“I respect the opponent & want to take the points” Ruttensteiner’s Israel readies for Slovakia

The Israel National team held a press conference ahead of their UEFA Nations League game against Slovakia on Monday night, 21:45 at the Netanya Stadium. Head Coach Willi Ruttensteiner and Captain Bibras Natcho spoke about the challenge that lies ahead of the blue-and-white after drawing 1-1 at Scotland.

Bibras Natcho:

About the attack in Scotland
I believe that we were responsible for them to play poorly. We needed to make the last pass bu we had chances and we did what we had planned. We were able to control the ball the way we wanted to.

On Slovakia
I can’t say we are favorites as they are as good or better than us. We are playing at home but we have to see how the game plays out. This is a difficult game.

Tiredness going onto the game
We’re tired but Slovakia also is a bit tired as they also played on Friday night. I don’t think that this will be an issue as we are both in the same situation. If we need a to make a substitute we will do so as we have a strong bench.

IFA


Coach Willi Ruttensteiner:

About Slovakia perhaps being a weak team
I studied the game because it’s very important and players change. It’s my work to study and analyze the game to bring to the players and prepare. It can’t be that a team in the top 50 is a weak team. I respect the opponent and we want to take points, that is our goal going into this game.

Potentially playing younger players
It’s not a friendly and it’s a Nations League game, we want to stay at the B Level. We want to play to improve our playing philosophy and I want to do it better in this game than we did in Glasgow, if a player is in shape he will then be inside. I spoke to the young players and it’s very hard to come in when you have Eran Zahavi and Monas Dabbur as striker’s sounds it’s not easy to get playing time. If they show improvement I will not hesitate to bring in a yong player whether it’s Eylon Almog or Shon Weissman.

Going back to the Scotland
It’s a good strategy to lose the first, draw the second and win the third. We had a great discussion about all of the mistakes in the game and positive performances of the players and we set up some goals for the game against Slovakia.

Improving on offense
I agree that I was again a bit of an unlucky penalty and at the end of the game there was a mistake and if Forrest scores we lose the game. They got no goals without the penalty so I think it was an improvement with our organization. We played and moved the ball well and players from the back have to try to create chances as at the end scoring.

Tiredness of players
If you study the data Taleb Tawhatha here he showed a good performance and was right to play until the end. He was very motivated and I was very satisfied. I was happy with the decision to have Yonatan Cohen and Shon Weissman come in when they did. In his playing time he made 16 sprints if you do that over 90 minutes it would be 94 sprints. We have great quality on the bench and I will use it if I have to.

Relying solely on Eran Zahavi
We are working on this and up until now we only had 3 training sessions. Usually a coach trains 1.5 months. If it’s only on one players shoulders it’s not good for us, Monas must score and the wingers out of the second line. We have a goal to put more pressure but until now it’s not enough.

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