Squad Watch: Week 3. JW Shows Bos Who’s The Boss.

March 14th, 2011 | by: tomasz | Comments(20)

Józef Wojciechowski takes no prisoners, three games was enough for him to fire the Dutch coach Theo Bos. Polonia Warsaw, with three Polish internationals, was supposed to fight for the European competition, but is more likely to struggle to avoid relegation at the moment. The owner of the club, JW, is partly to blame as he’s already fired three coaches this season. This is what happens when you play Football Manager in reality. Wisła Kraków is on the straight way to regain the championship title after Jagiellonia Białystok and Lech Poznań lost their games at the weekend.

Goalkeepers:

Artur Boruc (Fiorentina): 90 minutes against Chievo
Tomasz Kuszczak (ManUtd): on the bench against Liverpool
Sebastian Małkowski (Lechia Gdańsk): 90 minutes against Jagiellonia, note 7
Grzegorz Sandomierski (Jagiellonia Bialystok): 90 minutes against Lechia, note 7
Wojciech Szczęsny (Arsenal London): not in the squad against ManUtd, injury
Przemyslaw Tytoń (Roda Kerkrade): 90 minutes against AZ
Łukasz Załuska (Celtic Glasgow): no match

Defenders:

Blażej Augustyn (Catania): on the bench against Sampdoria
Piotr Brożek (Trabzonspor): 58 minutes against Kasimpasa
Piotr Celeban (Śląsk Wrocław): 90 minutes against Legia, note 5
Dariusz Dudka (AJ Auxerre): 90 minutes against Nice
Kamil Glik (Bari): 90 minutes against Milan
Arkadiusz Głowacki (Trabzonspor): 90 minutes against Kasimpasa
Tomasz Jodłowiec (Polonia Warsaw): 90 minutes against Zagłębie, note 4
Marcin Kikut (Lech Poznań): 90 minutes against Cracovia, note 4
Łukasz Piszczek (Borussia Dortmund): 90 minutes against Hoffenheim
Jakub Rzeźniczak (Legia Warsaw): 90 minutes against Śląsk, note 5
Maciej Sadlok (Polonia Warsaw): 90 minutes against Zagłębie, note 5
Marcin Wasilewski (Anderlecht): 90 minutes against Eupen
Grzegorz Wojtkowiak (Lech Poznań): not in the squad against Cracovia, injury
Hubert Wołąkiewicz (Lech Poznań): on the bench against Cracovia
Michał Żewłakow (Ankaragucu): 90 minutes against Galatasaray

Midfielders:

Tomasz Bandrowski (Lech Poznan): not in the squad against Cracovia, injury
Jakub Błaszczykowski (Borussia Dortmund): 28 minutes against Hoffenheim
Ariel Borysiuk (Legia Warsaw): 71 minutes and a goal against Śląsk
Mateusz Cetnarski (GKS Belchatow): 45 minutes against Ruch, note 5
Tomasz Cywka (Derby County): not in the squad against Swansea, injury
Janusz Gol (Legia Warsaw): on the bench against Śląsk
Roger Guerreiro (AEK Athens): 35 minutes and an assist against Kavala
Maciej Iwański (Manisaspor): 82 minutes against Besiktas
Jacek Kiełb (Lech Poznań): not in the squad against Cracovia
Tomasz Kupisz (Jagiellonia Bialystok): 90 minutes and an assist against Lechia, note 6
Grzegorz Krychowiak (Stade Reims): 74 minutes against Chateauroux
Radosław Majewski (Nottingham Forest): 61 minutes against Doncaster
Patryk Małecki (Wisla Krakow): 87 minutes and a goal against Widzew, note 7
Adam Matuszczyk (FC Koeln): not in the squad against Hannover, injury
Adrian Mierzejewski (Polonia Warsaw): 90 minutes against Zagłębie, note 4
Rafał Murawski (Lech Poznań): 90 minutes against Cracovia, note 6
Ludovic Obraniak (Lille): 25 minutes against Valenciennes
Sławomir Peszko (FC Koeln): 90 minutes against Hannover
Maciej Rybus (Legia Warsaw): not in the squad against Śląsk, injury
Bartosz Salamon (Foggia): 90 minutes against Andria
Cezary Wilk (Wisła Kraków): on the bench against Widzew

Attackers:

Paweł Brożek (Trabzonspor): 90 minutes and an assist against Kasimpasa
Kamil Grosicki (Sivasspor): 90 minutes against Kayeserispor
Michał Janota (Go Ahead Eagles): 74 minutes against Helmond
Ireneusz Jeleń (AJ Auxerre): 90 minutes against Nice
Michał Kucharczyk (Legia Warsaw): 90 minutes against Śląsk, note 5
Robert Lewandowski (Borussia Dortmund): 62 minutes against Hoffenheim
Andrzej Niedzielan (Korona Kielce): 90 minutes and a goal against Polonia B., note 7
Dawid Nowak (GKS Belchatow): 66 minutes against Ruch, note 5
Szymon Pawłowski (Zagłębie Lubin): 78 minutes against Polonia W., note 6
Dawid Plizga (Zagłębie Lubin): 90 minutes against Polonia W., note 6
Marcin Robak (Konyaspor): 90 minutes against Fenerbahce
Ebi Smolarek (Polonia Warsaw): 45 minutes against Zagłębie, note 3
Artur Sobiech (Polonia Warsaw): 90 minutes against Zagłębie, note 4

Summary: Part of me feels sorry for JW. He invests his own money in Polish football, promotes Polish players and adds a bit of ‘tropical’ flavour to the league. In general, he’s by far the most straightforward, controversial and therefore interesting football club owner in Poland. At the same time, part of me is satisfied with Polonia’s difficult situation because it shows that you need time and strategy in football. JW expects results instantly, whether he should concentrate on building the team that would fight for the championship in two or three years. He writes players off after two or three average matches, when he should strengthen their confidence by positive comments. Every transfer window Polonia replaces four or five players from their squad with new four or five players, hardly ever of a better quality. Wojciechowski has no patience whatsoever, I sometimes wonder how it’s possible that he became a millionaire. In business you need time and well outlined plan, don’t you? How is it that JW can’t apply the same rules to football? Wojciechowski’s problem is also that he doesn’t understand the specifics of football. Unlike in many other ventures, in football two plus two doesn’t always equal four. The sole fact that you have good players won’t bring you success; you need good management, training grounds and, most importantly, atmosphere to achieve success. Wojciechowski doesn’t even have a proper sporting director at Polonia, he decides to trust the managers who don’t always recommend him the best possible players. They can do it because JW’s acts according to instinct, in the heat of the moment. They also can do it because JW is no football expert, he has problems judging the real potential of the players and is very often left with average footballers earning unbeleviable wages (Tosik, Gancarczyk, Rachwał or Pietrasiak). What’s the saddest, however, is that Wojciechowski’s concept of basing the team on Polish players has failed. Polonia has three current internationals (Mierzejewski, Sadlok, Jodłowiec) and many players that Smuda still is or was interested in (Sobiech, Smolarek, Kokoszka, Pietrasiak, Tosik, Gancarczyk, Brzyski), yet they have worse results than Lechia Gdańsk or Jagiellonia Białystok that decided to base their squad on foreigners. The best example to undermine JW’s strategy is Wisła Kraków: a team with only two Poles in the starting lineup is leaders of the table with four points advantage. Will Wojciechowski learn anything from this? So far, he’s been a very slow pupil. As long as he doesn’t change his approach he won’t become a fully professional club owner.

Jagiellonia won only two points in three games and will have to slowly forget about the championship title. Whether they were only a one round wonder or are these just temporary problems remains to be seen. It’s clear, however, that they won’t be scoring as many points as last year, especially that they have their next game away in Poznań. Turns out that Grosicki was this crucial element that made Jaga work. The fact that coach Probierz keeps Tomasz Frankowski on the bench doesn’t help either. Jaga find themselves lucky as Lech and Legia lost their games respectively (remember never to bet on the Ekstraklasa). Everybody is playing for Wisła, but the Biała Gwiazda is also doing everything right at the moment. The trio of Małecki, Melikson and Kirm are able to outrun every defence in Poland. Melikson has a Polish citizenship and there are already questions concerning his availability for Poland. He’s played once for Israel, but it was an unofficial game and, according to the new FIFA rules, he’d have no problems to change the national teams. I was in favour of Roger, Arboleda, Obraniak or Perquis playing for us so I can see nothing against Melikson as well. The problem is that nobody has asked the player if he even would be interested.

Nothing spectacular to report about the Poles abroad. I’ve already written about Boenish’s injury and the call ups for the upcoming friendlies. The good thing is that, apart from Hubert Wołąkiewicz and Cezary Wilk, all the called up players entered the field this weekend. Which means that all the important players are given regular playing time.

Highlights:

Another goal for Patryk Małecki, the in form player at the moment

Andrzej Niedzielan fights bravely for the golden boot

Ariel Borysiuk scores a goal of his lifetime

Artur Boruc has some good saves fro Fiorentina

Paweł Brożek has an important assist

Roger’s assist