Marked for Modestas Vorobjovas
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 34. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match23 Nov 2026
Every point is an argument now for Bnei Sakhnin
Position 12 and 11 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Match21 Nov 2026
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Modestas Vorobjovas was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad23 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Modestas Vorobjovas, and the manager let it.
Match21 Nov 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 37. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad9 Nov 2026
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Maicom David was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Match7 Nov 2026
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation Bnei Sakhnin did not have in the autumn.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Defensive actions: 16, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Squad9 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mustafa Sheikh Yousef, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 30. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad2 Nov 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bnei Sakhnin this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
260% of the income goes out in wages at Bnei Sakhnin
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 16 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Marked 7.53 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Bnei Sakhnin had the best player on the pitch.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Shots: 12. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
Match31 Oct 2026
Point won or two lost for Bnei Sakhnin?
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Hapoel Raanana? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
Market2 Nov 2026
The name of Durel Avounou keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Bnei Sakhnin say nothing, which says plenty.
Squad2 Nov 2026
“If we are going to be beaten, let it not be because somebody in here could not be bothered.” He stood up and said it in front of everybody, which is a thing a squad remembers about a man for years.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match17 Oct 2026
No end in sight to Bnei Sakhnin's wait for a win
9 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Bnei Sakhnin has to find a result from somewhere.
Match19 Oct 2026
5 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 27. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Maicom David in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bnei Sakhnin this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Marked 8.69 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Squad19 Oct 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Match17 Oct 2026
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Squad19 Oct 2026
The first one is the one every signing is asked about until it arrives. It has arrived, and he can stop being asked.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Shots: 5, not one of them in. A centre forward is paid for one thing, and on this evidence he has forgotten which thing it is.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match3 Oct 2026
7 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Maicom David in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bnei Sakhnin this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Wages eat 385% of everything Bnei Sakhnin earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
A defender's afternoon for Shahar Piven
Defensive actions: 18. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 17 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Reuben Acquah, and the manager let it.
Match3 Oct 2026
Point won or two lost for Bnei Sakhnin?
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Maccabi Netanya? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Maron Ghantous knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Maron Ghantous trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match23 Sep 2026
Hapoel Haifa go through and Bnei Sakhnin go home, 1‑2 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Match26 Sep 2026
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 26. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Maicom David was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Match26 Sep 2026
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad28 Sep 2026
67 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 37. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Defensive actions: 28, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Defensive actions: 27, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Match19 Sep 2026
4 matches without a win for Bnei Sakhnin
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Bnei Sakhnin are no longer polite ones.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Maicom David in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bnei Sakhnin this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Sep 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 30. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market7 Sep 2026
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Bnei Sakhnin, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Matty Cudjoe in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bnei Sakhnin this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
274% of the income goes out in wages at Bnei Sakhnin
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Match5 Sep 2026
0‑2 to Beitar Jerusalem, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad7 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Dilshod Saitov
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Marked 8.57 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A defender's mistake gets tidied up by somebody else; a goalkeeper's ends up in the net. He knew before the ball crossed the line, and so did everybody in the ground.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Shots: 6. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.