Squad Watch: Week 7. Ebi Smolarek’s Downfall Continues.

Sebastian Przyrowski, Lukasz Piszczek, Tomasz Jodlowiec, Rafal Murawski and Ebi Smolarek didn’t make the squad’s final cut for the games against the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The first three were eliminated due to injuries while the latter two because they don’t play regularly. Murawski at least doesn’t play at a decent club (Russian champions); as for Ebi…well he doesn’t even have a club for which he doesn’t play. HSV Hamburg resigned from signing him on a free transfer at the end of the last week. If this doesn’t bring Ebi back to reality nothing will.

Goalkeepers:

Artur Boruc (Celtic Glasgow)- 90 minutes against Rangers
Jerzy Dudek (Real Madrid)- on the bench against Sevilla
Wojciech Kowalewski (Iraklis Thessaloniki)- match today
Lukasz Fabianski (Arsenal London)- not in the squad against Fulham, injury
Tomasz Kuszczak (ManUtd)- on the bench against Sunderland
Sebastian Przyrowski (Polonia Warsaw)- not in the squad against Piast, injury
Lukasz Zaluska (Celtic Glasgow)- on the bench against Rangers

Defenders:

Blazej Augustyn (Catania)- 3 minutes against Bari
Jaroslaw Bieniuk (Widzew Lodz)- match today
Dariusz Dudka (AJ Auxerre)- on the bench against Rennes
Seweryn Gancarczyk (Lech Poznan)- 90 minutes against Arka, note 5
Kamil Glik (Pisat Gliwice)- 90 minutes against Polonia Warsaw, note 6
Arkadiusz Glowacki (Wisla Krakow)- 90 minutes against Slask, note 6
Pawel Golanski (Steaua Bucharest)- not in the squad against Gloria, injury
Tomasz Jodlowiec (Polonia Warsaw)- 90 minutes against Piast, note 5
Adam Kokoszka (Empoli F.C.)- 90 minutes against Gallipoli
Marcin Kowalczyk (Dinamo Moscow)- 90 minutes against Zenit
Mariusz Pawelec (Slask Wroclaw)- 90 minutes against Wisla, note 5
Piotr Polczak (Cracovia Krakow)- 90 minutes against Zaglebie, note 5
Jakub Rzezniczak (Legia Warsaw)- 90 minutes against Jagiellonia, note 5
Michal Zewlakow (Olympiakos Pireus)- on the bench against Levadiakos

Midfielders:

Tomasz Bandrowski (Lech Poznan)- not in the squad against Arka, injury
Rafal Boguski (Wisla Krakow)- not in the squad against Slask, injury
Jakub Blaszczykowski (Borussia Dortmund)- 21 minutes against Borussia M.
Roger Guerreiro (AEK Athens)- match today
Maciej Iwanski (Legia Warsaw)- 90 minutes against Jagiellonia, note 6
Jacek Krzynowek (Hannover 96)- 2 minutes against Freiburg
Mariusz Lewandowski (Shakhtar Donetsk)- on the bench against Dnipro
Wojciech Lobodzinski (Wisla Krakow)- 13 minutes against Slask
Radoslaw Majewski (Nottingham Forest)- 77 minutes and a goal against Peterborough
Patryk Malecki (Wisla Krakow)- 90 minutes and a goal against Slask, note 7
Rafal Murawski (Rubin Kazan)- didn’t play against Lokomotiw
Ludovic Obraniak (Lille)- 88 minutes against Boulogne
Szymon Pawlowski (Zaglebie Lubin)- not in the squad against Cracovia, injury
Sławomir Peszko (Lech Poznan)-90 minutes and an assist against Arka, note 6
Lukasz Piszczek (Hertha Berlin)- not in the squad against HSV, injury
Bartosz Salamon (Brescia)- 11 minutes against Vicenza
Jakub Wilk (Lech Poznan)- 76 minutes against Arka, note 6

Attackers:

Pawel Brozek (Wisla Krakow)- 90 minutes and a goal against Slask, note 7
Kamil Grosicki (Jagiellonia)- 81 minutes and two goals against Legia, note 9
Dawid Janczyk (Lokeren)- 90 minutes against Mechelen
Michal Janota (Excelsior Rotterdam)- 42 minutes against Roosendaal
Ireneusz Jelen (AJ Auxerre)- not in the squad against Rennes, red card ban
Robert Lewandowski (Lech Poznan)- 90 minutes and a goal against Arka, note 6
Dawid Nowak (GKS Belchatow)- not in the squad against Korona, injury
Grzegorz Rasiak (Reading)- not in the squad against Middlesbrough, injury
Marek Saganowski (Southampton)- on the bench against Gillingham
Ebi Smolarek (no club)- season not yet started
Artur Wichniarek (Hertha Berlin)- on the bench against HSV
Maciej Zurawski (Omonia Nicosia)- 90 minutes against Anorthosis

This wasn’t the best week for Ebi Smolarek. He failed to sign a contract with HSV and was evicted from the national team by Stefan Majewski. Apart from his local parks in Holland he has virtually nowhere to play at. Let’s make things clear, HSV’s top striker Jose Guerrero got injured after the transfer window was closed and their only option was to sign a player on free transfer. Yet Smolarek, who’s got quite a good record in the Bundesliga, didn’t make a good enough impression on the coach Bruno Labbadia to offer him a permanent deal. This means that they’d rather play unproven youngsters than Ebi. But that’s no surprise, our striker spent the whole of last season on Bolton’s bench and earlier failed to make an impact at Racing Santander. In fact, he was rated so poor in Spain that they let him go without any recompensation (they just wanted to get rid of his fat contract). What’s Ebi’s biggest problem nowadays? I think it’s the lack of an ability to judge himself objectively. “Hey, I got no playing time at a mediocre English team and an average Spanish team kicked me out. It’s possible that I’m not that good”, that’s how he should be thinking at the moment. Nevertheless, he chooses to go on trial with Bundesliga leaders, no pushovers whatsoever. Even if he signed a contract, he wouldn’t get that many games. And what would happen after Guerrero’s recovery? Would we have another Polish player claiming that he prefers to drive a Mercedes once rather than Maluch ten times? What I’m aiming at is that Ebi needs to lower the evaluation of his skills a bit. He desperately needs to find a club where he can rebuild his form and confidence. Be it a middle of the table Bundesliga club or a one from Holland or Greece. He needs to lower his financial expectations as he just doesn’t deserve to be paid as much as he was last couple of years. Once he establishes his position as a good quality striker once again he could still sign a good contract with a more respectable club. Unfortunately, Ebi doesn’t seem to follow the saying that sometimes you need to make one step backwards to make two forward. Currently, he’s on the best way to win PWCB’s Disappointment of the Year award second time in a row.

Enough of this pessimism, let’s look at some positives before the games against the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The biggest one at the moment is Kamil Grosicki who, with a great help from Tomasz Frankowski, scored two goals in Jagiellonia’s spectacular win against Legia Warsaw. I watched the game and I think that Grosik has got a serious chance to get some playing time in Prague. It’s because he’s a perfect player for counters, the fastest in the league no doubt. He’s also a player that believes strongly in his skills and isn’t used to show too much respect for his rivals. He won’t bother to think that he’s playing against one of the best keepers in the world, Petr Cech. As it’s very probable that we won’t play much positioning attack on Saturday, a player like Grosicki seems perfectly suited to surprise the Czechs. On the other hand, both Pawel Brozek and Robert Lewandowski scored at the weekend as well, Dawid Janczyk had a brace a week before and Ireneusz Jelen, when healthy, is potentially our best striker. With Stefan Majewski announcing that he’ll play 4-4-2, who our best striking duo? I would pick one player who can play with his back towards the goal and the other fast as a lightning. Though he fails to impress lately, Robert Lewandowski seems best destined to be this holder of the ball, a player with a talent for a one-two play or an opening pass. His partner may be anyone from the remaining players, but I’d limit the choice to Jelen and Grosicki (I’d consider Brozek as well if it wasn’t for his inability to transmit the local performances to the international stage). Majewski called the best strikers we have at the moment, young at the same time; if they fail to make any impact it would mean we’re left with no firing power for years.

Highlights: Radoslaw Majewski scores a beautiful accidental? goal

Kamil Grosicki’s goals here.

Robert Lewandowski scores here

Pawel Brozek scores against Slask here

Patryk Malecki scores against Slask here