Beitar Jerusalem will be backing action on Tuesday night (20:00) at Teddy Stadium when they welcome in Hapoel Petach Tikva for the 3rd round of Championship Playoff matches as the yellow-and-black will look to pick up points and keep pace with table leaders Hapoel Beer Sheva. Head Coach Barak Itzhaki’s side played to a dramatic 2-2 draw over the weekend down south against the Southern Reds as Beitar came back from a 2-0 deficit at the break as Omer Atzily and Timothy Muzie scored to split the points with the latter’s goal coming in the 96th minute of the contest.

With that, the matches will now be coming fast and furious over the course of the next few weeks with games being played every three or four days while each may determine who will bring home the league title. With that, Itzhaki knows that he will need to rotate his squad in order to keep them fresh in order to get the best out of each and every one of his players.

Sometimes it will be the bench boss who will need to sit a player or two or three and use dog into his squad to find the appropriate replacement so that he keeps everyone on their toes and ready to go as the season heads into the stretch run. Other times Itzhaki won’t have a choice and will need to find substitutions due to injuries, red cards or yellow card accumulation.

In the case of the upcoming game against Petach Tikva, there will be some wholesale changes to the usual starting lineup due to the exact reasons mentioned earlier. The captain, Yarden Shua has a calf muscle injury and didn’t complete the final training session and is doubtful for the match, Brayan Carabali is out due to yellow card accumulation while Boris Enow was sent off last game after being handed a pair of yellow cards and will also miss the clash.

With that, Itzhaki will need to insert three other players into their places, which on the face looks like a number of big shoes or cleats to fill, but in reality having to rotate the lineup isn’t the end of the world because with some many games coming up, the head coach would have to rest players anyways. Humans aren’t robots just yet and they need to rest with game after game after game on the way.

After Tuesday’s match, Beitar will host Maccabi Tel Aviv on Saturday night, then head for a contest against Hapoel Tel Aviv at Bloomfield Stadium, from there it’s Maccabi Haifa by the Carmel Mountain the following weekend and to top it off the next midweek, or two weeks from now Hapoel Beer Sheva comes to town. That’s not an easy schedule by any stretch of the imagination as the season heads towards its conclusion.

Some will say that the Petach Tikva game is the easiest of the bunch, but Itzhaki wanted no part of that when asked at the prematch press conference.

“There’s no such thing as an easy game,” the bench boss said. “Previous matches against them were very tough and every game is difficult, especially in the playoffs. Their players want to prove themselves at a full Teddy Stadium will be full. We need to focus on ourselves, but also give a lot of respect to our opponent. They’re a good team and almost every top team dropped points against them. That says everything. So we need to come fully prepared, fully focused, play our football and do everything to take the three points.”

There are certainly no easy games and Timoti Muzie, the hero from the game at Hapoel Beer Sheva went into further detail about Petach Tikva, a team that he scored a hat-trick against back at Teddy Stadium in October.

“There’s no such thing as ‘they have nothing to play for’. They’re a football team, they got where they are on merit. They play good football and we’ll approach this match the same way regardless. Maybe they have something to play for, maybe not, but we definitely do. We want those 3-points and we want to show good, attacking football. No matter who they have or what they do, that’s the message.”

Itzhaki continued, “Look, I think the results against them, the matches developed twice against Petah Tikva, both at Teddy and away show that it’s not going to be an easy game. In the first match we struggled, especially in the first half. Then, with ten players, we managed to come back well.”

“The game in Petah Tikva was also difficult and we scored two late goals to win. You can’t underestimate any team and think that because you’re at home it’ll be easy. Petach Tikva is a very well-coached team maybe one of the most well-organized in the league. You can see it on the pitch: they play good football with confidence. Teams that come without pressure can cause problems. So we need to come at least as prepared, maybe even more than we were against Beer Sheva.”

Muzie has been somewhat of a super-sub this season, but he has also had some fine moments including the three goals against Petach Tikva and a number of other crucial game changing moments including the winning goal against Maccabi Bnei Reineh back in January. However, there’s a very good chance that he will be part of the Starting XI taking Shua’s place. Gil Cohen will probably take Carabali’s place while Alison Tavares could play in Enow’s spot. There could also be other moves as well but as Itzhaki said we’ll have to wait and see tomorrow as to who will be in the XI.

All in all, it doesn’t really matter who will play, if it’s a regular, player off of the bench or someone who was not even dressed last game Muzie explained, “The main thing is that we do the job as a group. Everyone who comes on, whoever starts, has to give their part, whether it’s someone from the squad or even someone outside it. Everyone needs to contribute. That unity we’ve been building for a long time is very important to us.”

“We need the whole squad,” Itzhaki harkened. “There’s a series of games in a short time and that’s going to be a heavy load: Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday, midweek again. So we’ll need everyone fit. I’m happy we have players who can start or come off the bench and make an impact. In the next eight matches, we’ll need everyone ready. We need to keep players healthy, avoid suspensions and keep those who play less in good condition so they’re ready when needed.”

“Regarding players coming off the bench, I don’t label anyone as a “joker” to only use them from the bench. I choose the lineup after a lot of thought. It depends on many factors. It just happened that Timo often comes off the bench and makes an impact and that’s great. But if he needs to start, he will start,” the head coach concluded.