Tonight (Wednesday), Maccabi Haifa held its press conference ahead of the game against Slavia Prague in the third round of the home leg of the Conference League.
With the exception of captain Neta Lavie, all the players will be fit, including Muhammad Abu Fani who will be on the squad and the midfielder Dolev Haziza, who suffers from a load on his abdominal muscles, but can play.
One option at the moment, is to come up with an array of three brakes, similar to what the Greens did against Feyenoord and Union Berlin.
The Czech champions arrived without a number of injured players and their coach Yandrich Trepyszowski complained about the condition of his squad.
Despite this, Barak Bachar was not impressed by it tonight, saying: "We studied them well, we know who is here and who is very good. They are a European league team and with all the shortcomings."
On the club's attitude to the Conference League and the power relations of Haifa at home, Bachar said: "I look at a game. Against Feyenoord with the missing team we could not win. "Because we still have a lot of games, but we will do everything to win."
On his injured situation, the coach said: "We want to have all the players at our disposal to create competition and distribute loads. Except Neta, everyone returns, Strain and Abu Fani train regularly and we will see how they are integrated. Once there is a full staff it is good and helps distribute loads. Neta is important and significant. "Last season he may have been a player of the season. Already in the second official game he was injured. We will not go into details, he is missing but there is a club and a team here. We are not dependent on any player. There is a staff full of players."
Coaching Maccabi Haifa.
Tomorrow a critical game, Photo: Courtesy of Maccabi Haifa
Bachar was asked if Slavia is the quality rival at home and said: "In terms of experience in Europe, ranking and quarterfinals of a Europa League a year ago, they are the best and strongest team at home. There is Union Berlin because they have no history in Europe but they are a very strong team. "In very home teams. It is a very, very difficult, quality home, but we do not give up and want to make an almost full stadium happy and the money and the ranking are clear, there is no question here at all."
On the changes he makes in the defensive squad often, the coach said: "There are things that do not depend on me like injuries. We brought in a foreign right defender who was supposed to play a lot but he was injured and even the load falls on Raz. Ofri was injured and everything happened with him and dismissal but according to training "I make the decisions. I always want a stable team, but I have to and there are constraints."
Bachar was asked about the situation at home, when only a win would leave a real chance to finish in one of the first two places: "We know we have one point at home, no goals. We play at home and want to take the win in the league and leverage it. With our crowd, no matter the round or home , Want to win and play well, to make our fans happy.This is the goal.
Defender Sean Goldberg added: "I played against them last year in the Europa League with BS.
Even with the missing they are an excellent group.
We are Maccabi Haifa, looking at ourselves and we have made good preparation. "
On his professional position on the team, Goldberg said: "I came here to play and help the team in any position or form needed. It is true that there is healthy competition and for every position there are some excellent players. Competition is a good thing and I do everything to get as many minutes as possible. "Excellent. It's true that a left defender is the job of the end. I will do everything that Barak decides for the best."
The defender was asked about Neta Lavi's subtraction and said: "Neta is a key player, a leader, our captain. I played with him in the national team and know him well. There are a lot of players with experience who listen to them. They try to bridge. There are backlogs here and we move forward."
Abu Fani.
Exercising as usual, Photo: Alan Schieber
Regarding the picture of the odds at home: "I do not want to look ahead. We have an important game tomorrow. Games with a lot of respect and we have a difficult home. With our audience that will give us a boost. After this game we can talk further. Slavia is a very high level European team. They know "Punishing when they have a chance. Defending the team is not an easy task. If we do what we worked on, it will be good and we will get a good result."
