Paulo Sousa in the name of the higher idea of teaching our team games he sacrificed practically the only thing that worked decently during his tenure in a nice and modern ball Jerzy Brzêczka – defensive. Brzęczek must admit that in matches with teams of a similar level, Poland practically did not lose any goals, which was perfectly demonstrated by the qualifying rounds to Euro 2020. Ba, Paulo Sousa after six matches as the national team coach, he has already conceded 10 goals. Even more grotesque, in five of the six games we conceded a goal after a set set. Brzęczek had to wait 16 matches for the loss of the tenth goal in the role of the national team coach, and at the beginning he played twice with Italy or Portugal. Meanwhile, in recent matches, defense would have played better, even if it did not exist.
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The world laughs at our defense. “Polish footballers have not grown up to great tournaments”
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In the case of our defense game, there is nothing else but a hecatomb that led to self-destruction. What Polish players did in their half was bizarre. And the worst thing is that it was not a coincidence, but a rule from the last matches. We played exactly what we worked out in training, which is nothing. Now we can only beat amateurs. And that’s not even a metaphor, but a fact.
Sousa like a crazy chemist stirring in a flask
For five matches, Paulo Sousa played a mad chemist who combines the contents of a dozen or so cubes, but in the end the substance exploded. How else to judge the fact that so far during the tenure of Sousa the three Bereszyński – Glik – Bednarek have not played together even once, and the Portuguese has tried virtually all possible settings. And yet, from the outset, it looked like this would be the target of the defense. It is not hard to guess how important mutual is when playing with three in the back understanding on the pitch. And here comes another obstacle in the form of a hybrid set-up that changes depending on the phase of the match. And who knows, if this did not result in the loss of the first goal, because both Jóźwiak and Bereszyński seem to have forgotten what role they currently play. Sure, the mistakes of both were terrible, but maybe there was simply no automatism at this point. A sense of who is to be the cover, who is to be securing, since these roles change quickly and often. Bereszyński suddenly thought that he was a right-hand defender, and Jóźwiak did not know if he was still a swing or a winger, who should insure the defender, as Błaszczykowski did at Euro 2016, who closed our right side with Piszczek and made his rivals almost cry .
“The lineup with three defenders was supposed to be soft, but only the players’ legs were soft after successive nets”
I guess we all subconsciously knew that it could not be successful. That the success at a great event is primarily determined by a tight defense (as demonstrated by, among others, Adam Nawałka), but we were still under the illusion that maybe we will succeed now. Everything that could have gone wrong has gone, and it has done it with redoubled strength.
Before the European Championship we alarmed that defending our representation is a drama and a conflagration. And unfortunately, nothing has changed in this regard. In fact, when the stress related to a big party came, it did not improve our concentration, but only increased the paralysis. Our setup and tactics were supposed to be quite soft and volatile. We were supposed to defend with four defenders and attack with three stoppers. Unfortunately, it turned out that only the legs of our players were soft after the nets set up by the Slovaks. We counted two popular “holes”, plus one spectacular roulette by Ondrej Duda, which was nodded by our three players in the middle of the field. The Slovaks were crushing us technically, and to make matters worse, they won most of the strength duels.
Paulo Sousa seduced us with briefings and answering about tactics
Paulo Sousa knew very well that he had very little time, yet he decided to try to implement the most difficult possible style of play. I myself watched his briefings with bated breath, which I could not fault. The plan looked beautiful, maybe even too beautiful. May it not end like in Bordeaux, where the fans first followed Sousa’s words, everyone was impressed, and it ended up with big scandals and claims that the players were too weak. If they were, then you need to choose a tactic for them, not the other way around.
Portuguese from the beginning was looking for square eggs, introduced improvements and modifications that not only did not work out in the offensive (because we created the best opportunities after quite simple actions from the wing), but also completely smashed our defense. We already had bad signals in friendly matches. But in fact, these were not just signals, but powerful alarm sirens that we completely ignored. We blindly trusted that Sousa had some kind of plan and vision for the squad. And what is worse, his choices can make us lose two tournaments in three months. Euro 2020 and World Cup 2020, because Sousa’s combinations have already made our situation difficult in the qualifying rounds. We believed that we would be able to play more than the first 10 minutes in both halves. Nothing could be more wrong.
Some fans and experts will say that Paulo Sousa was hired too late and therefore did not have enough time to work out the right patterns, change the style of the team or just get to know the players. But it should be noted right away that Slovakia changed the coach only 1.5 months earlier, and both coaches had exactly the same time to work with the team. A week in March and three during Euro 2020 and unfortunately the difference is electrifying. The Slovaks had a simple plan for Poland. Let yourself go crazy, not make mistakes, because sooner or later Poles will hurt themselves. And it was so.
Is the pilot flying with us? Sousa’s movements that showed a complete lack of a plan
And today it seems that there was no plan B. For the first five matches, Sousa stubbornly followed the line-up with two of the typical nines. Even in the last match against Iceland, we played with two strikers, knowing that Arkadiusz Milik will not be present at the tournament. Sousa has not tested a different setup in the long run. And what turned out? In the most important match we played in a completely different set-up than in previous games. Suddenly, the first line-up included Karol Linetta, who had not played much until now. The symbol of working in the dark is also the change of Przemysław Frankowski. This is the right winger, whom Sousa has stubbornly placed on the pendulum so far, and at the end of the match with Slovakia, Frankowski played … “suspended striker” for Lewandowski. – What was Frankowski doing there? – Dominik Wardzichowski was irritated in our Monday post-match studio “Euro Sekcja Live”
Was the pilot flying with us in this situation? Was it a hit or miss or, as Piotr Świerczewski once threw at the ŁKS players, “playing for chaos”. Finally, one may ask why the young Kacper Kozłowski did not appear on the pitch, as when he entered the pitch so far, he presented himself perfectly and was one of the most creative on the pitch. It was his action that brought, for example, a 2: 2 equalization with Iceland.
This team does not exist. This year we only won with amateurs
Polish footballers in a dramatic style lost the first match of Euro 2020 and severely limited their chances of being promoted to the knockout stage. It is enough for us to lose to Spain on Saturday, which is very likely, and Sweden will win with Slovakia – then we will lose even the mathematical chances. Depriving yourself of the chance to be promoted from the group after the second round would be quite an art and a true picture of poverty and despair.
Only that Poland has virtually no prospects of improving its results. If we haven’t worked it out in three weeks, much less will we improve in three days. After the match, the players unanimously emphasized that they did not deserve a defeat and that they had this match under control. However, this is complete nonsense, because if in every game such ridiculous mistakes are made and they are for sure, then there is no match control. Even if it seemingly feels like we’ve got the ball for most of the game, there’s not much of it.
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