3,089 days have passed since Maccabi Tel Aviv lost a Tel Aviv derby. It happened when Eran Zahavi was still part of the team, in the championship season under Paolo Sousa. He came on as a substitute and failed to change the fate of the game. Since then, the yellows with unprecedented dominance in the battles between the city rivals and this evening (Saturday, 20:30) they come to a particularly significant derby.
Only a week after the loss that left a very bad impression on Sami Ofer, everything can be erased because three points will put Maccabi Tel Aviv at the top as if nothing happened against Maccabi Haifa. This has a double meaning and tonight’s game will have several key points.
1. Vladan Ivic is the big point. The coach of Maccabi Tel Aviv was crowned as an expert on marathon matters. “Championships are taken after 36 rounds”, *insert another cliché*, *there is room for another cliché*, etc., but what can one do about this reality? The Serbian knows it well and therefore, despite the bad feelings that accompanied it his defensive display and canceling in Sami Ofer for no apparent reason, he continues to radiate calmness, that everything is fine, even if his messages are a bit controversial. Like, for example, his answer regarding his playing methods when he claimed that the formation in which the Yellows played against Maccabi Haifa, and apparently Also against Ashdod, there was actually a 3-4-3.
This is of course a bit of cheating on his part. Of course, from a tactical point of view, you can say that these are games of numbers that are no longer relevant, that football is already a game of patterns and many things are complicated by that, but when you spew sentences into the air about 3-4-3, the ordinary public who are less into the depth of football’s tactical analysis, believe that you mean For a game with three strikers. That is not the case. Maccabi Tel Aviv played in Sami Ofer with nine players of a defensive nature and this is also reflected in their style of play. But, as far as Ivić is concerned, such mistakes can happen because this is part of the marathon. In his previous term he hardly had to deal with such falls, but Even when he was stopped with the results of a draw, as for example in the derby against Hapoel, he knew how to get up from it a week later.
Ivić’s test will be to get up tonight from this story and finish the cycle at the top of the table with a point difference from Maccabi Haifa and with a much better goal difference. In the end he came to win the championship, not just to win one game against the direct rival. This is the message he tried to convey immediately after the game at Sami Ofer, this is the message with which his players will arrive at Bloomfield. Nothing happened, now let’s show everyone why.
2. The game at Sami Ofer was largely decided because of the coach’s attitude and following an uncharacteristic mistake by Enrik Savorit, and still the one who grabbed the headlines in the days after was Eran Zahavi, who still doesn’t seem to have caught on with Maccabi Tel Aviv. Precisely after the European qualifiers he managed to set fire to the minds For the quality striker that he is, in the league things are less connected. It seems that quite a few good souls are waiting for him in the corner, those who have been waiting for the day when things will not work so smoothly, but in Maccabi Tel Aviv they continue to believe that this is an era that will soon end and number 7 will give what is expected of him.
At Zahavi’s there is silence during this period. He does not give interviews, his gestures on the field are restrained even when he is frustrated, and it seems that he waits more than anyone for the moment when the ball will go in. Nir Biton, another one who returned after years overseas, was asked about this before the game: “I’m tired of talking about what Eran did in football and I don’t think I need to defend him. He is among the greatest players to come out of the country, what he did is indescribable. Eran is a winner Big and one who feeds off all the criticism, and precisely when people question his abilities a little, that’s what gives him the drive. He contributed to us and I have no doubt that he will contribute to us.” Now everyone is waiting to see if this is the game where Zahavi will answer the critics.
3. Oskar Gloch was the prominent name missing from Vladan Ivic’s XI in the last game. “You have to understand that with Ivić there will be games where he won’t use Oscar, you’ll see it happen again,” a player in the team told me this week, and this is of course not an absurd statement. The Serbian coach has also shown in the past that he doesn’t always think with the flow, but it will be difficult for him to argue with Gluch’s data and at least according to the team’s practices, the young midfielder should start in the 11 against Hapoel.
Maccabi Tel Aviv scored 18 goals this season in the Premier League, 17 of which Gloch was on the pitch. Only one goal was scored without him, when Parfa Goyagon scored the third against Kiryat Shmona and Gloch was actually the player who was substituted. It’s a bit crazy, but it’s also Makes sense if you think about it. Maccabi Tel Aviv’s left side with Enrik Savorit, Ofir Davidzadeh and Gloch provides most of the ammunition. Maccabi Tel Aviv manages to create moves through the left wing and finish them successfully, even if the scorer comes from the right side of the field, as is the case with Gabi Kanikovski.
The big problem is that even when rolling on the grass, but especially when not, the right side fails to generate enough scoring opportunities. Maor Kandil opened the season with a goal for Stipa Pritza, but not much has happened since then on the right side of the yellows. “We are working on both wings. Right now this is what is happening, maybe we attacked more from the left for one reason or another, but there is Gabi Kanikowski who plays on the right and scores,” Ivić replied with a little defensiveness, but he also knows that this is a significant key in the yellow game. With Gloch and with more situations that will also come from the right side, Maccabi Tel Aviv will have higher chances of defeating any opponent in this league.
4. Nir Bitton appeared at the press conference before the game and after not participating in the previous two games against Beitar Jerusalem (Derick Lucassen) and Maccabi Haifa (Shahar Piven), it seems that he is returning to the 11. The acquisition from Celtic was tremendous in the European games and also started the league excellently , before the pain in his back took him out of two games. One of the players who can solve quite a few problems in the yellow buildup is Bitton, whose ability to release pressure from the opponent with one pass is something unusual in Israeli football.
When you look at the options for this game when it comes to the right side, both the defense and the link, you think of Bitton, Piven and Kanikowski. No one says the names of Derrick Lucassen and Joris van Overeem. Although one of them is listed as Israeli, these are two foreign players who came from the Dutch league and with a resume that should have given them a place in the 11 of Maccabi Tel Aviv. Van Overeem started the season well, but the injury took him off the pace and his ability in Sami Ofer was very bad.
Lucassen started against Beitar and was already replaced at halftime after a very lukewarm performance. The thing about him is that even in training he fails to show that he deserves to be in the team. There are matters of poor physical fitness, but there are also professional deficiencies. Players in the team are very unimpressed by his abilities and believe that he will be It is difficult for him to enter the lineup in a situation where his competitors are qualified. This is of course a problematic point for the future as well. The reality is that Maccabi Tel Aviv was not looking for a stopper at the time when Lucassen was signed, they had already given up on the issue and then simply returned there in a somewhat puzzling and contrary to the statements made by the professional team .
5. Regardless of the story with Stiffa breaking out that happened after Lucassen signed, the fact that Brendley Kavas was replaced by a foreign brakeman, after the professional team had already given up on the addition of a brakeman and in the end one comes, is very strange. Ivić spoke about the issue at the press conference, about the fact that he adjusted the formation to the squad. He of course stated that in his eyes the methods he plays in are the right ones for him and for Maccabi Tel Aviv, but he also hinted quite clearly that it was out of choice because, with the exception of Yonatan Cohen who joined late and was not fit to play, he has no real wing players.
This is where Lucassen’s signing gets weirder. The right thing to do was to use the two foreign positions, the one of Kvas and the one vacated by a break-in, to bring players there and open Maccabi Tel Aviv to a state of tremendous versatility, one that could have decided this season. Fortunately for Vladan Ivić and Barak Itzhaki, in January There is a new window, there is one foreigner’s position and it will be more convenient to transfer Andre Geraldes. Until then, Ivić will have to make do with what he has and despite the shortcomings, it is much more than enough to beat Hapoel Tel Aviv.