This will be the biggest challenge for Beitar Jerusalem and Almog Cohen this season

After the elimination in the Conference League qualifiers by Austria Vienna, Itzik Kornfein, former captain and CEO of Beitar Jerusalem, went on air yesterday (Sunday) on the 103FM sports program and addressed the team's performance, the professional decisions, and the squad that Almog Cohen built for the upcoming season.

Kornfein began by saying: "Beitar Jerusalem is a very good team, but it is still missing out. I think the failure to qualify is a miss, because Beitar Jerusalem was better than Austria Vienna. I think that in this pair of games, what was mainly missing was match fitness and the ability to know how to maintain a lead. We saw Hapoel Be'er Sheva in Belgrade against Red Star, they came to play very tactically, very controlled, managed to move the ball, maintain a lead, and even double it. Beitar, once it was already leading 0:2, perhaps should have played more defensively and responsibly. Who is responsible for that not happening? I think everyone, everyone who was on the field."

Kornfein added and said: "We also wondered about this matter of moving the ball from the back and taking unnecessary risks. We brought Yarden Shua on air to Radio Jerusalem and asked him this question. He said: 'Listen, this is Beitar Jerusalem's style of play and this is what the coach demands.' This was last year and it exists now as well. It is probably indeed an instruction from the professional staff and the coach, to continue moving the ball even when they are being pressed. When the team does not win and does not pass a stage, of course these things surface. I think that in the end, if I look at the squad and the process it is going through, Beitar Jerusalem will run very hard this season and will be at least as good as it was last year. They might need to bring one or two more players, I imagine they will want to, certainly in the midfield, at least one more. There are 20,000 subscribers, this is a power that has never existed before in Teddy and it is a power that almost every home game is a sell-out. This is insane power for a team."

Regarding Shon Weissman, he said: "He is a striker for the Israel national team, played in Europe for years, he has proven ability and there is no disputing that. You did not include in the list also Ansa, who arrived from Ashdod, and he is also a striker with ability. Almog Cohen has a very, very wide selection of players in the attacking part. The most important thing is to manage this entire squad and how to do the rotation and keep everyone in shape, how to manage the locker room and this entire composition of players, that not everyone will be able to play at any given moment."

Regarding the stars: "I don't know what the situation of all the players is at any given moment, but it is clear that Atzili and Shua are the stars and I am sure that Almog Cohen also knows this and is aware of their importance professionally and leadership-wise. In the return match they both played, there is a long season and in the end the results speak. It is impossible to work neither the fans nor the players nor anyone else."