Image via @LaczyNasPilka on Twitter
It’s been five days since Michał Probierz announced his call-ups for Poland’s pre-Euro training camp and friendlies, and despite the good grace with which that squad list was received the intermittent time between those announcements and the training officially starting has brought the usual over-analysis and questionable commentary.
The first, frankly hilarious suggestion from one particular pundit in particular, was that Kamil Glik should’ve received a call-up. Now, I think we all enjoyed Glik being a part of Poland’s side for a good decade and there was a period where he was truly a top-level defender. Even in the very dwindling twilight of his career which has been the past few years, we saw at both Euro 2020 and the 2022 World Cup that he is still capable of playing well for Poland. However, this season he has largely been injured and the defensive options picked by Probierz are far more suitable. I understand the need for certain strong personalities with leadership qualities in the dressing room, but Kamil Grosicki has really cemented that “veteran leader who doesn’t play much” spot in Probierz’s squads.
Secondly, we’ve had a little bit (although not a lot) of fallout around Matty Cash’s definite omission from the squad. Cash put out a statement on the Wednesday afternoon confirming his definite absence, which was relatively vague as has been a lot of the discussion around why he has not been called up. How serious his injury is that caused him to play very little football at the end of the season for Aston Villa is somewhat unknown, and this vagueness is not helped by some of Probierz’s equally vague comments on the issue. Essentially, it’s all a little redundant as a conversation because Przemysław Frankowski would’ve been the automatic first choice for Cash’s position. Answers in press conferences, such as today’s by Michał Skóraś, lead us to believe it was between himself and Cash for that back-up spot. Again, not the most helpful thing to say in this situation but Skóraś absolutely deserves to be a part of this squad.
Then we come to comments from Probierz and the players, most notably Robert Lewandowski and Jakub Piotrowski, about how tough the group is but they’ll be trying their best, etc, etc. Fairly standard stuff, and even if it is stating the obvious it can be a double-edged sword acknowledging that on paper you’re probably favourites to finish bottom of the group. Personally, I think Poland have a slightly greater chance than that. France are obviously an unbelievably talented side, but Poland were able to stay in the game with them for a solid 60 minutes just 18 months ago at the World Cup, and that was with arguably a less talented squad than at this moment in time. For my money I think the Netherlands will surprise people by doing a lot better than expected, but they’ve been known to struggle with infighting at tournaments in the past and they did get off to a pretty slow start at the last World Cup with a squad not too dissimilar to the one they have now. Austria are a much better team than many people realise, with a good coach to boot. Despite that fact if you look at the two squads on paper there is little between them in terms of talent in my opinion.
Unfortunately, there have been one or two injury concerns amidst the training group. Young goalkeeper Oliwier Zych was supposed to be part of this camp for experience, but now his opportunity to get that experience has been curtailed through injury. Probierz has therefore given that same opportunity to another young goalkeeper who shone in the Ekstraklasa this season, Mateusz Kochalski. This is of relatively minor importance to the Euros picture as a whole as neither Zych or Kochalski will be part of the final squad which travels to Germany.
Far more of a concern injury-wise is that of the issues surrounding Bartosz Slisz. Slisz has been a reliable part of Probierz’s Poland sides so far, so to hear that he has been injured to the extent another holding midfielder has been added to the squad is troubling news. What isn’t too troubling is the addition that has come in, as Jakub Kałuziński has been one of the more under-the-radar improvements as far as Polish players go this season. With Antalyaspor he has been really impressive and personally speaking it felt like a matter of time before he was called-up by Probierz, although obviously most people expected it in a post-Euro environment. Nevertheless, if Slisz’s issues are serious enough to keep him from being a part of the squad which goes to the Euros, Kałuziński is a perfectly adequate substitute.
With Poland’s first friendly against Ukraine coming at the end of this week, we’ll get a slightly better idea at how the minutes of players will be managed by Probierz ahead of the tournament in Germany, which may well give us a greater idea of who will and won’t be a part of that final 26-man squad.
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