Football fans love romance.
And when stories of the kind of past player returning to save the club occur, they can captivate the audience.
Bnei Lem's return to the position of coach at Maccabi Netanya is made of exactly the same materials.
Will this novel succeed or not?
It's too early to tell, but there are some factors that could definitely help make this happen.
Quiet from the crowd.
Lem, 62, will appear today for his first press conference as the diamond coach.
The messages he will convey will be directed mainly to the Maccabi Netanya audience.
As someone who lives and breathes the city, Lem knows he owes the fans to him.
One of the main reasons why Raymond Atfeld is no longer on the lines, is the crisis he had with the fans.
And let's not forget: the owner of Maccabi Netanya, Eyal Segal, is first and foremost a fan of the team.
Bnei Lem in the debut training.
Will he succeed in the task ?, Photo: Courtesy of Maccabi Netanya
So what do Netanya fans want?
First of all, a group that will excite them, that will remind them of the happy period of Eran Levy and Dia Seba or that of Larry Cayuda.
A team that plays offensive football, that gives a show.
This is the DNA of Maccabi Netanya.
It's not easy in a week and a bit to make a team off a bit lively and happy, but Netanya has the tools, and Lem has already started conveying these messages to the fans, that the more they give him back, the more likely he and the team will be to succeed this season.
"The crowd for me is the 12th player," Benny Lem told the official Diamond website yesterday. "I believe that if the crowd gives us a boost, we will be able to give the fans a lot of pleasure. "We will give our 100 percent. I expect the fans that even if some of them do not like this or that player - the same for me, because some wanted me and some did not - they will look at the goal and join forces so that Maccabi Netanya will move forward."
The defensive game will also improve ?, Photo: Alan Schieber
Stabilization of defense and procurement.
Even if the audience responds to the requests of the former player, the mantra is well known - Netanya and Benny Lem will have to achieve good results, otherwise everything will turn upside down on them.
The crowd can be patient in the next three games against Maccabi Tel Aviv, Maccabi Haifa and BS, but after that the story will change.
And here comes the professional side.
One of the problems Maccabi Netanya has this season is the defensive squad.
True, Shir Tzedek was injured in some of the games, and so was Shai Konstantin, but still, the team's defensive game was not good, there was not always coordination between the players, and some of them looked very heavy against attacking players who are not considered league jets.
Lem will have to stabilize the defense, because without a good defensive game, the pressure method that the Diamonds want to keep playing with just can’t work.
It may be that at the moment, the coach will not have too many magic solutions, so in January he will have to try to bring in a quality foreign brake, preferably fast and strong, that can complete and cover up mistakes of the rest of the back line players.
Almog Cohen.
Will he move to the side of the management ?, Photo: Berni Ardov
The captain.
Almog Cohen managed to man the brake role in a great way last year.
This year things got a little less connected to him in that position, and a lot of professionals are confident he’d better get back to playing in the back link.
But whether he plays as a stopper or a link player, this is not the main problem around the captain, but more all the background noise around his future at the club.
When Cohen returned to Netanya directly from Germany, he included a clause in his contract that after he retired he would be appointed to a professional position in the system.
Recently there has been repeated talk that the player may retire as early as January in order to fill the role of professional manager, but it is not at all certain that the timing is right for him, and especially for the team.
Maybe for Bnei Lem, who is considered a very comfortable person, it will not be a problem to work in two and a half months under Cohen, who was one of those who supported bringing in the coach, but what about the players?
How can the players who currently share the locker room with him keep his distance from him and receive instructions from him?
When Betar Jerusalem decided that Yossi Benyon would be its professional manager, she let him end the season and only then did he take office.
It is better for Maccabi Netanya and also for Almog Cohen to remove from the agenda the issue of the player's retirement in January.
This will give peace to the team players and also to Cohen himself, who even if he may play less, at least he will still be able to concentrate until the end of the season on struggles only on the pitch.
