Image via @LaczyNasPilka on Twitter
Michał Probierz announced his Poland squad for November’s Nations League matches against Portugal and Scotland, and despite a number of relatively surprise inclusions, they had been hinted at for some time already.
As always, I’ll attempt to go through the squad position-by-position and raise the biggest talking points, as well as adding in a few opinions of my own.
In goal, it’s business as usual and we’re likely to see rotation between Łukasz Skorupski and Marcin Bułka, with Bartłomiej Drągowski a trusted Probierz choice for back-up and Bartosz Mrozek having cemented that fourth spot.
Defensively, Paweł Dawidowicz is missing out through injury, and you have to say he’s unlikely to be missed. In comes young Michał Gurgul, one of many in the U-21s that Probierz was rumoured to give a chance to in the senior side. It’s unlikely Gurgul will get any considerable playing time, but the experience of time in the squad will certainly be helpful.
The midfield is, perhaps unsurprisingly, where we see the most change. Returning after time away are Mateusz Bogusz, Taras Romanczuk, Bartosz Slisz and Dominik Marczuk. Marczuk has had some impressive performances both in the MLS and the U-21s, and it makes sense that now is the right time for him to come back. It’s nice to see Antoni Kozubal get a deserved chance with the senior squad, although it does feel a little bit like Maxi Oyedele and Jakub Kałuziński are being hung out to dry, with the latter still not having got a proper chance ever since the pre-Euro friendlies.
Up front is very much similar to the situation in goal, with the same usual suspects, plus the classification of Kacper Kozłowski and Kacper Urbański as forwards. Annoyingly, Kozłowski has yet again had to pull out through injury, but pleasingly Probierz is close to including Michael Ameyaw as a replacement, who arguably should not have missed out in the first place after his encouraging performances last month.
That we see a couple of the U-21s getting their chance for either the first time or again is really positive, although arguably the most standout performers in that squad aren’t actually the ones getting the chances. This is no slight on Kozubal, Gurgul or Marczuk but other players in those positions have been more eye-catching. Probierz said even prior to the conclusion of the last international break that he wanted to call up a few of the U-21s, but I don’t think many of us predicted the three (could’ve been four) he has chosen. As I said, Kałuziński is for my money the best midfielder in the U-21s, and much as I like Marczuk and Gurgul, Marczuk has already had his chance with the senior team even if now is the right time to get another go. Gurgul is unlikely to play, so I appreciate this call-up will largely be about experience for him.
Thanks to myself not writing this article until today, I can also add my opinion to Probierz’s interview with Meczyki, which explored a fair few topics and informed us of the Kozłowski/Ameyaw news. Probierz confirmed quite bullishly that he will not deviate from his preferred formation, which I understand given that so far on balance it has created more positives than negatives.
What I don’t understand quite so much, even if he handled the question very diplomatically, is his reticence to discuss why Matty Cash is consistently absent. Probierz said there is no bad blood between them, and that picking a team is the coach’s prerogative and someone will always be left disappointed.
It’s all a bit of a moot point anyway, with Cash having picked up yet another injury this past weekend, but at some point we have to address the fact that Probierz might be kidding himself that a Poland team without Cash is stronger than it would be with him. We thought this after the last round of internationals, and whilst it won’t be a pressing issue again for a while with it being a whole new calendar year the next time we see an international break, it would be a whole 12 months since Cash was last selected for international duty.
As it is, Poland’s games against Portugal in Porto and against Scotland in Warszawa should be a chance for a positive end to their Nations League campaign. Given Portugal’s commanding position in the group, a rotated team may be selected by Roberto Martinez to play Poland, opening the door a little more for the visitors than you might otherwise expect. Likewise Scotland will be highly motivated to avenge their late loss, but you’d like to think that Poland would still be strong enough to come out victorious a second time.
For more, follow @ekstraklasaexp on Twitter and @ekstraklasaexports on Instagram to know when new posts go live.
Comments