Belgrade Partisan: Maccabi Tel Aviv between Mladen Krestajic and Vladan Ivic

Mladen Krastić arrived at the press conference this morning after getting tired of questions about his future and the stuttering of Maccabi Tel Aviv.

Will his words settle his contract or will he bring Ivitch's comeback closer?

Behind the scenes in Kiryat Shalom ahead of Goldhaar's fateful decision

Yaniv Tuchman

14/04/2022

Thursday, April 14, 2022, 3:00 p.m.

• Share on Facebook

• Share on WhatsApp

• Share on Twitter

• Share on Email

• Share on general

• Comments

  Comments

Summary: Maccabi Tel Aviv - Maccabi Haifa 1: 1 (Sport 1)

Already several press parties and interviews at the end of games, that Mladen Krastic had to deal with questions about his future at Maccabi Tel Aviv.

At first he would reply that he was not dealing with it.

He later added that if they let him coach next season, it will be a different Maccabi Tel Aviv.

On Monday, at the end of the press conference after the draw against Maccabi Haifa, he just smiled.

It was one last question in the press conference hall in Bloomfield and Krastich replied to it with a smile that revealed his white teeth.

The smile betrayed that he already wanted to explode.

Say what is on his heart.

More on Walla!

Krestajic: "Disappointed that they did not announce that I was continuing, felt that I was on a test"

To the full article

Feels on condition.

Mladen Krestic (Photo: Ariel Shalom)

This morning, at the press conference in Kiryat Shalom, Krasteich was again asked how he felt in the face of the fact that Maccabi Tel Aviv is attracting him and not informing him what it wants to do with him next season.

This time Krestajic has already opened.

There are a lot of coaches who would be afraid to talk.

There are many who would be afraid to close in on themselves the chance, if they upset the landlord.

Krestajic is not like that.

The environment close to him knows he is disappointed, and he, as the leader of a bunch of three Serbs besides him, needs to show them that he is not knocking an account.

He did not attack Maccabi and did not express harsh criticism, but he admitted that he was disappointed.

That he feels on probation.

One that came up from the youth and needs to prove itself.

And that, he admits, he does not like.

Maccabi Tel Aviv is in the middle of April in an excellent place in terms of the coach's position.

Maybe today is a little less, after Krastich's remarks that were close to an ultimatum.

But if you clean up the press conference this morning, Maccabi Tel Aviv has to choose between two good coaches - and in this place it was not after Vladan Ivic left, after Georgios Donis was fired and certainly not after Patrick Van Leven was sent home.

In all the last three times Maccabi Tel Aviv has been looking for a coach, it has not been in the situation it is today.

It took her a long time to find a solution to Ivica's departure.

Van Leven after Donis was the default and the days that Barak Yitzhaki served as coach after Van Leven, he counted just like the media.

A comeback will be an even bigger challenge.

Vladan Ivic (Photo: Danny Maron)

Today Maccabi Tel Aviv has two very good options.

The first to continue with Krestic, and the second to bring back Ivic.

Krasteich, to the chagrin of Maccabi Tel Aviv, lost many points in this playoff.

Had it not been for the results of the draw against Bnei Sakhnin and against Maccabi Netanya, it is doubtful that anyone would have talked here about replacing him.

Also against Maccabi Haifa this week, Maccabi Tel Aviv presented football much better than the opponent.

The point that the champion saved was after a bad quarter of an hour for Maccabi Tel Aviv at the end, but the game had a multi-goal victory for Maccabi Tel Aviv, which is to Krasteich's credit.

The Serb was not afraid to make revolutions in the squad this season, was not afraid to move to play with two strikers and was completely confident of throwing an 18-year-old player into the biggest game in Israeli football in front of a full stadium.

Krestajic is very brave, sometimes even on the verge of promiscuity.

It cost him here and there, but he had to gamble to close the gap with Maccabi Haifa and Hapoel Beer Sheva.

If he wins the state cup and knows how to pass Hapoel Beer Sheva in the league in the remaining games, he will be able to go with his head held high and mark his half year in Israel as successful.

If Maccabi Tel Aviv decides to go with him for another season, it will be a worthy choice.

Krasteich and his team have rubbed shoulders here in recent months and are well acquainted with their staff.

With or without Eran Zehavi, they know what needs to change and who needs to be replaced.

Maccabi Tel Aviv will be able to make the leap with them and ascend to the top, but the signs show that this will not happen.

The choice will be good, the question is when is the ceiling.

Goldhaar (Photo: Danny Maron)

Maccabi Tel Aviv is currently in an optimal place, because if it does not want Krestajic, it can bring in Vladan Ivic.

Although he was in Israel last week, when terrorism struck in Tel Aviv, Ivitch is today in the position that he is ready to return to work in Kiryat Shalom.

He has not worked for over a year and the offers that flowed to him did not attract him.

Maccabi Tel Aviv will always be in the heart of Ivica, and today he is ready to take the flight from Thessaloniki and come.

If he returns to work at Maccabi Tel Aviv, it will be a professional challenge for him, even bigger than the one he had when he came to Israel for the first time.

This is not just the task of returning the championship to Kiryat Shalom.

These are the eyes that will be directed at him by the fans who will be sure he will do it.

With a squad far from what he had in a season where he took a championship by a gap of 31 points from second place, he will be expected to bring a championship and it will not be easy, but Ivica will bring with him something that Krstiewicz has less.

For him every practice is a cup final and every game is life or death.

Ivica's attitude is much more critical to the game and it could be that this is what Maccabi Tel Aviv needs.

Krasteich or Ivica, in both cases Maccabi Tel Aviv will make a good choice - the big question is whether it will be able to choose in time, whether Mitch Goldhaar will not miss the opportunity to decide in time on his coach for next season.

There is no reason why Maccabi Tel Aviv will not end the season knowing who its coach is for next season and there is no point, in the current situation, that within a month, it will still not have solid professional plans for next season.

• sport

• Israeli soccer

• Super League

Tags

• Maccabi Tel Aviv in football

• Mladen Krestajic

• Vladan Ivic