The fan counts down the time with tournaments. In two weeks, the World Cup will end, and in the summer of 2024 the Euro will start in Germany. We have a year and a half to build a national team that fans can be proud of. In Qatar, although we left the group for the first time in 36 years, there were no fireworks.
Just listen to Robert Lewandowski. – The joy of the game is needed. It will be an important element even in the near future. When we attack, we try, it’s different. If we play more defensively, there is no such joy. So many factors influence it – he fired after the 3-1 loss to France.
So we have a year and a half to work out the style and identity of the staff. So that Robert Lewandowski would not be remembered among the audience of great tournaments as the captain of a team that could not be watched. And the conditions for this are extremely comfortable.
24 teams will perform at Euro 2024, and 53 national teams will take part in the qualifiers. Poles, drawn from the first pot, went to group E, where they will face:
- Czechs
- Albania
- Faroe Islands
- Moldova
At least two teams from this group will play at the European Championships. At least, because in addition to 20 teams from 10 groups, hosts (Germany), three teams will also advance to Euro, which will be selected on the basis of play-offs. Top teams from each division of the Nations League will play in them. but also very easy. Our rival in the fight for the first place should be the Czechs, who did not even fly to Qatar.
The malicious ones would say that it is harder not to get to Euro 2024 than to get promoted. So since the eliminations seem to be a formality, Czesław Michniewicz (or his successor) will have a year and a half to build the team.
We tried to play the role of a coach and think about what the team could look like in 2023. But it seems that there is no reason to worry, it should only get better.
What to do with veterans? Glik and Krychowiak are slowly leaving
The selector will have to think about what to do with 32-year-old Grzegorz Krychowiak and two years older Kamil Glik and Kamil Grosicki. They are on a downward slope and it is hard to assume that they will be the strength of the Euro team in Germany.
Since the fans and the football community want the national team to stop playing with the handbrake on, and although it tried to be braver, one that also tries to attack in a different way than from the counterattack, neither Glik nor Krychowiak can play decisive roles.
But let’s discuss evolution, not revolution. Polish football cannot afford to get rid of them definitively today, so they should help us in the qualifying rounds, but as a complement to the wide team. However, the White-and-Reds will not meet the fans’ expectations if Krychowiak and Glik were to still be in the first team.
– You play archaically, you are backward in football, the world has gone away for you, and when I see your central defender – the one with fair hair – it reminds me of a libero from the 90s, who could not go beyond half. No one plays like that anymore – assessed the German Lothar Matthaeus, the record holder in terms of appearances at the World Cup (25 matches) in “Przegląd Sportowy”.
Glik can play well when the team defends deep, but we don’t want that anymore. The second division Benevento’s stopwatch, due to technical and speed deficiencies, is not suitable for modern football, where the defense line is set high.
Who for Glik, Krychowiak and Grosicki?
In the defensive formation, you can bet on 26-year-old Jan Bednarek and 22-year-old Jakub Kiwior. The latter has perhaps the greatest potential of the entire young guard. Although Kiwior did not avoid a few mistakes in Qatar, he became a player in the first team squad. And he probably won’t come out of it again. The more that the Spezia stopwatch is of interest to, among others, Milan, Napoli and Atletico Madrid. It should only get better month by month.
Someone will say, but wait, wait, Bednarek is only a reserve for Aston Villa, and he only played a few minutes at the World Cup. Therefore, Bednarek should not have the first squad ex officio. Let him fight for eleven with 22-year-old Kamil Piątkowski (Red Bull Salzburg) or his peer Sebastian Walukiewicz (Empoli).
Piatkowski, who is fast and technically well-trained, has been honing his skills for a year and a half in a team that is synonymous with modern football. With Red Bull, he even played several dozen minutes in the Champions League. In turn, Walukiewicz, already in the colors of Cagliari, was able to shine with a good lead of the ball. In the current season, he plays little, but he has already played nearly 50 matches on the Apennine Peninsula.
Are Piatkowski and Walukiewicz better players than Glik today? Probably not. Will they be better at Euro 2024? Probably so. And already today they are better suited to the football we want to try.
However, if neither Bednarek nor Walukiewicz nor Piątkowski will play before the qualifying match with the Czech Republic, then let Glik get an emergency call-up. The more that he himself announced that he would accept a marginal role in the team. Let’s repeat: evolution, not revolution.
The World Cup in Qatar clearly showed that Krychowiak, if he can be useful in defense, only interferes when playing. His natural successor is 24-year-old Krystian Bielik. The Birmingham City player missed the chance at the World Cup, but still has a wider technical range than an Arab league player
A good solution would also be a bolder bet on Szymon Żurkowski, who did not play a single minute at the World Cup. Michniewicz has an alibi because the Fiorentina midfielder wasted his chance in sparring with Chile. However, if he manages to get out of “Viola” in January, he may jump into the first team squad. It is enough for him to play as he did last season at Empoli, when he finished the Serie A season with six goals and three assists.
Most fans probably still hope that Jakub Moder from Brighton will have the most to say in the second line, next to Piotr Zieliński, who is currently recovering from an injury.
The most important thing: we already have a strong core of the staff
The goal is guarded by 32-year-old Wojciech Szczęsny, the hero of the World Cup, for whom the Euro will probably be the last chapter in the team. 30-year-old Bartosz Bereszyński made a strong position in defence. The right side of the defense should be secured for years by 25-year-old Matty Cash, who had been developing in Qatar for a long time, but at the end he showed his craftsmanship when he stopped Kylian Mbappe several times.
We should build midfield around 28-year-old Piotr Zieliński, because when the ball was not flying over his head, Zieliński showed how much he can give the team. In the match against France, he had as many as 80 touches with the ball, which is twice as many as against Argentina (0:2). In attack, of course, 34-year-old Robert Lewandowski will rule.
There are also many players who can be sure of vocations, but during training camps they will have to fight for minutes on the pitch: Bednarek, Bielik, 27-year-old Przemysław Frankowski, 23-year-old Sebastian Szymański or 25-year-old Karol Świderski.
Lots of talented youth
The most important thing is that in the coming months, talented young footballers, of whom we do not lack, should regularly develop.
And although Kamil Grosicki gave a good impulse against France from the bench, we don’t have to worry about the wingers. Jakub Kamiński from Wolfsburg had good moments at the World Cup, and he is only 20 years old and is just learning adult football in the Bundesliga. His peer Nicola Zalewski, who scored nearly 50 matches for Roma, has talent. Yes, in Qatar he burned a bit mentally, but at the Euros in Germany, if all goes well, he should have over a hundred games in his legs at a strong club, under the supervision of Jose Mourinho.
A chance should also be given to 22-year-old Michał Skóraś, who will probably fly out of Poznań in the summer after he showed himself on a good side in European cups. At the World Cup, he only played an ill-fated second half against Argentina. However, his counter will not stop there.
This is not the end of the enumeration
We have a strong core of the staff, several veterans, as well as talented young people. And yet Moder, who was able to make a good impression in the Premier League, will recover in the spring. Also, 19-year-old Kacper Kozłowski (Vitesse Arnhem), 21-year-old Michał Karbownik (Fortuna) and 20-year-old Filip Szymczak (Lech Poznań) did not go to Qatar, who should also be on the coach’s radar.
The last word in the team did not say: 25-year-old Dawid Kownacki (Fortuna), 27-year-old Krzysztof Piątek (Salernitana), or 26-year-old Adam Buksa (Lens).
And let’s not forget that we are talking about football, where you can break out quickly, so someone will probably reveal himself to us. Therefore, everything indicates that we should have an even stronger squad for Euro 2024 than in Qatar. And we have to take advantage of it, because this may be the last tournament in which Lewandowski will play an important role.
Now, let the selector, current or new, treat the qualifiers as a testing ground, so that the White-Reds not only defend decently, but – finally! – to finally play the ball. The potential is there, now the ball is in the coach’s court. And basically: the authorities of the Polish Football Association.
The Polish national team of the future [potencjalny skład na marcowy mecz z Czechami]
(1-4-4-2)
Szczęsny – Cash, Kiwior, Bednarek (Piątkowski), Bereszyński – Frankowski (Zalewski), Zieliński, Żurkowski (Moder, Bielik), Kamiński – Lewandowski, Milik (Świderski)
(1-4-5-1)
Szczęsny – Cash, Kiwior, Bednarek (Piątkowski), Bereszyński – Frankowski (Zalewski), Zieliński, Żurkowski, Moder (Bielik), Kamiński – Lewandowski
Source: Sport
Tristin is an accomplished author and journalist, known for his in-depth and engaging writing on sports. He currently works as a writer at 247 News Agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the sports industry.
