Sweden 3-1 Poland: A tale of two halves again as Poland fail to play a cohesive 90 minutes
Poland managed to lose yet again to Sweden at the Strawberry Arena, six months on from their unsuccessful World Cup play-off at the same venue.
It was a very different game to the one in March, truth be told, but the same errors cost Poland yet again. Failure to deal with set pieces and crosses into the box proved costly, something that has been a theme of Poland not just under Jan Urban, but for a good few years now.
Regardless, we should comment positively after what was a first half of many good chances for Poland. Sebastian Szymański’s equaliser shortly before the half-time whistle was the culmination of what had been a lot of neat and tidy football played almost exclusively in the opponent’s half of the pitch.
Such a shame therefore that the same mistakes keep undoing Poland. Both the first two Swedish goals were the second phases of corners, and quite why Przemysław Wiśniewski felt the need to rush into a position where he was caught under the flight of the ball and left Viktor Gyokeres unmarked at the same time only he knows.
Sweden did have a good time getting down Poland’s flanks, particularly the left-hand side. Whether it was Tymoteusz Puchacz or Przemysław Frankowski, it seems like nobody in this squad is completely comfortable in that position. Granted, Puchacz as a wing-back was having to adapt slightly from a more traditional left-back role, but either way it does seem a pertinent issue.
I don’t enjoy the fact that after a solid, if dull, match against Bosnia & Herzegovina with a clean sheet Urban felt the need to revert to a back three. I know why he did it, Wiśniewski is in theory the most athletic centre-back in the squad and he dealt with Gyokeres well in March, right up until he scored the third goal. The same was true tonight, sadly.
After Sweden’s third, Poland really took their foot off the pedal and looked even more lethargic. A bit of this might be tiredness but it looked more to me like knowing the game was gone and giving up. Urban’s substitutions certainly reinforced this feeling.
As for those brought in to the starting line-up tonight, Mateusz Żukowski has proved that whilst maybe he’s not the definitive future of the striker position in a post-Lewandowski environment, he is capable of linking up nicely with the midfielders and clearly has the legs. Wiktor Nowak continues to be a huge plus and will likely be the big winner of this camp almost no matter what now, and Puchacz was fine for most of the first half.
It does annoy me that even though he was decent enough for 70 minutes or so, there is no reason on form to have Wiśniewski in this squad, and it’s not like he’s very young either. The same can be said of Karol Świderski, but let’s not get into that again.
The knives will surely be out for Urban now, and you get the distinct impression that unless these next two games are wins we’ll be seeing Jerzy Brzęczek back in the Selekcjoner’s seat come November. I however would like to say that I do see Urban turning this around still, but it might come at a cost and see him having to make decisions he doesn’t want to.
Firstly, given how hopeless Poland looked defensively at times tonight, stick with the back four. Puchacz is a natural left-back and Frankowski proved on Friday he can deputise there well enough, plus then at least we’ll have Jan Bednarek and Jakub Kiwior as the central duo, something they’ve been doing at club level for over a year now and I’m baffled as to why it hasn’t happened yet at international level.
Secondly, a bit more effort when it comes to closing down crosses. There’s too much backing off or worrying that someone might blow past, so the player slows down and allows the shot or cross, and we saw that happen with Matty Cash tonight on the second goal especially.
Facing Romania at home on Friday night should theoretically be Poland’s easiest opponent, in my opinion. Anything other than a win and I see no way back for Urban, but it’s easy to be defeatist. Hopefully we do see concrete improvements and not just more window dressing of a good half here, a bad half there.
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