The March training camp is well underway for Poland, and with it brings the usual rigmarole of a play-off situation

Image via @LaczyNasPilka on Twitter

Yesterday afternoon saw Poland’s training camp for the World Cup play-offs begin in earnest, with Selekcjoner Jan Urban and captain Robert Lewandowski facing the press before a light training session took place later in the day. 

The topic of discussion in the press conference was, perhaps unsurprisingly, the calling-up of Oskar Pietuszewski. Many questions and indeed several answers ended up either starting with, or circling back to, this particular strand of debate. 

I use the term “debate” because it seems to me that two very entrenched camps are forming when it comes to the prospect of Pietuszewski starting against Albania on Thursday. One camp is of the opinion that he’s in very good form, has absolutely earned this call-up on merit and should be tested straight away in a game Poland are expected to be on the front foot in. For what it’s worth, this is also my view of the situation. 

The second point of view, which has been espoused by a smaller number of pundits but also crucially by Urban and Lewandowski (albeit with caveats) is that Pietuszewski is at the very start of what could be a long career, and taking it slow in terms of the level of pressure he is exposed to could be a bit savvier. I do very much understand this point of view, but it’s not like people are having these expectations for no reason. 

Frankly, I do understand the desire for this patience with Pietuszewski. Three times in the last ten years before big tournaments, Poland has had an outstanding young attacking talent and each time the noise around them eventually dissipated as their form and prospects also unfortunately have. Ten years ago before Euro 2016 it was Bartosz Kapustka, five years later before Euro 2020 it was Kacper Kozłowski and just two years ago on the eve of Euro 2024 it was Kacper Urbański. 

However it is worth saying that the excitement around Pietuszewski is something altogether different. It’s almost approaching the sort of fervour we saw when Krzysztof Piątek was scoring for fun at Genoa, and it’s close to reaching that same fever pitch with Pietuszewski. A crucial assist on Sunday against Braga only cemented this delirium further, but as many journalists have pointed out, there is good reason. 

Pietuszewski is racking up the goals and assists in Portugal, and it’s not like they’re happening at the end of games when the result is already certain. He’s in from the start and is a crucial part of Porto’s continued excellent league form since he arrived at the club in January. I am of the opinion that despite all the talk, Pietuszewski will play from the start on Thursday, but likely only for an hour or so given the reticence to overplay him.

Following the squad being announced by Urban on Friday, there seemed to be a concerted effort to restart the debate about the use of younger Polish talents, a debate that I touched upon in the article I wrote about the squad last week. For me, it simply seemed that it was an attempt to manufacture some mild outrage stripped of all context. 

Poland are going to be taking part in hopefully two matches to gain passage to the World Cup, there is little if any room to experiment with younger players, Pietuszewski the exception given he is very much a special case. Urban has been pretty steadfast in his comments surrounding which players he would likely pick for this international break, citing consistently familiarity and experience. To turn around and act shocked he is not calling up talented youngsters or unfamiliar older players smacks of being disingenuous.

The argument has largely centred around Kacper Potulski, enjoying a fruitful season playing frequent football with Mainz. I am almost certain that if Potulski carries on the way he has been, he will receive a call-up in the autumn, especially if he makes the much touted move to one of several big European clubs after him this summer. 

What baffles me is that some people cannot seem to understand that these play-offs are something of a unique situation in terms of balancing the squad. One particular pundit I saw getting very animated, arguing that there will always be an excuse not to experiment with younger players given the constant international cycle of qualifying, the Nations League, tournaments and seemingly frequently for Poland these last few years, qualifying play-offs. 

Rewind about 18 months and back when Poland last played Nations League matches under Michał Probierz, and he spoke about this same thing. His argument was that you couldn’t really experiment in tournament qualifying matches, at least not to the same extent, and that the Nations League in effect became the only international matches where experimentation was possible despite the still present pressures. 

At the time, this was actually a fairly well-received point as far as I recall, and giving Probierz credit he actually did stick to this with the inclusion of players like Maxi Oyedele. To suggest Urban would not be keen to do the same come autumn and the truncated Nations League schedule seems short-sighted. 

Moving away slightly from the discussion around this particular international break and onto some other Polish players who had a pretty good Sunday in front of goal. Mateusz Żukowski scored a brace for Magdeburg in the afternoon, which now puts him second in the scoring charts for the 2. Bundesliga.

Żukowski, were it a different situation, would almost certainly have been receiving a call-up given the injury to Adam Buksa. We’ve seen plenty of evidence that Urban and his coaching staff do not think only in terms of Europe’s top divisions, and it just feels a little bit of a shame that on what is the rare occasion that one of Poland’s regular four strikers is unavailable that there is no-one trusted to replace them. 

There is a bit of a dearth of quality Polish strikers beyond the four names we always see called-up, and even then some would say that Karol Świderski and Piątek are not necessarily the kind of quality they once were. 

Happily, Arkadiusz Milik returned to the pitch with Juventus for ten minutes on Saturday night after 652 days out through injury. He’d been named in the Juve squad a couple of times over the last 12 months but was never quite ready to feature before another complication took place. 

Depending on how the rest of the season shakes out, there is a developing train of thought that Milik could go to the World Cup with Poland if they qualify. I don’t want to jump the gun here but he has always been a technically proficient if often profligate striker, and if he is able to stay fit it does seem like he could be in with a real chance of featuring once more for Poland at a major tournament. 

Jakub Moder scored a crucial penalty for Feyenoord on Sunday afternoon, but it’s the aforementioned Maxi Oyedele’s performance on Sunday night for Strasbourg I wish to discuss. 

Oyedele has had a lot of injury problems this season, which has been very unfortunate. He has recently returned to full fitness and indeed he started against Nantes. Oyedele was tidy with the ball and scored a really beautiful goal with the outside of his boot. He was substituted after about an hour, but the signs were encouraging. 

When you consider that Bartosz Slisz hasn’t been amazing since his return to European football with Brondby, and that there are absolutely not enough quality defensive midfielders available for Poland, Oyedele represents another player who if things go to plan might end up in Jan Urban’s thoughts for a potential World Cup squad. 

Of course, Poland reaching this summer’s tournament is not a foregone conclusion. I am a little perturbed by some predictions that Albania will be a simple game. Poland should be considered favourites at home, but Albania even in this weakened state are no pushovers. 

Defensively Albania are very good, and I expect Poland to have a tough time breaking them down. I believe Urban will set the team up with this in mind, to play offensively but as always be very wary of the counter-attacking opportunities Albania will inevitably look for. 

I’ll be back on Thursday to properly preview Poland’s predicted line-up and what we can specifically expect from the tie with Albania. 

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