Arnold Epshtein, a longtime Krylia Sovetov and Amkar press secretary who now lives in Israel, spoke to about new Krasnodar head coach Vladimir Ivich, who recently managed Maccabi from Tel Aviv.
On January 4, Ivic signed a two-year deal with the Krasnodar club.
From 2018 to 2020, Ivic led Maccabi Tel Aviv to back-to-back Israeli league titles. The current season the coach did not complete, having accepted the offer from Krasnodar. He is replaced at Maccabi by the Spaniard Aitor Karanka. Besides, Ivic has previously worked in Greek PAOK and English Watford.
“Two Maccabi from Tel Aviv and Haifa, along with Hapoel from Beersheba, make up the three big Israeli teams,” Epstein told . – A trainer who works in one of them is actually doomed to a prize. I wouldn’t want to dive into the game setting and player progression, but Ivic’s team this season, in my opinion, resembled Krasnodar in its canonical form: they blocked all “villages” and lost in decisive matches. For the moment, Maccabi Tel Aviv has only two defeats against its main competitors. If the objectively strong Haifa wreaked havoc in the last quarter of the game with nearly even play, then Hapoel simply knocked out Ivic’s side due to their aggression and energy. With the help of the same tricks, if you remember, they usually knocked out Krasnodar.
– Stylistically, the Serb is prone to ball control, small passes, lack of long passes out of defense?
– His “Maccabi” played quite brilliant attacking football, scored beautiful goals. The goal difference after 16 games is 38-7, the two best in the league. Home attendance is around 20,000, every game is a holiday, in this regard everything is great and not boring. But I don’t feel that all the team’s processes have been built perfectly. Attacking midfielder Eran Zahavi, for example, returned to Maccabi from PSV six months ago, but he still hasn’t acquired the best form, he plays like that.
– At Watford, they say, Ivic was known as a harsh disciplinarian. I argued with the captain, I forbade bringing phones not only on the bus, but at the base in general.
– A Serb knows how to be firm. Maccabi is played by 18-year-old Oskar Glukh, a rising star and crowd favourite. With the Israel youth team, Glukh won the silver medal at the European U-19 Championship. At the club he had playing time, scored goals, but after a big tournament he got tired and Ivic benched the guy. Fairly objectively, I guess, but the reviews poured in. The coach didn’t back down in response, but explained in detail the reasons for his decision.
I can hardly imagine Israelis, given their sociability, having their phones taken away, like at Watford, but Ivic is ready for unpopular measures. On the other hand, with a tough approach, there should be no missed games, and Maccabi have.
– Externally, Ivic looks unsmiling, even the word “pokerface” comes to mind.
– Russian football has extremely difficult international prospects, for the same “Krasnodar” it is now more important to solve not some global problems, but simply to preserve the life of football in itself. Ivic is perfect for this. His “Maccabi” could dance for ten minutes in front of the fans, celebrating victories, and generally looked lively, and the coach himself – open and emotional. It is possible that the two clubs have southern similarities in this regard.
After 17 rounds, Krasnodar takes 8th place in the WORLD RPL ranking. The team spent the first half of the season under the management of Oleksandr Storozhuk.
Source : MatchTV
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