A crushingly disappointing evening in Tirana as Poland succumbed to a 2-0 defeat to Albania. Buoyed by an acrimonious atmosphere, the home side were efficient in their attacking output, scoring a goal for the ages through Jasir Asani before Mirlind Daku doubled Albania’s advantage shortly after the hour mark.
Poland had initially taken the lead through an early set-piece which Jakub Kiwior bundled into the net, but this was disallowed after a VAR check found Kiwior’s arm was in an offside position.
Regardless of the result, it was a poor performance. Fernando Santos’ position as Selekcjoner is nigh-on untenable in the wake of three away losses from three away games in Group E, although he has refused to resign in the immediate aftermath as I write this. You imagine Cezary Kulesza’s position as president of the PZPN is also at the most precarious it has been since he took charge two years ago.
Of course, some blame should also be apportioned to the players, but they’re not bad players and I don’t believe that they don’t care and they’re not trying their absolute maximum. I think if you compare the past two years of watching Poland play, the regression from the ideas Paulo Sousa was implementing have been drastic. Sousa had Poland playing attractive football, with decent results and with a weaker squad than his successors. Czesław Michniewicz had a style of defensive football which was hard to watch and for the most part didn’t lead to great results, but at least there was a plan (even if it didn’t work well). Fernando Santos doesn’t appear to have a plan and has overseen some abject performances which married into embarrassing results.
Indeed, I wrote on Twitter during last night’s game that under Michniewicz the players looked shackled by the tactics, whereas with Santos there doesn’t seem to be any coherent plan from one training camp to the next. He looks constantly like he is searching for a system, and the past two games seem panicked both in terms of selection and tactics.
Current frontrunners to take over in the likely event Santos is removed before the next international break in October are Marek Papszun and Maciej Skorża. I would be surprised if Skorża could be tempted away from Japan, whereas Papszun seems like he is waiting for a big job. Papszun was most people’s pick for Selekcjoner when Michniewicz was dismissed, and perhaps it feels like eight wasted months with Santos when Papszun could’ve been brought onboard sooner.
Of course this is merely speculation, Santos’ departure is not even confirmed at time of writing, although many reputable reporters have alleged earlier in the week that if the Albania match didn’t go so well that he would be replaced.
Poland have three more qualifying games in which to save themselves, possibly through the play-offs. That Poland have gotten themselves into this position would’ve been nigh-on unthinkable earlier this year, but here we are.
For more, follow @ekstraklasaexp on Twitter and @ekstraklasaexports on Instagram to know when new posts go live.
Comments