A variety of winter moves for Polish players working out well early in the first weeks

Images via @Inter, @Argyle, @GalatasaraySK and @paofc_ on Twitter

Entering the last week of February, and long enough time has passed to start making initial assessments about some of the mid-season transfers that were undertaken by Polish players, and in a nice change of pace I thought I’d take a look solely at the positives.

I spoke briefly in the last article I wrote about Nicola Zalewski’s debut assist for Inter in the Milan derby, which feels like much longer ago than the three or so weeks it has been. I made the fairly offhand comment that he likely wouldn’t receive a huge increase in playing time, even compared to the pittance he was subject to this season at Roma.

Colour me pleasantly shocked that Simone Inzaghi is actually utilising Zalewski a lot since his arrival, which is a real boon for his individual development as well as the fact that Poland’s first World Cup qualifiers are around the corner next month, especially given Zalewski’s importance to the national side under Michał Probierz.

Unfortunately it was announced in the last couple of days that Zalewski is likely to miss a few games with an unspecified muscle injury, but hopefully this won’t impact any further time on the pitch post-recovery.

Looking across to England, and Tymoteusz Puchacz is certainly making the most of his loan to Plymouth Argyle. When the move was announced I expressed some hesitancy, given Argyle’s precarious situation rooted to the foot of the Championship and without a manager. 

Puchacz has gone on to become an integral part of new boss Miron Muslic’s plans, and played a big part in seeing the Pilgrims rise up the table. Of course, the threat of relegation looms large but Plymouth are now looking much more capable to deal with the challenges posed by England’s second division. 

They were certainly able to cope with the heavily rotated Liverpool side they faced in the FA Cup, meaning that Argyle have managed to knock out two Premier League teams from this season’s edition. Puchacz played a big part in that win over Liverpool, part of an incredibly solid defensive unit and occasionally managing to utilise his attacking ability in that game as well.

Whether or not Puchacz stays with Plymouth beyond the end of the season will likely in my opinion depend on if they stay in the Championship or not, but either way given how much Puchacz is speaking about wanting to play his football in the English leagues for the foreseeable future, I wouldn’t rule out a purchase by another Championship club should Argyle turn down the buy option on his loan for whatever reason.

Sticking with the theme of wing-backs that it would appear I’ve accidentally decided to focus on, and Przemysław Frankowski’s somewhat surprise move to Galatasaray from RC Lens, right at the end of Turkey’s winter window. Initially I felt a great deal of hesitancy about this transfer, which is in fact a loan with a buy option much like Zalewski’s and Puchacz’s. I thought that moving from Ligue 1 to the Süper Lig was something of a sideways or even backwards step, and I couldn’t see Frankowski getting a lot of game time either. 

Therefore I found myself pleasantly surprise again when, in his first league game against Caykur Rizespor, Frankowski notched an assist within the opening minute. He went on to play the full 90 minutes, as he also did last night in the derby with Fenerbahce which ended in a scoreless draw. It’s early days but if Frankowski continues to get full games under his belt there is no reason to be as concerned about him playing for one of Turkey’s top teams compared to what had become a Ligue 1 side fighting for the lower European spots.

Lastly, I wanted to touch upon Karol Świderski’s efforts with Panathinaikos. Mostly coming off the bench so far on his return to Greece, this is eminently understandable given he hasn’t seen regular club football in some months since he finished the MLS Playoffs with Charlotte. Nonetheless he has managed to record two assists in the league having only played a combined total of 164 minutes of football for his new club in that competition.

Really it was a contribution Świderski made in Panathinaikos’ dramatic Conference League victory over Vikingur that I wanted to highlight, when in stoppage time he made a wonderful decision to deftly head a long upfield ball into the path of a team-mate, whose resultant shot could only be parried into the path of another Panathinaikos player, Tete, who swept it into the top corner for the winner. This action from Świderski was so difficult to get right and would likely have gone completely under the radar, although it was highlighted by the pundits on the English coverage of the game.

For all of these players mentioned it is early days at their new clubs, but it’s nice that a lot of these moves are working out very well. I haven’t even seen fit to mention Jakub Moder, who is putting in really solid performances at Feyenoord since joining in January, even knocking Milan out of the Champions League. All in all, it bodes very well for Poland ahead of next month’s initial World Cup qualifiers.

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