According to the leader from Topolya, TSC is already on the right track

“This team will get there. His place is there,” said Szabolcs Palágyi, Topolyai SC’s club manager, determinedly when we asked when the Vojvodina team, which finished on the podium of the Serbian championship in the last two seasons, will find the thread.

“We have a difficult period behind us with the departure of coach Lazetic and another coaching change, and the team is only now starting to come together more seriously, but I am sure that in time we will be among the best again. This team has a place on the podium and in a place leading to one of the European Cups.”

Trace of summer events

Topolya, which emerged as a leading team in Serbia, had a serious problem in the summer; although the team was reformed to the taste of head coach Zarko Lazetic, the coach received an irresistible offer from Israel, so the specialist left. The people from Topolya saw the right deputy in Dean Klafuric, who previously worked for Veles in Mostar for a short time in Hungary – that’s how much we talked with the club manager about the situation.

“The appointment of Klafuric did not turn out to be a good idea, primarily because he did not find a voice with the players. However, it should be known that it was not an easy task, since he took over an elaborate, well-practiced system together with a dressing room that we created for his predecessor.”Unfortunately, in such a situation, it is always inevitable that things will not go well” – said Palágyi.

The players from Topol felt that they had to act quickly, and in the summer, after a double defeat in the Europa League qualifiers – precisely against Maccabi Tel-Aviv managed by Lazetic – they terminated the contract of the Croatian coach, and his successor was Jovan Jovan, who came from the Serbian U17 national team It became Damjanovic, who was a target before, but TSC failed to reach an agreement with the Serbian federation.

“I can say that we managed to get back into the usual routine quite quickly, this single-minded, apathetic state quickly disappeared within the team.“Our game is also starting to develop, in the last few games we were just a little bit luck short of victories, but we are optimistic, more victories will come soon.”

They didn’t change the plans

TSC started with Damjanovic in the Serbian championship, and it belongs to the lower house of the field only because of its worse goal difference, but according to Palágyi, the team will soon be even higher.

“From the fourth place on down, the differences are very small, even in a few rounds you can get very close to the places that qualify for the European Cup. Even with the fact that the coefficient of the Serbian championship has changed unfavorably compared to what we have seen in recent years.”

Topolya also started with a defeat in KL (photo: FK TSC)

“Europe is still our goal, but we want to achieve this without letting go of this year’s international cup participation either. In any case, we feel that our place is in the Conference League, most recently in the BL qualifiers and then in the group stage of the Europa League we had little hope of a good performance, but in KL it is different.”

TSC started their appearance in the Conference League in Kazakhstan, at the home of Astana, and although they lost their first match, according to the club director, the team’s performance was not only disappointing, but they deserved to win.

“Our opponent was a famous team, but we played a fantastic match against Astana, and I can say without bias that we should have won. “We created huge chances, we hit the post three times, the ball simply didn’t want to go into the goal,” said Palágyi, whose words are supported by the statistics: TSC targeted the Kazakhs’ goal 26 times, possessed more of the ball, and had chances and should have won looking at xG.

“Our home debut against Legia can decide a lot of things. Our game is now in order, now the results should start coming. Our opponent is an excellent team, it is also considered a routine player in Europe, but we are also good and I think we are capable of defeating the Polish team”, he added determinedly.