Barda and Tzur ahead of the clash against Hapoel Haifa: “We want to improve our away record”
Ahead of the away match against Hapoel Haifa (Saturday, 17:30), head coach Elyaniv Barda and goalkeeper Assaf Tzur spoke at a press conference.
The coach opened: “We are arriving with a depleted squad, but we will not use that as an excuse. On the contrary - it’s something that gives us motivation, for the players who are getting the opportunity and can show themselves”.
On the new signing, Marcus Coco: “We wanted him in the summer, but once the war with Iran began it made things difficult and we were unable to sign him. He is a versatile player who can play in several positions. I believe he will add to our team, and I’m happy that we managed to sign him”.
On the opponent: “Hapoel Haifa are a very tough and well-organized team. In the last match against them at Bloomfield we had a very difficult time. They may be in a less good period with less good results, but we are not looking at that”.
When asked what needs to be done in order to improve the results in away matches, he answered: “If I had a magic solution to our away results, I would have already used it. We talk about it, we work on it, and we want to improve our away record”.
“We are at the beginning of the second round, and our goal is to have a better round than the first, and we want to enter the playoffs in good form.” the coach concluded when asked about the team’s goals for this season. “If we do that – we can talk about future goals. Especially in a month like this, we need to deal with each challenge separately and with full concentration, and the goal I am looking at right now is to beat Hapoel Haifa”.
Goalkeeper Assaf Tzur also referred to the matches away from Bloomfield: “It’s hard to put a finger on one specific thing that isn’t working for us in away matches. Of course we are aware of the problem and want to improve our away record so that it is identical to our home record. We are capable of it, we have proven that we come to every match in order to win – and I hope we do that on Saturday”.
On the many absences expected for the team in the upcoming match, he said: “It’s part of the profession. Over the course of a season there are injuries and suspensions. Big clubs build wide squads, where every player can play. We will need to deal with it and do our job in the best possible way”.
