Poland 0-0 Bosnia & Herzegovina: Frustrating viewing as Jan Urban suffers his first goalless game in charge of the national team
A difficult watch as a stuttering and somewhat dysfunctional Poland enjoyed the better of a scoreless draw against Bosnia & Herzegovina in Warszawa.
Between the Ukraine friendly in the summer and tonight, there was probably the most boring combined 90 minutes of Jan Urban’s tenure. Some of tonight was in fact so dull I have very little motivation to write about it, as I’m sure some of you have little motivation to read about it.
Nevertheless, there is a fair amount to discuss. The first is the much-proposed change to a back four, which came into effect from the start this evening. Jakub Kiwior started there and immediately looked uncomfortable, both with and without the ball. He managed to pick up a cheap yellow card to boot, and was rightly taken off at half-time.
Initially it seems as though his replacement, Przemysław Frankowski, was coping better. Indeed he was better than the man he replaced, although why Tymoteusz Puchacz remained on the bench throughout is a mystery. It makes the lack of a call-up for Michał Gurgul even more strange and inexplicable, and that seemed to be the main stick to beat Urban with after the end of the first 45 minutes.
Another concern was the substitution after only 20 minutes for Jakub Kamiński, who seemed to be suffering from some discomfort. Nicola Zalewski took a while to get into match rhythm but deputised well in the end, although it’s a real shame Kamiński will now miss the remaining matches according to Urban’s post-match press conference.
By far and away the biggest positive of this match was the half-time introduction of Wiktor Nowak, who replaced Bartosz Slisz. Slisz was fine, if a little awkward in a late-period Grzegorz Krychowiak way, but there was no need for somebody nominally a defensive midfielder to be on the pitch.
Nowak was immediately far more dynamic, willing to break forward and get shots away. For me, I wouldn’t hesitate to start him on Monday, although perhaps someone of Slisz’s profile could still be of use in this system depending on the kind of opponent you’re facing.
Other than the obvious mistake from Urban to start Kiwior at left-back, his second biggest mistake he made in my opinion was not substituting Robert Lewandowski before the 87th minute. I’m not saying that Mateusz Żukowski would’ve definitely been able to contribute more effectively, but Lewandowski had one of the worst games he’s had for Poland. We saw glimpses of this in the summer, and whilst not quite approaching Ronaldo for Portugal levels of self-sabotage, it wasn’t far off. It makes you wonder whether we will see Karol Czubak in a Poland shirt soon after all.
Drawing broader conclusions and you’d have to say that even though the second half was better, it still wasn’t exactly inspiring. I was strongly reminded of Michał Probierz’s Poland toiling for a 1-0 win over Lithuania 18 months ago, and that obviously imploded a few months down the line.
I don’t think we are approaching that level of calling for the coach’s head, and Bosnia & Herzegovina are a better side, but Urban is now under real pressure because otherwise I get the impression we may be starting over again in the springtime. I’ve already seen a few comments that Jerzy Brzęczek must simply be waiting by the phone for a second bite at the Selekcjoner apple.
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