Images via @acspezia and @dcunited on Twitter
Yesterday was a big day as two Polish midfielders got their long-rumoured January moves officially announced, with Szymon Żurkowski moving to Spezia and Mateusz Klich moving to MLS side DC United.
Żurkowski has been surplus to requirements at Fiorentina since coming back from his impressive loan spell with Empoli, and Spezia have long been front runners to acquire him in January. Żurkowski now becomes the fourth Polish player on the books at Spezia, who are owned by Polish-American businessman Robert Platek. Platek and his associates are believed to be interested in purchasing I Liga side ŁKS Łódź to expand his footballing portfolio.
Klich has found himself on the periphery with Leeds United so far this season, and a January exit always looked likely after manger Jesse Marsch indicated he was comfortable with the depth he had in midfield. A fan favourite at Elland Road, Klich gave an emotional goodbye following their game against West Ham on the 4th of January, and his move to DC was confirmed on the Leeds end in the post-match press conference.
Both Żurkowski and Klich found themselves with good chances of making Poland’s World Cup squad despite having played extremely little football in the run-up to the tournament. In the end, Żurkowski was picked and Klich was not. Żurkowski’s performance in the warm-up against Chile in Warszawa was so bad that many fans and pundits were questioning his abilities, and he didn’t get a chance on the pitch in Qatar. Klich was alleged to have felt misled by Czesław Michniewicz about the chance he would be included in the final 26-man squad for the World Cup, and took to Instagram to not-so-cryptically post a song about betrayal on the afternoon of the final squad being announced.
Despite on the surface appearing to be competing for the same position in the Polish national set-up, Żurkowski and Klich are two very different types of midfielder. As anyone who watched Żurkowski at Empoli would know, he brings a tireless energy and is often direct in his runs and his passing, something which will hopefully come back to the fore now he is at Spezia. Klich, for all his reputation in England as something of a resilient midfielder, has always been one of the more technical options for Poland in the midfield, particularly under Paulo Sousa.
Whoever the next Selekcjoner is, I think that Poland’s squad for European qualifying needs both the energy of Żurkowski and the technical attributes of Klich, especially if they play regularly and well at their new clubs. Poland’s midfield will look far healthier in March than it did at the World Cup, not least as Jakub Moder will be fit again by that time.
For more, follow @ekstraklasaexp on Twitter and @ekstraklasaexports on Instagram to know when new posts go live.
Commentaires