Image via Mikolaj Barbanell/Shutterstock
Czesław Michniewicz spoke about the make-up of his 26-man squad for the World Cup, which will be announced this Thursday, in a recent interview with Meczyki. During this interview, he confirmed how many players he would take in each position, saying: “We are planning to appoint four goalkeepers, five central-defenders, four wing-backs, six central midfielders, three wingers and four strikers. We are choosing according to this key.”
To me, this is quite a disappointing position to take. To use a criteria like this suggests that Michniewicz is going to pick regardless of form, with a player like Dawid Kownacki being the clearest example. The Düsseldorf forward is playing one of the best seasons of his career, but probably won’t go to the World Cup because Michniewicz only sees himself taking four strikers. You could easily lose a goalkeeper and have enough cover, and this is before we even get to the fact that Kownacki can operate in wide positions as well.
Of course, Michniewicz is going to be criticised before, during and after the tournament and I understand it’s not easy to appease everyone, but taking four goalkeepers whilst not taking one of your most in-form players does seem a bit baffling.
I’m also concerned that this will see Poland play more defensively than they need to. Think of the last Nations League match against Holland or the last half-hour against Wales after Świderski scored and the tactics turned into “launch the ball up the pitch at Lewy”. For all the criticism of certain elements of Paulo Sousa’s approach (and legitimate criticism given some of the results), he was building what can best be described as a more modern-looking side tactically, even if those sides did sit back at times too. Of course, at the end of the day it's the result that counts and not how nice the football is, but it does seem that Poland have regressed under Michniewicz in certain respects. Not all of this is down to the coach, putting Jakub Moder back into the midfield when he returns from his ACL injury will make the team look a lot better in a lot of ways, assuming he comes back and continues his upward trajectory.
I just hope that in the games against Mexico and Saudi Arabia, Michniewicz will allow the team to get forward, a bit like the first hour against Wales that showed they have the capability to play in a more offensive manner if allowed to do so. I might be entirely wrong here, but I’d just like to see exciting offensive midfield players like Zieliński and Sebastian Szymański get the opportunity to influence games more than they have been for Poland.
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