Images via Mikolaj Barbanell/Shutterstock
With the first of hopefully two play-off games which will decide whether Poland make it to Euro 2024 five weeks away, I thought it an appropriate time to ruminate and perhaps somewhat second-guess decisions Michał Probierz might make when it comes to who is getting a call-up.
We’ve seen in the past that for many Selekcjoners it is imperative that those who want to feature for Poland are playing regular or semi-regular club football, with there naturally being certain allowances based on talent. Viewing any potential call-ups through this frame is actually something that can often be reactionary, but I hope not to strike that tone today.
I’ll also try to bear in mind Probierz seems to favour certain players, and seems to be developing his Poland side around a back three, with wing-backs, a midfield three and two strikers. Taking all this into account, who seems good value for a call-up and who might be left out?
By far the least contentious area of the team will be the goalkeepers. Wojciech Szczęsny is a world-class goalkeeper, even if his reputation outside of Poland and Italy can often distort that, and no-one will have any reservations about him being the first-choice barring injury. No doubt Łukasz Skorupski and Marcin Bułka will also be called-up, and in my opinion I think Bułka would be a more capable No.2 keeper than Skorupski based off this season, but really there is no need for that kind of relatively pointless discussion at this juncture. If there is any position in which there is no need to worry about present or future, it’s the goalkeeper.
Moving onto defence, and the most nailed-on of choices will be Jan Bednarek and Jakub Kiwior. Bednarek has proven himself as one of the Championship’s best defenders this season, and Kiwior is slowing starting to earn more and more time on the pitch with Arsenal, albeit at left-back. It gets a little trickier beyond that however. Experimenting with Tomasz Kędziora as a centre-back hasn’t gone brilliantly for Poland over the last 12 months, and Patryk Peda, who seemed like a revelation, has slowly faded from our memories. Bartosz Bereszyński would be a very solid choice and will no doubt receive a call-up, although he has been deployed as a wing-back for his club Empoli more recently. Mateusz Wieteska and Sebastian Walukiewicz seem to flit in and out of the team at Cagliari and Empoli respectively, and Michał Helik is currently injured and playing for a poor Huddersfield side.
The time therefore is absolutely right for Paweł Dawidowicz, who has frequently had to miss international games through injury. Fingers crossed that won’t be the case this time, as a potential back three of Kiwior, Dawidowicz and Bednarek sounds decent to me.
When it comes to wing-backs or wingers, the options you would consider Poland’s best aren’t really getting a lot of time on the pitch at the minute. Matty Cash has been in and out of the Aston Villa team, Przemysław Frankowski is having his minutes managed at Lens and Nicola Zalewski no longer operates as a wing-back for Roma now that they play a different system, assuming he can even get off the bench in the first place. All three of these players will be called up and two of the three will undoubtedly start against Estonia, and Zalewski was very impressive in the last match Poland played. That being said, some depth of players who are featuring more regularly might be nice.
Tymoteusz Puchacz is having a great season with Kaiserslautern, and his call-up would make absolute sense. We’ll see now that the Ekstraklasa is back whether Bartłomiej Wdowik can keep his brilliant form going, and I wouldn’t be surprised if we see Paweł Wszołek as well.
As for traditional wingers, that’s where it gets slightly less encouraging. Jakub Kamiński has barely featured for Wolfsburg this season, although Michał Skóraś is now getting more time, although not much, with Club Brugge and seems to always come up with a goal or assist when he plays. Reliably, Kamil Grosicki will be called upon for experience and as much as we mock he did inject quite a lot of quality when he was introduced as a late substitute against Czechia in November. Grosicki has been speaking about how he’d like Poland to get to Euro 2024 so it can be his farewell from the national team, and honestly I don’t begrudge his inclusion in the same way I once did, because to be frank he is playing more regularly than many other players in his position.
Moreover, we’ve just seen two intriguing transfers for wingers in the last fortnight, namely Kamil Jóźwiak and Przemysław Płacheta going to Granada and Swansea respectively. Jóźwiak has become something of a laughing stock sadly and I’m sure I was not the only one surprised by his move to Granada. Płacheta is an obvious favourite of mine, and what he might lack in finesse he very obviously makes up for in physicality. Płacheta started for Swansea as they won this weekend, and Jóźwiak came off the bench to help Granada see out a well-deserved point away at Barcelona. If over the next month one or both of these players is featuring week in, week out for their new clubs, it would make sense to seriously consider call-ups.
In the midfield we have less reason to be worried than we did a year ago, with plenty of players in form. Sebastian Szymański has been unbelievable for Fenerbahce, and Szymon Żurkowski is rapidly helping Empoli improve. There is cause for concern with the circus surrounding Piotr Zieliński at Napoli, and I’d be surprised if we saw Jakub Moder given how little time he is getting at Brighton since his injury return, but otherwise most midfielders you can think of are doing really well and playing regularly. In my opinion, Kacper Kozłowski has done enough at a poor Vitesse side to be called up, and Krystian Bielik has been playing a lot of games for Birmingham, even if it has been in defence more than midfield. Jakub Piotrowski is doing well with Ludogorets and Damian Szymański is playing to his usual solid level with AEK Athens. It would also be remiss of me not to mention the playing time Kacper Urbański is receiving at Bologna, albeit more as a winger than a central midfield player.
Striker-wise, Robert Lewandowski has been having a bit of a bounce back to form for Barcelona even if the team around him isn’t, so that is a slight reason for encouragement. Elsewhere Adrian Benedyczak is still doing very well at Parma in Serie B, although does tend to play slightly wider for his club, which means he is more often providing assists than scoring goals. Karol Świderski has moved to Hellas Verona and will need some time to adapt to Serie A, but you imagine he will be relied upon by Probierz. Adam Buksa continues to play regularly and do well in Turkey, as does Krzysztof Piątek. Arkadiusz Milik isn’t doing as well for Juventus as he was last season, and indeed his performance last night in a 1-0 loss to Udinese reflected this. In fairness Milik was not the only player that disappointed in that match, and probably did look the most likely candidate to score a goal for his side.
I think what feels reassuring is that unless there are unforeseen issues or injuries, Michał Probierz can pick a really strong squad based on both form and quality for these upcoming play-off game or games, and there haven’t been too many times in the recent past we’ve been able to say that. Of course a lot can change in a month, but right now the options available to Probierz give him a lot of variety and that can only be a good thing.
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