, we just can not bring ourselves to put together good performances in a row. ”
