"One foot on the plane": "Tzion 3" on Barda and the reinforcement missing for Hapoel Tel Aviv
After passing Ludogorets and Katowice, the panel members discussed the difficult draw in the Conference League playoffs, analyzed the coach's decisions, and identified the reinforcement still needed for the squad.
Hapoel Tel Aviv successfully passed the Conference League qualifying rounds against Ludogorets and Katowice. After surviving dramas on the way to the Toto Cup final, they will visit Bergamo on Thursday to face Atalanta in the first leg of the Conference League playoffs (19:30, Sport 4). In the program "Tzion 3", the panel analyzed the performance of the "Reds", the work of Elyaniv Barda, and the positions where the team still needs reinforcement.
Eitan Leshem said:
"Hapoel Tel Aviv played against Katowice for three halves. For three halves we were better than them, we saw that we are higher quality than them, we play better football than them, everything is good."
Nimrodi agreed, and Leshem continued:
"Until now, about Barda we would say 'Hapoel Tel Aviv is an annoying, bothersome team, there is no football'. Since the beginning of the year, Hapoel Tel Aviv has been playing excellent football. You cannot take that away from Barda. It may be because we are playing against teams that suit our style, which Barda likes in the end - teams that come to press you. We will bother you and break out, we have a midfield in attack, we will go forward."
Alongside the compliments, Leshem also addressed Barda's game management:
"Barda has a trait where he prepares excellently for a game - Hapoel Tel Aviv arrives at every game well-prepared, but his game management is not good enough. You bring on Xande Silva, who is a player who is literally one foot on the plane, despite the goal he scored against Maccabi Haifa."
Later, the studio moved on to talk about the playoff draw. Shashu said:
"If it weren't for this terrible draw, maybe you would have made the group stage, that would have been amazing."
Yonatan, on the other hand, surprised: "They will pass."
From there, the discussion moved to the depth of the squad. Shashu argued: "You need more players there, brother, the players coming off your bench are not it."
Leshem replied:
"What Hapoel Tel Aviv needs to bring is a backup left-back, another defensive midfielder for rotation, and a foreign player to replace Xande Silva. On my bench I have Roi Korine, Owusu, Alkokin, Daffa. I have players who can come off the bench and I hope they also bring a foreign player. I have my bench, relatively perfectly fine for one framework."
