I thought there was a topic on this and was going to post in there, but realised that we have a prediction thread but not a Poland thread. Here is my take on the friendly against Italy.
It was an expected defeated. Italy put an end to the fabulous goal per game record that Blaszczykowski and Lewandowski had. Blaszczykowski should have kept up his goalscoring when he had a penalty but you have to believe me that when I saw him step up to take the kick, my instant reaction was, he's going to miss. Blaszczykowski is not known for being a great penalty taker. He scored his penalty against the Germans but I remembers him missing penalties in the past too.
Now for some ratings [1 - 10]
Szczesny 8. Some people say it was not a great game for him but honestly apart from the 1st goal where he was clearly too far off his line, he didn't do too much wrong and did make a few important saves to prevent Poland losing by an even wider margain. If not for the goal he let in I probably would have given him a 9. I thought he was the best on the pitch, for us. Yes he is a bit too overconfident at times but he is young and it is better to believe in yourself than let one mistake or two, crush you.
Wawrzyniak 5. This guy is actually starting to play well for Legia, but for Poland it's like he's a completely different player. He hardly makes any attacking runs and looks very dodgy in defence. I know Boenisch has been injured for a long time but if this is all we have then I hope he returns soon.
Perquis 5. This guys is an average player, no more. In fact if anything he is below average, definately not above it. He is strong, but very slow and he does miss the ball a lot in his own area, that's never good for the nerves.
Glowacki 5. Not a great performance from him in this game and he has looked dodgy recently. We know he is injury prone and has a lot of bad luck. I would honestly prefer to see a different player take his place. You just can't count on him. He keeps getting chances but keeps on messing them up.
Piszczek 6. Did not have an amazing game but was still the best Polish defender on the pitch. A few missed passes here and there. He has played better but his position at right back is almost certainly cemented.
Murawski 5. He's as important to the team as Mariusz Lewandowski was in the past. We don't need him, he rarely does anything significant and his face is getting annoying.
Polanski 5. He is struggling to hold down a first team place at Mainz and I can see why. Like Perquis he is just an average player. We should look for someone better.
Obraniak 5. Another 'bezbarwny' peformance by Ludo. When he normally has poor games, the team can at least use his crosses from free kicks and corners, but in this game, even those were poor.
Blaszczykowski 5. Below average performance by Jakub. The penalty miss made it worse. He tried to run down the right side but they always seemed to stop him. I hope it's not the case that when he is up against a high class opponent, he is left helpless. He scored a lot of goals for Poland recently but his performance against Italy was more like the ones he has for Dortmund.
Peszko 4. Somehow managed to do nothing while constantly doing something. Poor game. Lots of mediocraty. Shots that were way off.
Lewandowski 5. Without any service he finds it hard to be able to make something himself. Had a few chances but sometimes he seems to be happy that he had a shot, proving that he is active, but he needs to understand that if it doesn't go in, we don't care. Still the best striker we have and in great club form, but like Blaszczykowski, high class opponents kept him rather quiet in this game.
Subs
Brozek 4. Didn't see much from him. His performances always seem to be quite poor to me. Sometimes they are poor but he manages to score and other times they are poor and he doesn't score. The latter was the case in this game.
Mierzejewski 5. Again not a whole lot to say here. I think he's vastly overrated.
Matuszczyk 5. All I remember was that he blasted a shot wide and spent a lot of time on his hair before the match. Nothing more.
Wasilewski 5. Was brought on during a time when Poland was attacking so his role was insignificant.
Dudka 5. Again insignificant. Why were 3 of the last 4 substitutions by Smuda, in a match his team was trailing 0-2, defensive players?
In general we have once again seen how nowhere near ready this team, that is supposedly getting better, is right now. I mean Poland played okay in the 1st half but the Italians play like that. They let the opposition attack and they are happy to sit back and defend, soak up the pressure and then go for the sucker punch.
I still think that we should have got a better coach but it's too late now.
What are your thoughts on the new kits? No White Eagle.
I think it is a bad idea. I do not understand why they took it out and, even worse, replaced it with a logo representing the PZPN who most people do not like and consider to be corrupt.
|
