Image via @FifaWorldCup on Twitter
Today’s article is slightly more philosophical in a sense, discussing a whole host of issues that have plagued the Polish national team, from the very recent past to five or six years ago.
Giving a short quote to SportPL the other day, Polish footballing great and former PZPN president Zbigniew Boniek made a comment that “when it comes to the national team, we need a little bit of a reset”. You can imagine these comments were made with the advance knowledge, indeed news we had all figured out, that Czesław Michniewicz’s contract as Selekcjoner would not be renewed was officially announced this morning.
A few last words on Michniewicz. The past few days were not easy for him, and he didn’t cover himself in glory by suggesting that there was a huge press conspiracy against him. It’s fair to say he was not a universally popular Selekcjoner, and therein lies one of the biggest problems Cezary Kulesza faces when appointing a successor. Michniewicz divided not just the fans but the playing group as well, with reports in Poland in the past week alleging that certain key members of the team would withdraw from international duty if Michniewicz was kept on.
We can take it as read that these “key members” would likely have involved Robert Lewandowski and perhaps even Piotr Zieliński, and you can understand why attack-minded footballers such as themselves would not stand for Michniewicz’s ultra-defensive style of play. Michniewicz had his supporters in the squad too, most notably Grzegorz Krychowiak and Wojciech Szczęsny, and it’s understandable why they would be supportive. Any other coach probably would have been reluctant to give Krychowiak the kind of responsibility that Michniewicz did in the past few months, and Szczęsny seemed to be the player Michniewicz focused positive attention on the most before and during the World Cup.
Going back to the reset quote, and it’s entirely possible Boniek didn’t just mean the Selekcjoner but some of the players also. Pundits in Poland were very keen to suggest in the aftermath of the loss to France in Qatar that the national team should be built around Zieliński, not Lewandowski any more. For what it’s worth there is a grain of truth in this argument, but a Selekcjoner worth their salt will surely look to play a system that benefits both of them in a whole team structure, as opposed to Michniewicz’s defence-first tactics.
However, the biggest point Boniek was probably getting at was the style of play that Poland has adopted pretty much as far back as memory allows. The Polish national team has been built on solid defence and creating threat on the counter attack for as long as we can remember. There were coaches who tried this whilst creating something slightly different, like Leo Beenhakker and Paulo Sousa, and then there were coaches like Jerzy Brzęczek and Michniewicz whose football was stifling. The only one in recent memory who delivered this tactical style perfectly was Adam Nawałka during the Euro 2016 run. Talking about the recent history of Polish football, we treat Euro 2016 as a great success because Poland were a missed penalty away from a semi-final against a beatable Welsh side, and because it might have been the last time when Poland looked truly capable in a major tournament.
What worked perfectly serviceably five years ago doesn’t work today, and tactical ideas in football progress very quickly. It’s for this reason that I hope whoever is picked as Poland’s new manager throws away this predisposition for ten men behind the ball, and I think if as rumoured Herve Renard is close to signing a contract with the PZPN he might create something truly modern tactically. We saw yet again in the World Cup with Saudi Arabia the good work Renard can do with a team, and if he could do similar with Poland the future would be really exciting.
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