Squad Watch: Week 4.

The criticism on Beenhakker has been way to harsh. Just look at our team

Kryznowek a bench player at Hannover
Murawski – bench player at Rubin
Lewandowski – bench player at Shakhtar
Dudka – bench player at Auxerre
Smolarek – NO CLUB
Roger – struggling at Legia, now moved to AEK.

How are we supposed to win anything when our players aren’t even playing regular football? Even Saganowski who is called up from time to time can’t make the first XI at Southampton in the English League 1!

People need to face it. We have a poor side with poor individuals but have managed to claw our way to the last two world cups with sheer will power and determination. I for one thank Beenhakker for the great work he has done here. Nothing but a small miracle that we were able to qualify for the last world cup.

Posted from  Iceland

Arek, you may be correct. Don’t forget that he lost his magic. Its looking more and more like he lost passion to coach for Poland anyways. When that happened, he should have stepped down. For him to go out like this, only blaming others is wrong. Face it, he was in a damn good position to change the PZPN by challenging them. I think he was mailing it in towards the end. And to say that Poland deserved to lose to Slovenia as if they could never beat them is wrong. He was getting paid to figure out how to beat them. Portugal is an example of that. Poland should never have won that game, yet they did. If Leo coached the team with the mentality that Poland cannot win against Portugal, they wouldn’t have. He did great work when he was putting work into the team. He gave up maybe before anyone else did that things could change for Poland. That’s probably what hurts the most.

I agree, there’s no point blaming Beenhakker, we just don’t have enough talent. We need to find a way to get rid of Lato, Engel, Piechniczek and co., then have some people from France, Holland or Germany come in to help set up a proper youth development system. The possibilities:

1) The government steps in and suspends the PZPN. They’ve already tried this twice but both times they were blackmailed by FIFA…
2) Players go on strike, refuse to play for the NT until the clowns at the PZPN are replaced by competent, professional individuals. This is a better idea since FIFA would be powerless to interfere.
3) Wroclaw police manage to dig up some incriminating evidence against the PZPN.

Posted from  Canada

Maybe a great news for NT and for Smolarek: http://fr.soccerway.com/news/2009/September/14/hamburger-sv-targets-ebi-smolarek/

Maybe a great news for NT and for Smolarek: http://fr.soccerway.com/news/2009/September/14/hamburger-sv-targets-ebi-smolarek/

Allways a great stuff Tomasz, Thank you

It’ll be nice to see Smolarek playing again (if they sign him and give him a chance) but it makes no difference to the NT. Our WC qualifying campaign is effectively over, and we don’t need to qualify for Euro 2012.
For the purposes of the NT, it’s more important that our younger prospects get regular playing time. I think Polish clubs should be making more of an effort to persuade our foreign-based talents to return to Poland. The Ekstraklasa may be awful but it can’t be worse than than wasting away in reserves. After spending three seasons playing for Wigan’s reserves, Cywka has made so much progress that he’s no longer considered good enough to even make the bench for Wigan…

Posted from  Canada

FFS, I thought Kuszczack was supposed to play. He’s never going to get a chance unless Foster and Van Der Sar are injured…
Not that it really matters but was Golanski taken of the starting squad at Steaua b/c of the NT performance?
I find it cool that even though Frankowski is old for a striker he’s still racking up goals and helping Jaga play good. They’d be a real contender if it wasn’t for that -10 deduction.

Sure Frankowski can still play in Poland in always can score. The Ek is one of the few places that is slow enough to accomadate his slow pace.

Posted from  United States

Still even with our rubbish squad we still should be able to beat Slovenia and Northern Island. The other Polish coaches, as bad as they were at least they always beat the team that Poland were supposed to beat. With Leo you never knew, it was possible to get a big win against a strong country like Portugal, or lose against Armenia.

Posted from  Netherlands

And the only things that’ll help against the Lesne Dziadki from the PZPN is either a huge strike or a bombardement on the PZPN office.

Posted from  Netherlands

Good to hear that Janczyk scored and is playing. 2nd game to start and 2nd goal not bad. Lewandowski form seems to be growing nice goal he scored. At least they give us hope of having decent strikers for 2012. And Older polish players that are benched should return to the Ekstraklasa it will make the league better.

tomasz, are the rumors true that Lothar Matthaus wants to coach Poland? If so, what is really thought in Poland of this. Also, are there more foreign coaches contacting the PZPN? And is there really a mystery coach the PZPN won’t release the name of or is this all bull?

A German coach coaching Poland. It’s as insane as Polish players playing for Germany.

Oh wait…

Seriously, I think it’s rubbish, besides he hasn’t done anything worth mentioning as a coach yet, so I don’t understand why he’s a contender.
Another foreign coach that might lead us is Avram Grant.

Posted from  Netherlands

I’m not saying I want Mathaus coaching. I just wasn’t aware people were jumping for the job yet. I know the Euros are coming, but I figured it’d be a year before anyone really showed interest. Apparantly there is some “big name” that the PZPN won’t reveal who is interested in coaching as well. How do you go from saying only a Polish coach will do to changing your mind in a few days? Can Lato make up his mind all ready.

I think the only thing Lato should think about is making cameo appearances in Polish sitcoms like the Kiepskis. Fits him perfectly.

Posted from  Netherlands

haha Ferdynand Kiepski would be a better president than Lato, no doubt about it.

(The following is a joke and only intended as such) We really have problems when the two leading candidates are a German and a Jew.

I think Avram Grant’s case would help us as much as it would help him. We would get a big name coach with big club experience. He would get a shot at taking a national team to a major tournament. A win-win for both sides.

As for Lothar Matthaus, I’m not convinced that he is ready at this time to take charge of a national team. As a player, his name carries a certain level of respect. As a coach, not so much. And we all know that great players don’t always make for good managers (or presidents i.e Lato). However, this could be the opportunity for a guy like Matthaus to make a name for himself in the coaching ranks. I see no harm in bringing a German international to clean up the mess of the PZPN and the structure of Polish football. The only downside is that it would take him more than a victory against Portugal to win the supporters trust and support.

Improving German-Polish relations would be nice but the Polish NT is not the proving ground for caoches. If a coach wants to prove himself, do it in a legaue where if you screw up thiers always next year. Poland aint gonna host a Euro again anytime soon so if Matthaus screws up, Poland gets royally F***ed. Grant has had success and is proven, Matthaus on the other hand IMO I wouldn’t take the risk of hiring him.

^a, I’m not sure a coach will be able to clean up the PZPN or fixing the structure of Polish football. A president of the PZPN could do that, or even competent people in the PZPN.

^SD, I think that’s a bit of a problem, the Euro thing. We need somebody who’s not just looking to make a name for themselves by coaching a Polish squad that’s automatically in the tournament. Hosts don’t do as well since they see no competitive action until the tournament. So, we need someone who’s looking to fix Poland up for the future. we can’t hire someone who’ll try to win in 2012 but if doesn’t can try to blame everything on Poland again. We need someone who wants to change things for the better.

Do not read this if you still want to love the Polish national team… the sad truth of our national team finally revealed http://www.polishsoca.com/newswire/national-team/1862-de-zeeuw-reveals-polands-scandalous-secrets

Why is Mathaus even being considered? He’s already had a number of chances to prove himself: he hasn’t impressed anywhere. All he’s done is prove that good players don’t always make good managers.

To be honest, I don’t think it really matters who’s chosen as manager. Unless we start producing players with stronger basic technical skills, we will continue to struggle against countries like Slovenia, Armenia, and Finland, no matter who’s at the helm.

Adam, wow.. I hope there’s a complete overhaul, for most of the squad, their career with the NT should be over.

Posted from  Canada

^If we got a coach with half a brain then that obviously must happen.
The only players that should stay are Smolli, Blaszczu, Obraniak, young Lewy, bald Lewy (BUT ONLY IF HE STOPS HIS STUPID ASS SHOOTING), and Borubas. Maybe Muras if he starts consistently appearing in Kazan’s first team.
All others shouldn’t be even considered.

Posted from  Netherlands

According to gazeta.pl Lothar Matthaus, Avram Grant, Javier Clemente and Javier Aguirre applied for the job. I think we can easily cross out Clemente and Matthaus; the former failed miserably in Serbia (just look at the players he had at his disposal), the latter has got nothing to boast about in terms of his coaching career. Avram Grant was the mysterious candidate who the press mentioned as far as I know. That’s an interesting option, he did quite well at Chelsea as far as I’m concerned. If it wasn’t for John Terry’s slip he would have won the Champions League. On the other hand, he doesn’t look like a person with lots of charisma. I also don’t know if the Chelsea players treated him with much respect. I think that our new coach has to be a sort of mentor for the players or at least a coach that is liked by the majority of players (such as Smuda). Aguirre is the candidate with best credentials, he did very well at Osasona and had some success at Atletico. To be honest, I can’t quite believe that he sent the job application to us, he’s currently managing Mexico and should be concerned with their World Cup involvement. I can’t see him working two jobs at the same time. The other news is that the FA’s sponsor, Tyskie, would prefer a foreign coach, they will pay for a big name. The only Polish candidate they accept is Franz Smuda.