Zeliko Obradović was invited to Panathinaikos’ media day to talk about Lefteris Mantzoukas and praised his work ethic.
“If you can tell how hard he works, just imagine how I feel, since I’m with him all day long. It all shows on the court. He wants to play, he works hard, and he deserves to play just like the other players. As long as he fights for 40 minutes, everything will be fine,” he said.
ΣΧΕΤΙΚΑ ΑΡΘΡΑ
As for tomorrow’s game against Maccabi, he said: “We want to be ready for Maccabi, because they’re a team with a lot of quality and good players. It all comes down to their coach’s character; they’ll come out to play a much better game than the one they lost yesterday. We have to be ready and understand how they play, because Maccabi always uses different defensive strategies—sometimes they press, sometimes they run a zone press, and they change the way they defend man-to-man. We’ll need to be completely focused.”
Regarding the heavy rotation he used yesterday against Villeurbanne, he said: “It’s something we have to consider, especially in a week like this when we have three games. It’s important to distribute playing time; sometimes it’s not possible, but yesterday we were able to do it.”
When asked about his move yesterday to get the crowd fired up, he commented: “It’s very important; everyone knows that. If they’re here supporting the team, that’s great—especially for the players who need the fans’ support. I thank them and hope they keep it up.”
Finally, regarding the fact that he’ll be facing a former player of his, Oded Katas, on the opposing bench, he said: “There are many such players now—more than… 150. Katas is a good friend, and I like him a lot.”
The Panathinaikos players are following the coach’s game plan, as Gerson Yabusele emphasized at media day ahead of tomorrow’s game against Maccabi Tel Aviv.
“We enjoy our work; we’re together both on and off the court; we play for each other and have fun doing it. I wouldn’t say we’re stars; we’re a good team with very good players. We want to do whatever the coach tells us and train hard. We have so many fans coming to watch us; we want to respect the sport and the fans and give it all the energy we have,” emphasized the French star.
Regarding tomorrow’s game, he said: “Maccabi is down 0-2 and will come out with a lot of energy trying to win. We’ll need to control the pace, our defense, and our offense, fight together, and I hope we’ll come away with the win.”
When asked what Panathinaikos needs to improve, he replied: “You’d better ask the coach that question. We’re working hard; we have some players out with injuries, we make some mistakes, but we’re identifying them and trying to correct them. I’m sure we’ll learn from our mistakes and get better every day as the season goes on. The most important thing right now is winning.”
Finally, regarding the soccer skills he demonstrated in practice, he said: “Soccer is tough. Many of us in Europe started out playing soccer, but I’m not going to turn pro (laughs).”
*photo source: KYPE
