Image via @LaczyNasPilka on Twitter
A pretty leading headline as ever, but given the calamitous nature of the international break just finished I think it is perhaps fair to make such a statement.
Having been an ardent supporter and enjoyer of Polish football for a fair while now, I came to the conclusion that having gone back and surveyed the years leading up to the time when I started watching in earnest, it was perhaps a bit more enjoyable and I clearly missed out. I do have to admit I only consistently started watching Poland outside of major tournaments during the period when Jerzy Brzęczek was Selekcjoner, and over the course of the years since, Poland have fluctuated between being better and worse to watch with the results usually following suit.
There were a lot of hot heads around after Monday night and the ignominy of Poland’s relegation to Division B of the Nations League, and my head was just as hot as everyone else’s. However, a few days have passed and I’d like to look rationally at the state of the national team, although there are sadly quite a few familiar criticisms to ram home, and a few new ones to add to the pile.
Before we get to that though, I do want to take a moment to appreciate what Michał Probierz has achieved with Poland over the last 12 or so months, even if some of my comments in the following paragraphs will not be glowing in my praise of him. Probierz has really made Poland entertaining to watch (for better or worse) and in my opinion that is exactly what was needed. I would go so far as to say in the post-Nawałka period, he ranks only second to Paulo Sousa in terms of “best Selekcjoner”.
However, some things particularly around Monday’s match should be addressed, even if they have already been well-tread by myself and others. We now know that part of the reason behind Jakub Kamiński coming off for Tymoteusz Puchacz despite having arguably been Poland’s best player in that time was due to a muscle injury, which is scheduled to keep him out of action for a few weeks at Wolfsburg now too.
It’s the other substitutions, or lack thereof, that are hard to understand. Probierz made three, introducing Bartosz Slisz at half time for Jakub Moder, the aforementioned Kamiński/Puchacz switch just after the equaliser, and Kacper Urbański for Karol Świderski in the 75th minute.
Firstly, he had two very obvious substitutions he could’ve made. Dominik Marczuk should have been introduced for the absolutely knackered Nicola Zalewski at literally any point in that second half, so badly flagging was he. Indeed this tiredness on Zalewski’s part played a massive role in Scotland’s winner, and as the coach Probierz should’ve taken the required action to avoid this.
Secondly, I understand that Krzysztof Piątek was suffering from minor injury, but if he was well enough to be named on the bench surely he could’ve played 10-15 minutes at the end for Adam Buksa? Aside from it not being Buksa’s night in front of goal, he was also another obviously tired member of the team and one who had a like-for-like replacement on the bench. I do get not risking Piątek, it’s a time of the season where players will want to be fit for their club, but in such a sudden death situation as it transpired to be you’d have liked to think all parties concerned would’ve been okay with Probierz taking a risk on Piątek’s fitness for a quarter of an hour at most.
Lastly on the changes, why Kacper Urbański was not introduced sooner I don’t know. It only took two friendly appearances for Probierz and the public to be convinced he was a nailed-on starter for Poland five months ago, and in the time since Poland have been notably worse without him. They’ve been worse with him too at times, of course, but that’s not solely down to him.
What gives you as a supporter the lack of hope mentioned in the headline is that the team which started against Scotland, you’d say just over half of that featured Poland’s best player in their position and it wasn’t good enough. Of those that didn’t start, you’re probably adding Jan Bednarek to the defence for sure, maybe when March rolls around we see Matty Cash on the right hand side wing-back role (although I like Kamiński, Cash is an obviously better player at this stage of their careers). There is a dearth of quality options in that “6” role, but Bartosz Slisz proved he is probably the best Poland have got right now. Then you add Kacper Urbański and obviously Robert Lewandowski, but otherwise 6 or 7 members of that starting side is your strongest line-up and that’s really worrying.
Worrying in the sense that where do you go from that? Players that are clearly capable of turning in great performances but obviously haven’t quite been able to in those games, and I get that it wasn’t easy for them and football is never simple, but nonetheless you’d have expected a little more from a squad even as decimated by injury as Poland’s was this past fortnight.
Also a concern is Michał Probierz and the players’ insistence that Poland are heading in the right direction, to which I say: no they are bloody not, they’ve just got relegated. That is literally the wrong direction. Honestly, the amount of times that phrase is repeated in the context of the national team is becoming cult-like and when even the president of the PZPN is calling you out on it, you know it’s bad.
Reversing ever so slightly, I do kind of get what they mean in terms of the style of football, certainly going forward in any case. Defensively though Poland look way more open than they did at the Euros or even in the first half against Portugal last Friday night, and who’d have thought we’d be talking about Bednarek as some kind of lynchpin of the defence. That’s what he’s become though, as much as I do quite like Bednarek and rate him a lot higher than other people seem to, it’s a bit ridiculous to assign him such status.
Merely it’s a reflection of how much worse perhaps some of the other options are. Sebastian Walukiewicz is a perfectly fine Serie A-quality centre back, but against Scotland he put in the worst performance I have seen from him probably ever. Indecisive, slow to react and just plain slow at times, he was everything a defender shouldn’t be. As I said though, I don’t think he’s a bad player at all, but he certainly was on Monday night.
This time last year there was at least a modicum of hope thanks to the Euro play-off on the horizon, but now we enter the coldest months of the year with the potential for even more misery on the horizon. A World Cup qualifying campaign in March that, with negativity setting in, already has some of us feeling like it could be a nasty repeat of the Euro qualifiers. Fernando Santos did not have Poland playing great football or getting good results, so at least Probierz has one up on his predecessor in terms of enjoying watching Poland even if they do eventually end up coming out on the wrong end of a result.
Look, I don’t think Poland will be as bad results-wise in March as they were in these two last Nations League games. I think Probierz will stop chopping and changing goalkeeper and this will alleviate some of the problems with the defence (although not all), and he will eventually settle on the right holding midfielder sooner rather than later. Matty Cash will probably be recalled if he’s fit and Robert Lewandowski might well eye-up a final World Cup if he can help Poland can get there, given he’ll still be under 40 and we’ve seen players like Cristiano Ronaldo and Luka Modric continue to shine for their country despite advanced years.
Mitigating factors like the huge number of injuries and the quality of the opposition do go some way to explaining why Poland were so lacklustre this past week, but there has to be a recognition on Probierz’s part that things aren’t going as well as they could or perhaps should be based on the things we saw during his time in charge up to and including Euro 2024. Failure to recognise that and the constant repetition of a soundbite phrase will only add to the sense of despair that is setting in.
Leaving on a note of hope, Poland’s opponents for World Cup qualifying will be announced in December, and in theory Poland will be the second strongest in their group. However, in theory Poland were strongest in their Euro qualifying group and we all know how that went. The saving grace is that Probierz is starting from a much stronger base than Fernando Santos did and we’ve already seen that Probierz is capable of getting Poland playing good football and netting the results to match.
For more, follow @ekstraklasaexp on Twitter and @ekstraklasaexports on Instagram to know when new posts go live.
Comments