Rabotnicki had a miserable fall, winning only 7 points in the opening 16 matches. The team from Debar Maalo ended the first half season with only 1 win and 4 draws, and felt the bitterness of defeat 11 times.

photo by FK Rabotnichki Skopje: Alen Tupajić

They started the season early, appearing in the Conference League qualifiers and immediately suffered two defeats and elimination from Belarus side Tarpeda BelAZ. This happened after the board decided not to continue with 90% of the players who were responsible for the success last season and the third place in the table. Although the team has changed drastically, no one expected that many poor matches and results would follow in the championship.

Bojan Markoski, who succeeded Goran Stanikj, quickly left the coaching position, and the Turkish coach Alparslan Erdem who replaced him did not bring any significant changes either.

The third coach this season is Serbian Alen Tupajić. He led Rabotnichki in the last three rounds and recorded three defeats. However, he hopes that the team, with a complete reorganization in the winter transfer window, will do much better results in the spring. That is what they must do if they want to avoid the worst, relegation from the top flight.

“I inherited a team that had many problems, both in terms of players and results. Of course, we are not satisfied with what we have achieved, I will talk about my short period at the helm of Rabotnichki. But I also came because the team was not doing well before. And a small progress was visible in the game, but in vain when the results were three defeats. Maybe the second half against Shkëndija in Tetovo was a sign that this team can play much better. In any case, Rabotnichki is a big brand of Macedonian football, it will have to reorganize well during this winter break and in the spring we will have to play much better, and most importantly – to win and gain points. Only in this way will we be able to achieve our goal, which in this case is avoiding relegation.” – said Alen Tupajić.

As soon as the first half season ended, the Romantics immediately began to release players who had disappointed, and the first to be released were Djelil Asani, Demir Imeri, Brazilian Kalani Almeida and Bosnia Amir Velić. The board will have to open the wallet and bring in quality reinforcements if they do not want to play in the second league next season, where Rabotnicki last played in the 1997/1998 season when they won top flight promotion as champions and since then they have won 4 trophies as Macedonian champions, 4 Cup titles and have successfully competed in Europe for years, playing against giants such as Liverpool, Lazio, Lille, Bolton, Basel, Lokomotiv Moscow…

Rabotnichki will open the second half season away against Pelister on 6/7 February.