Days of Repentance: Will Maccabi Tel Aviv's acquisition players bring about change? | Israel Today

The huge panic that has gripped Maccabi Tel Aviv fans has not been remembered by the Yellows for many years.

The yellow crowd has become accustomed in recent years to having a quality, powerful team, such that even if it does not play particularly attractive football as in some of the games with Vladan Ivic - the coach who won the championship by more than 30 points - it will still win and see dominance in most of its games.

The yellow crowd.

Will you lose patience?

Photo: Maor Elkelsi,

And what happened this season?

Maccabi parted ways with most of its stars, some voluntarily and some out of necessity, such as Yonatan Cohen and Dor Peretz.

She had a hard time in almost all the games in the Conference League, against rivals who would fight to stay in our league.

In some of those games the runner-up even failed to score.

The warning signs were lit by the fans, some of whom even protested against the management, and coach Patrick Van Leven.

Then came the embarrassing loss yesterday.

To get a trio from Sakhnin?

It's a red line.

The main culprit for the fans is Van Leven.

They plan to protest against him in the games that will come after the break, and believe that his hourglass is running out.

"He is destroying our team, we are back to being the Maccabi of 2010", were some of the reactions of the yellow crowd.

And those are gentle responses.

The criticisms of the Dutch coach are that his football is outdated, that he is fixed on the method, and does not give enough opportunities to the rotation players.

The thing is that some players also criticize the coach for the game patterns, a method that does not work, and preferential treatment of other players even if they do not deliver the goods.

Van Leven was the one who decided to give up Eitan Tibi, the brakeman of the Israeli national team, this summer, who did not like the conduct against him at the end of last season.

Patrick Van Leven, Photo: Alan Schieber,

Eden Kartzev, who was marked as a great potential, wanted to leave the team as soon as Eden Shamir arrived, because he understood where the wind was blowing, and now he is on his way to Netanya.

Ayalon Almog would have gone out on loan if they had given him, and Matan Hozaz did not hide his disappointment from the coach after he was replaced by Sakhnin.

The point is clear - the locker room in Kiryat Shalom is not really united around Van Levon.

"There are players below the level"

Maccabi is aware of the problems they have, and has stated that "we will fix everything that is needed."

We'll get to that later, but we need to look at the full picture.

True, the current Maccabi is not playing well and the coach is responsible for that.

True, the professional manager, Barak Yitzhaki, also has a part in the situation, and the fact that most of the reinforcement players arrived and arrive at the end of August and not two months ago, is also a big problem.

But there is another problem that is less talked about - a decrease in the ability of some of the players.

Around the club, they said yesterday on the subject: "There are players who last season, and this season, are below their level. Now that Peretz, Yoni, Peshich, Schechter, their weakness is more pronounced. When all the new players are here and get involved, it is not certain who is playing now They will continue to play. "

Maccabi's solution, at least at this stage, is in the reinforcement players who are supposed to sign.

The first is Corsao's national team midfielder Brandley Kwas, who has released his contract with al-Nasser and is on the verge of closing.

The 28-year-old winger is set to step into the big shoes of Jonathan Cohen, who was sold to Pisa.

Gabi Kanikovsky, who is supposed to come from Netanya, is supposed to add creativity in the center of the field, which Maccabi is so lacking in its games.

On top of that, Stipa Fritza has got first minutes in the last two games, and is set to become the Yellows' leading striker after the break.

Dan Bitton and Eden Shamir will get even more involved, and Eyal Golsa is also slowly returning from the injury he suffered last season.

Maccabi are convinced that these changes will make a difference, and make the team one that will fight for all the titles.

All of these things have to happen in a relatively short period of time during the national team break.

If that does not happen, Van Leven's chair will start rocking, and not just because fans are demanding the end of his tenure.

Brandly Quas.

Will save the situation?

Photo: Getty Images,