Peszko Returns To The National Team. Call Ups For Lithuania And Greece.

March 12th, 2011 | by: tomasz |

As expected, Franz Smuda didn’t hold a grudge too long against Sławomir Peszko. The fact that he’s one of his favourite players and his good displays in the Bundesliga certainly helped. The same can’t be said about Artur Boruc, who even in the light of Fabiański and Szczęsny’s injuries didn’t receive a call up. That’s as clear a sign as you can get that Artie is permanently crossed out from Smuda’s notebook. Other than that, the team consists of players that Smuda has been using in the last games.

Call ups for Lithuania and Greece (Michał Żewłakow is called up for Greece only):

Goalkeepers: Przemysław Tytoń (Roda JC Kerkrade), Grzegorz Sandomierski (Jagiellonia Białystok), Sebastian Małkowski (Lechia Gdańsk).
Defenders: Łukasz Piszczek (Borussia Dortmund), Kamil Glik (AS Bari), Dariusz Dudka (AJ Auxerre), Arkadiusz Głowacki(Trabzonspor), Hubert Wołąkiewicz (Lech Poznań), Maciej Sadlok (Polonia Warsaw), Tomasz Jodłowiec (Polonia Warsaw), Jakub Rzeźniczak (Legia Warsaw), Michał Żewłakow (MKE Ankaragücü).
Midfielders: Ludovic Obraniak (OSC Lille), Roger (AÉK Athens), Jakub Błaszczykowski (Borussia Dortmund), Sławomir Peszko (1.FC Köln), Rafał Murawski (Lech Poznań), Cezary Wilk (Wisła Kraków), Adrian Mierzejewski (Polonia Warsaw), Szymon Pawłowski (Zagłębie Lubin)
Strikers: Robert Lewandowski (Borussia Dortmund), Ireneusz Jeleń (AJ Auxerre), Kamil Grosicki (Sivasspor), Michał Kucharczyk (Legia Warsaw)

Summary: Peszko comes back because, as Smuda put it, he showed repentance. I think that Peszko’s return was never in doubt, even if he didn’t show repentance Smuda would call him up because he’s a huge fan of the player. And for the better because Peszko is experiencing one of the best times of his career at the moment. Surprisingly, he quickly won himself a place in Koeln’s starting lineup and is one of their standing out players. He played for 90 minutes in yesterday’s Bundesliga game against Hannover; for the first time after a minor injury, which shows how strong his position in the team is at the moment. Ideally, Bundesliga has already taught him a lot and he’ll become a much more useful player for the national team than he was in the past. The matters are entirely different as far as Artur Boruc is concerned. Smuda called the Fiorentina keeper a recidivist and he doesn’t plan to include him in his team in the future. I think it’s not a problem of Boruc being a recidivist, but a problem of him having a too strong character for Franz to handle. The guys have different mentalities and are unable to create even a mutual respect. Boruc’s interview for TVN Sport where he called Smuda a ‘Dyzma of Polish football’ certainly didn’t help his case. Even in such a difficult goalkeeping situation, where Smuda has to call up Sandomierski and Małkowski, he won’t turn to Boruc. Artie is clearly finished in the national team. The choice of goalies (no Kuszczak) also proves how much Smuda believes in Przemysław Tytoń. He’s not afraid of making him our starting keeper in the upcoming games and doesn’t need a more experienced keeper like Kuszczak to feel safe. This may be the real test of Tytoń’s usefulness as the national team keeper.

As you pointed out in the comments under the previous post, there is no typical defensive midfielder in the squad (maybe apart from Cezary Wilk). Smuda wanted to have a look at Grzegorz Krychowiak last time, but clearly what he saw wasn’t impressive enough to give the Reims player another chance. Maybe he plans using Tomasz Jodłowiec as a defensive midfielder, he already played there against Finland. Radosław Majewski wasn’t called up as well, even in spite of Adam Matuszczyk’s injury. It’s no secret that Smuda isn’t convinced by the Nottingham Forest player. In my opinion, because of Matuszczyk’s absence, Smuda will bring back Ludo Obraniak to the midfield and play him together with Rafał Murawski and Adrian Mierzejewski. I hope he irrevocably resigned from playing Kuba Błaszczykowski in the middle of the field. Another option is putting Peszko in the midfield, a tactical move that Smuda has used many times so far. For me, Peszko is a born winger and I’d much prefer to see him on the wing, dribbling and crossing to Robert Lewandowski. Still, after Smuda put Kuba in the middle nothing will surprise me.

Franz also doesn’t have any new ideas for the left back position. I don’t blame him in this department, I myself struggle to find a better solution. We’ll see either Maciej Sadlok or Dariusz Dudka there, or maybe they’ll get a game each.

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Comments

By witold | March 12th, 2011 at 2:24 pm

I was a huge fan of Smuda, and also very happy that Beenhaker quit but that’s as clear a sign as you can get that Smuda is permanently crossed out from my notebook. We have the chance to have a lot talentuous Goalkeepers, we still have Boruc and Kuszczak available, but Mr. “BIG EGO” Smuda prefer to bring our 5,6 and 7th Goalkeepers. Which coach in the world has doing that in the past?
A great thank you Mr Smuda to scrap our Euro because you are in conflict with each players who have some caracter. 11 sheeps go to slaughter…

Posted from Canada

By Focus | March 12th, 2011 at 2:27 pm

This week has shown some beautiful goals in the Ekstraklasa.

As for the call ups, I’ve lost faith in Smuda and don’t have any hope for the euros.

By Matt | March 12th, 2011 at 6:01 pm

Smuda is a joke. He calls up guys like Sebstian Malkowski over Boruc. He constantly plays players out of position. I realy want to like Smuda, but he is just too stuborn to change his ways. Think about this scenerio if Szczesny and Fabian are injured for the Euros, Premyslaw Tyton will be our starting GK. That’s a scary scenerio.

By tommy | March 12th, 2011 at 11:44 pm

boruc is and has been polands #1. ridic that smuda is an selfish asshole.

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By zaraza | March 13th, 2011 at 1:16 am

Matt, I think Malkowski is intended for the first match in which we can’t use foreign-based players (not being on an official date). But I agree with your post overall. Smuda’s stubbornness will put us in a difficult position if Szczesny and Fabianski are injured come Euros. Hopefully they’ll be healthy but situations can change rapidly (as Arsenal has discovered with Fabianski, Szczesny AND Mannone all getting injured). Smuda should not be burning his bridges with Boruc. Perhaps Kuszczak will have a tantrum if he’s called up for a match and then demoted in the next one by Szczesny, so I don’t blame Smuda for not calling him up, however, Boruc probably won’t whine too much. He didn’t when he was demoted briefly by Kowalewski. So not calling up Boruc is probably all about Smuda’s personal grudge against him.

By Hieronim | March 13th, 2011 at 9:39 am

Tyton is really a solid goalkeeper, I wouldn’t really be worried if he had to start because of injury for us. Especially if his move to Ajax or a bigger Dutch club comes this summer, I think he is not a bad option. However, nobody comes close to Boruc, I agree with that wholeheartedly. Such a shame egos are getting in the way.

By bigcmos | March 13th, 2011 at 12:13 pm

I was also a fan of Smuda, but the man cannot communicate wit his players instead he tries to bully them.

Luckily, Peszko is back and its a joke that Tyton is our number 1. I understand about Kuszczak he is out of form, but clearly putting personal interests behind us is in our best interest, as Boruc is still our number one keeper as we see his from in Seria A is the real deal.

I would like to propose my lineup just for fun what I would like to see with the players he has called up.

——————–Sandom—————-
—Piszczek–Glowacki–Sadlok—Dudka—-
–Kuba–Murawski—–Mierzejwski—Peszko
——–Obraniak——————-
——————Lewandowski———–

what do you guys think?

Posted from Canada

By Jan | March 13th, 2011 at 1:34 pm

Valencia want Robert Lewandowski, what do you guys think about it?

By Casimir | March 13th, 2011 at 3:03 pm

I don’t think its good for a player to constantly move, and I doubt Dortmund would want to sell so soon after putting in a decent investment, unless Valencia will pay a transfer fee of value greater than Dortmund paid to Lech. So, I would prefer Lewy to stay. Its a good system at Dortmund, Klopp has them playing a nice attacking game, and he’ll learn more tactically at Dortmund. He will also have the opportunity for Champion’s League play next season if Borussia continues their run to the Bundesliga title.

I don’t know much about Valencia’s style of play, but La Liga is definitely a very technically gifted and emphasized league, with less physicality.

IMHO, I would like to see Lewy stay at Dortmund for at least another two seasons and establish himself before moving to another league. Ultimately, I hope he continues to develop and attracts more attention from the mid-table EPL teams that inquired about him last year.

By JZ | March 13th, 2011 at 3:16 pm

Jan –
Valencia wanting Robert Lewandowski is a rumor.
There will be many more rumor’s over the summer break.
I doubt it, but if a real offer comes in from Spain or England it would be in the best interest of the NT, 2012, & himself Lewandowski should stay at BVB & work hard at being a regular starter (we will see what happens when Kagawa returns from injury). He has the C.L. to look forward to & defending the Bundesliga title next season with BVB.
Klopp is a good coach for Lewandowski, he is very patient & supportive of Lewy. If Lewy does move I do not think he will get the support he gets at BVB.
He will be expected to produce immediately & often.

By Timmy | March 13th, 2011 at 4:47 pm

Its nice to hear that Lewandowski is being recognized across europe and there is interest for him from very good clubs. I know its just a rumour but if he were to move that would probably not be the best of moves. He just arrived at Dortmund and is just settling in, it really took some time for him to get a regular spot on the team and he is still developing, and Klopp and dortmund are the perfect person/club to do that. Dortmund is a big club, with an amazing fan base and are going to the champions league next season, Lewandowski is also playing with 2 other fellow Poles and is still not really an established consistent goalscorer yet. Plus i dont think Klopp would want robert to go and even if Dortmund win the title (99% they will) there is still a lot for him to learn and try to achieve, Id personally say he should stick around for at least another couple seasons, until then he still has a long way to go before he can move to an even bigger club. Lewy isnt even at his prime and is still developing and clubs like Valencia are apparently knockin on the door then who knows what clubs will want him in 2 years time? But remember its just a rumour so who knows
BTW can someone post a article about the rumour?

By bigcmos | March 13th, 2011 at 5:24 pm

Tyton let in two more goals to add to his incredible goal keeper tally, this guy is a blunder machine. Maybe his team is not that fantastic but looking back in the past several months he has let in a ton of goals!

Nice to see Roger getting another assist thats like 5 in 4 weeks!! Finally, good for Lewan but the Germans are wise will built him up and then sell him for a huge fee!

Posted from Canada

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