Final thoughts on Poland’s March qualifiers: Technically a success, but it doesn’t feel like one

Image via @LaczyNasPilka on Twitter

How to you go about defining success from these last two matches that Poland played? Do you count maximum points, three goals scored and no goals conceded as the most important metric, or would it be a triumph that a clear style of play was executed with some level of flair and panache? 

If you’re looking for the latter, we certainly didn’t find it in either of Poland’s games this past week, save perhaps a sustained period in the second half against Malta. However, you have to hold your hands up and say that not conceding any goals, scoring a few and earning six points from a possible six is the net positive of what was at times an often deflating and frustrating viewing, supporting and reporting experience.

There was some rowing back of criticism after the better level of performance in attacking areas which Poland showed on Monday night, but for me this simply seemed two-faced from a lot of pundits. You can’t sit there and complain about failing to break down Lithuania (who were much better defensively than Malta) all weekend and then act like there is a silver lining because Poland were able to create more opportunities against a worse defence. 

For me personally, I would regard this international break as one step forward and two steps back, not just for Poland but for Michał Probierz as well. Absolutely they achieved what they set out to do in earning the maximum points on offer, but as for further developing a style of play or seeing younger players feature it was a total failure, particularly the latter part.

It’s this lack of younger players that has caused Robert Lewandowski’s first public disagreement with Probierz’s work. We know that Lewandowski has a tendency to go against Selekcjoners until he gets his own way, and I’m thinking particularly Jerzy Brzęcek and Czesław Michniewicz here, but for me Poland’s captain is spot on. 

What is the point of calling up one single player aged 20 or younger in Kacper Urbański, a player who has arguably provided the most entertainment in the past year when watching Probierz’s Poland, and then not giving him a single minute because he’s out of favour at club level?

I addressed this in slightly greater detail in my report after the Malta game, but there is a real hypocrisy for Probierz to consistently play out of favour players both right now and in the past if he deems them important enough for Poland, but not do the same for Urbański despite him showing very clearly how much his national team need to use him more. 

This is a real sticking point in my eyes, because if you can’t use younger players against the teams theoretically weakest in your qualifying group, then when can you? This could’ve been a great opportunity to see younger players who Probierz has already shown he is willing to call up, and I’m thinking particularly of Antoni Kozubal and Maxi Oyedele when I say this. Both of these young players were thrown in at the deep end in games against Portugal (and Croatia, in Oyedele’s case), but neither could even be a part of the squad to face Lithuania and Malta?

Probierz was getting a fair level of criticism for the squad even before a ball had been kicked, and it really ramped up after the dismal performance present against Lithuania, but now it’s sort of drifted away again because of the results and the style of play in the second half against Malta. I don’t really get this if I’m honest, because plenty of the same pundits now cooling their words were suggesting that Probierz’s job should be on the line if Poland didn’t score ten goals across the two games. 

Whilst I never expected the kind of thrashings that some pundits did, I absolutely expected more than the very sensible scorelines we got, not to mention the performances and at least some evidence that the tactics and playing style that Probierz favours were being worked on.

I’ve been a real fan of the work Probierz has done with Poland up to and including the Euros last summer, but the Nations League left a bit of a cloud (albeit an understandable one) and I was expecting some kind of identifiable improvement this past week. That sadly was not forthcoming.

Look, I get that the players and quite possibly the manager would be short of confidence after the way Poland’s Nations League campaign finished, and that a lot of this camp would be about regaining some of that confidence. I just didn’t expect for it to be done so transactionally was all. 

Quite frankly it’s a blow that you would have to refer to the win over Lithuania as “narrow” or “nervy”, or the win over Malta as “business-like”. These are the games that Poland should’ve enjoyed larger margins of victory in, not to mention greater dominance against Lithuania.

As for which players impressed you’re looking at a pretty small sample size. Jakub Kamiński jumps out as being the one who was most eye-catching, but credit has to also go to Matty Cash on his return, Jan Bednarek for being Poland’s best defender and to Mateusz Wieteska for looking like a nice rotation option in that back three. Karol Świderski was poor in the first game and largely invisible until he scored in the second, but after that he was decent (if profligate). A real enigma, and the same can still be said of Sebastian Szymański who remains equally frustrating and entertaining in a Poland shirt.

It also feels a bit of a watershed moment in terms of how we’re perceiving Przemysław Frankowski’s performances now that Cash is back in the picture for Poland. Frankowski was probably Poland’s best player in the play-offs for Euro 2024 this time last year, but since then has not played at anything like the same level. 

However, you would also say that most other players either played at the level which was expected of them, slightly below that, or not at all. Lewandowski, Jakub Moder and Łukasz Skorupski all did what they had to do, Jakub Kiwior was patchy but without any major mistakes, and Jakub Piotrowski reminded on Friday us that for all he can do as a box-to-box sort of midfielder, he can’t always do it very well. 

At the end of the day however it is two wins from two games, and there is now going to be a break of just over two months until we have a friendly and Poland’s first of these qualifiers away from home. Hopefully in this interim period the confidence of Probierz and the players can grow even further and we can get back to seeing the more positive Poland performances like we did for a lot of last year and in the second half on Monday night.

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