Image via @LaczyNasPilka on Twitter
Despite a relatively assured victory over the Faroe Islands on Thursday night, there have still been some insanely negative takes about the state of the Polish national team, but refreshingly few about new Selekcjoner Michał Probierz following his first game in charge.
The loudest complaints seem to be around Arek Milik and his lack of goalscoring prowess when he wears a Poland shirt. For what it’s worth, I didn’t think Milik was too horrendous on Thursday night and I think we’ve all seen him miss more glorious opportunities in more important games. I do get why people would prefer to see Karol Świderski or Adam Buksa start, given Świderski’s record in Poland games and Buksa getting on the scoresheet against the Faroe Islands, but you do have to remember there is a reason Milik plays his club football at Juventus.
I’m not suggesting that merely the prestige of the club you play for should be getting you into the national team, but whilst Świderski and Buksa are scoring at a good rate, the MLS and the Süper Lig are not quite at the same level as Serie A. Again this being said, we saw Patryk Peda make his debut and look better than his teammate who plays the same position for the current joint-leaders of the Premier League, so maybe this argument holds little water.
It is refreshing to see Probierz publicly back Milik and announce that if all is well he will start tonight against Moldova.
Another player everyone seems to be queueing up to have a go at is Matty Cash, and again I do see the point people are making. He is one of the Premier League’s best players in that position, and when he plays for Poland he has yet to ever really show that, aside possibly from a couple of games. My defence of Cash is probably that we are quick to forget that prior to him, that right wing-back position was being filled by Kamil Jóźwiak, and no disrespect to Jóźwiak but he is clearly an inferior player when compared to Matty Cash.
For sure, Cash has more to give for Poland but as I wrote a little while back, that slightly more advanced wing-back role has seen him shine for Aston Villa so far this season. In my opinion, there is no reason why with a little time to adapt to a changing Poland side he cannot do the same on the international stage.
This is probably where we get onto the preview part. We all know what occurred last time out against Moldova in Chisinau, and ruthlessness simply has to be the order of the day here. There is no doubt in my mind that Probierz will line-up with what he believes to be the absolute strongest team at his disposal.
Likely we will see a similar side that started on Thursday, although Tomasz Włodarczyk reports that supposedly Paweł Wszołek will replace Matty Cash and Karol Świderski will replace Bartosz Slisz, meaning Poland will line-up with two strikers. I personally expect the midfield may feature Damian Szymańśki instead of Patryk Dziczek, but otherwise I can’t imagine there will be any further changes.
Finally, a quick word on how well Sebastian Szymański has been playing for both club and country so far in 2023/24. I would actually quietly suggest he is Poland’s most important player right now, at least in an attacking sense and with Robert Lewandowski sidelined through injury. I think Piotr Zieliński was quite right when he said that despite playing very similar positions the styles of play that he and Szymański have really compliment rather than hinder each other. Hopefully, we’ll see more of that tonight.
For more, follow @ekstraklasaexp on Twitter and @ekstraklasaexports on Instagram to know when new posts go live.
Comments