Squad Watch: Week 12. The Final Edition.

With the final round of the Polish league comes season’s last edition of Squad Watch. Our Euro preparation training camp starts in a week’s time and now the performances in training and forthcoming friendly matches will be more important than those on the club level. The final weekend saw two players omitted by Leo Beenhakker in his Euro squad selection, Pawel Brozek and Artur Wichniarek, performing particularly well.

Here is how Bialo Czerwoni performed in the last edition of Squad Watch:

Goalkeepers:

Artur Boruc (Celtic Glasgow)- 90 minutes against Hibernian
Lukasz Fabianski (Arsenal London)- 90 minutes against Sunderland
Wojciech Kowalewski (Korona Kielce)- not in the squad against Zaglebie Lubin
Tomasz Kuszczak (ManUtd)- on the bench against Wigan
Sebastian Przyrowski (Groclin Grodzisk)- 90 minutes against Odra, note 6

Defenders:

Jacek Bak (Austria Vienna)- end of season
Grzegorz Bronowicki (Red Star Belgrade)- not in the squad against Sartid Smederevo, injury
Pawel Golanski (Steaua Bucarest)- end of season
Mariusz Jop (FC Moscow)- 90 minutes against Shinnik
Adam Kokoszka (Wisla Krakow)- 90 minutes against Zaglebie Sosnowiec, note 7
Marcin Kus (Korona Kielce)- not in the squad against Zaglebie Lubin, injury
Tomasz Lisowski (Widzew Lodz)- 90 minutes against Gornik, note 5
Arkadiusz Radomski (Austria Vienna)- end of season
Marcin Wasilewski (Anderlecht)- not in the squad against Mons-Bergen, yellow card ban
Jakub Wawrzyniak (Legia Warsaw)- not in the squad against Polonia Bytom, rested
Michal Zewlakow (Olympiakos Pireus)- end of season

Midfielders:

Jakub Blaszczykowski (Borussia Dortmund)- 90 minutes against Arminia
Dariusz Dudka (Wisla Krakow)- not in the squad against Zaglebie Sosnowiec, injury
Lukasz Gargula (GKS Belchatow)- 90 minutes against Cracovia, note 6
Michal Golinski (Zaglebie Lubin)- 45 minutes and an injury against Korona, note 5
Kamil Grosicki (FC Sion)- 64 minutes against Grasshoppers
Przemysław Kazmierczak (FC Porto)- 90 minutes against Naval
Kamil Kosowski (Cadiz)- 45 minutes against Real Sociedad
Jacek Krzynowek (VFL Wolfsburg)- 21 minutes against VFB Stuttgart
Mariusz Lewandowski (Shachtar Donieck)- 34 minutes against Charkov
Wojciech Lobodzinski (Wisla Krakow)- not in the squad against Zaglebie Sosnowiec, rested
Radoslaw Majewski (Groclin Grodzisk)- 90 minutes and a goal against Odra, note 7
Rafal Murawski (Lech Poznan)- 90 minutes against LKS Lodz, note 6
Michal Pazdan (Gornik Zabrze)- on the bench against Widzew, rested
Roger (Legia Warsaw)- 31 minutes against Polonia Bytom, note 5
Marek Zienczuk (Wisla Krakow)- 90 minutes against Zaglebie Sosnowiec, note 6

Attackers:

Pawel Brozek (Wisla Krakow)- 67 minutes and two goals against Zaglebie Sosnowiec, note 8
Dawid Janczyk (CSKA Moscow)- 25 minutes against Chimki
Radosław Matusiak (Wisla Krakow)- 45 minutes against Zaglebie Sosnowiec, note 4
Lukasz Piszczek (Hertha Berlin)- 90 minutes and an assist against Nurnberg
Grzegorz Rasiak (Bolton)- not in the squad against Chelsea
Marek Saganowski (Southampton)- end of season
Ebi Smolarek (Racing Santander)- 51 minutes against Athletic Bilbao
Artur Wichniarek (Arminia Bielefeld)- 90 minutes, a goal and an assist against Borussia
Tomasz Zahorski (Gornik Zabrze)- 18 minutes against Widzew, note 4
Maciej Zurawski (Larissa)- end of season

Summary: It was a quiet weekend on the part of the players called up by Leo for the preparation training camp in Germany. Some, like Zahorski or Pazdan, were even rested. Others like Wawrzyniak or Lobodzinski didn’t play as they are to be in full shape for the mid week’s Polish Cup final between Wisla and Legia. Players like Zurawski, Zewlakow or Bak ended the season some time ago and are enjoying well earned holidays. On the other hand, Boruc and Kuszczak won’t take part in the first phase of the camp as the former will have to play the remaining games in the SPL and the latter awaits the Champions League final. Moreover, Bundesliga doesn’t end till next week so Krzynowek and Blaszczykowski will have no time for holidays. It all means that our players will be on a different level of physical fitness once the camp in Donaueschigen starts. It will all come down to Leo’s knowledge on how to adjust the training to individual players’ needs. The lack of physical fitness was one of the reasons of our failure in the last two World Cups so we just can’t afford to repeat the same mistakes again. I’m looking forward to our friendly games against Macedonia and Albania; I think that only after them will we be able to judge our fitness level.

The ironic element of the weekend was the fact that two players omitted by Leo in his squad selection managed to stand out in the last games. Artur Wichniarek scored his 10th goal of the season and dedicated it to the Polish national team staff. An usual, honest statement by a player who never beats around the bush. After all, it’s Wichniarek that said that Leo probably needs strikers who don’t score and play in weaker leagues after learning about his omission from the squad. Good luck Artur, I just hope your beloved Arminia will manage to avoid relegation from the Bundesliga. It was also another great weekend for Pawel Brozek who was crowned Polish league’s top goalscorer and finished the season with 23 goals to his name. He scores so regularly that it seems that the discussion about his absence at the Euros will never die out. It is now the common argument of Leo doubters that he’s taking Radoslaw Matusiak, a failure at Wisla, instead of Brozek. And the players only ‘add fuel to fire’; Matusiak started the game against Zaglebie Sosnowiec up front with Broziu but proved uninfluential and was substituted after 45 minutes. He also received the lowest note in the team, 4, from Przeglad Sportowy. At the same time Brozek scored two goals and his game was rated at 8. Come on all Leo doubters, it just writes itself. Fortunately, it doesn’t count how you perform in May in the Polish league, it counts how you perform in June on the international level.

From the players of Leo’s choice that did impress this weekend I can single out Radoslaw Majewski and Lukasz Fabianski. Majewski scored a goal to take Groclin into UEFA Cup in what could’ve been his last performance for the club. The news of him being sold to West Brom are becoming more and more frequent (today PS wrote about it). Even Don Leo commented on it saying that such a move can ruin Maja’s career as bottom Premiership teams (and West Brom will fight to avoid relegation next season) don’t need technical players. I thought the same before one of West Brom fans stated under my post about Majewski that his team, in fact, plays technical, flowing football. I can believe that as their manager is Tony Mowbray, a guy who made Hiberniam one of the most pleasant to watch teams in Scotland. I’m also very happy that Lukasz Fabianski played for the third time in a row for Arsenal and managed to keep a clean sheet. What’s even better, this time he even received positive comments from the English press. Fabian is on a good way to become Arsenal’s number 2 next season (he can also leave nr 3 spot for other Pole, Wojciech Szczesny).

This is all as far as this season’s Squad Watch is concerned. I’ll try to write some note about the Polish league with my review of it in the next couple of days. After that it’ll be strictly Bialo Czerwoni bussiness with the start of the training camp on the 19th of May. I can already feel the pressure rising.

Highlights: Brozek’s goals against Sosnowiec, Wichniarek’s goal and assist against Borussia, Majewski scores against Odra.