Image via @BCFC on Twitter
Look on any football-centric Twitter or Instagram account for people of a certain generation and they will wax lyrical about the virtual PES incarnation of Brazilian striker Adriano and his 99 shot power.
Why, you might ask, am I opening a Polish football blog by writing about a Brazilian guy who used to play for Inter Milan? It’s a good question. My answer is to illustrate why I hold a fondness for Przemysław Płacheta, who has recently moved from Norwich City to Birmingham on a season-long loan.
As a certified Fifa Career Mode nerd (and recent convert to Football Manager, as well), since I started following Polish football, I always look for players from the Ekstraklasa that might not be obvious choices. It was by doing this I came across Płacheta, a rapid winger from Śląsk Wrocław. After having a go on the game, I was compelled to have a look on YouTube to see how he compared in real games. I was captivated immediately by his fairly marauding style, his long hair in a bun, and the ease with which he seemed to breeze past opponents. I very rarely use the same people in multiple Career Mode saves, but occasionally I make an exception for Płacheta.
Early in his career, Płacheta was a bobsledder (his brother competed in the 2008 Winter Olympics) before choosing football. After playing youth football in Poland, he joined the RB Leipzig academy and played in a few friendlies for the senior team, before joining 3. Liga team Sonnenhof Großaspach and making his professional debut. He returned to play in Poland’s I Liga shortly afterwards, and joined Śląsk ahead of the 2019-20 Ekstraklasa season.
In his only Ekstraklasa season to date, Płacheta scored eight goals in 35 appearances and registered five assists, picking up the Young Player of the Month award for August 2019 along the way. His move to Norwich in summer 2020 on a four-year deal for around €3 million was a club record sale for Śląsk.
Since joining Norwich City, Płacheta has largely been making appearances off the bench, or earning starts when other players in the team have been injured. Some casual readers of this website may recognise him as having held his own fairly well for an hour against Manchester United in a Premier League game last season, before being replaced after an hour. Norwich, as was a habit for them, went on to lose 0-1. He did make the Poland squad for Euro 2020, but was limited to one half-hour appearance in the last group game against Sweden, following which Poland were knocked out.
Earlier in the year I had the pleasure of speaking to Gary Field, treasurer of Canaries Trust, for a university project. In between other questions, I asked him about Płacheta. “He’s got lots of pace to burn but he’s struggled,” said Gary. “Players like him who are fringe players, who are only getting five minutes here, ten minutes there, to turn around and have to play 90 minutes in the Premier League, it’s just such a step up.”
I actually had the benefit of watching Płacheta live this season in two games Norwich played at Anfield, a 3-1 loss in the league and a 2-1 loss in the FA Cup. In the league meeting, Płacheta was brought on to the Norwich right with about 20 minutes left in the match, in an attempt to counter and also track any runs from the Liverpool left, which he did fairly adequately. He had one opportunity where he carried the ball from the halfway line to the edge of the box in typically speedy fashion, but didn’t really make too much of a mark otherwise. In the FA Cup, he started, and actually was one of the Norwich players who looked like a creative option in the first half, particularly when he beat a couple of players on the dribble before sliding a ball through to Teemu Pukki, who narrowly missed the target. As the whistle blew for half-time, Płacheta managed to quite spectacularly throw himself over the advertising hoardings and into the Kop with a loud crashing noise, not quite able to apply the brakes in time.
Płacheta will be 25 by the time his loan at Birmingham City comes to an end, and I’m hoping that with a new hairstyle and more time on the pitch, he might be able to rediscover some kind of form. His play-style, he says himself, is similar to Raheem Sterling, and whilst I wouldn’t completely agree with this comparison, I do think he has a slight point.
I wouldn’t be at all surprised if his career goes the way of Bartosz Kapustka, another young Polish talent who moved to England too soon and ended up back where he started. In my opinion, he is the kind of player that would thrive with regular play-time in a league like the Eredivisie or the Bundesliga, perhaps for a lower-half Bundesliga team, but still. In any case, thanks to video games, I’ll forever be keeping an eye on his career.
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