Maccabi Tel Aviv is collapsing. There is no finer way to describe the season's dreadful yellow, including four losses in seven games in the league and only one point away from the red line. Who paid the price for that is
the coach Patrick van Leeuwen, who was fired the night
(between Monday and Tuesday).
A source in the team said of the Dutchman's dismissal: "We had to change, there was no other choice. We can not give up the league like that."
The Yellows are currently considering the possibility of returning ex-Vladan Ivic, but at the same time are considering additional options, with the professional manager, Barak Yitzhaki, in the meantime, being the interim coach.
Van Leven's layoffs were expected.
In retrospect, it would have been better for the Yellows to say goodbye to the Dutchman immediately after Maccabi Netanya and not to snatch the painful blow from Ashdod, but that is already a thing of the past.
The results were ultimately the deciding factor in the coach's fate, even checks from the fans contributed to the move, but that's really not the whole story.
A source close to the heads of Maccabi said: "The players did not play for Van Levon, they did not believe him, and there are also players who did not count him at all. We kept seeing that he is not a good enough coach, but when the players are not with you the story ends. ".
Ivica, Photo: Ami Shumen
And the players were a key point.
True, some of them show poor ability, but as the criticism of the players towards the coach, and not just players deleted or not counted by the Dutch, continued to pile up week after week - from the disrespectful attitude towards them, outdated football, fixed methods and patterns, poor game management, more and more.
Contact Dan Glazer, who even before Van Leven's dismissal was the only player to face the media, said: "I did not imagine that I would be in the situation at Maccabi Tel Aviv that we would be a point from the red line, but that is the reality and everything must be done to change the situation.
We can not cry and say will be fine.
Everything must be done to change the situation. "