What to make of those on the fringes of Poland’s national team selection? Those who could make a strong case between now and the spring

Images via @OHLeuven, @Udinese_1896, @1913parmacalcio and @OUFCOfficial on Twitter

It’s been a bit of a minor hiatus on the website the past few weeks, but there have been a few ideas gestating and hopefully you’ll be seeing more articles posted in the coming days. There’s a lot to discuss, from Poland’s potential World Cup group should they qualify to the minor reinvention of specific Polish players which has benefited them both at club and international level. 

Today however I’m writing something a bit more speculative, specifically about those players who aren’t currently in Jan Urban’s plans for Poland, but have been playing well and given the unpredictability of football may find themselves jockeying for a spot in the squad come March. 

First up I’d like to discuss Łukasz Łakomy, a versatile midfielder I’ve been banging on about since his days at Zagłębie Lubin. Now loaned out from Swiss side Young Boys to ply his trade at Leuven in Belgium, he is playing every week in a surprisingly strong European league and has really ramped up his goal contributions over the past month. 

Now, two goals and three assists in over 900 minutes this season for Łakomy may not sound Earth-shattering, but if you put it in the context of other Polish midfielders who are vying for national team selection it is perfectly respectable. Furthermore, when you consider that Łakomy can play basically any central midfield role asked of him, he could be a really great option in an area where Poland are still looking for as many options as possible. 

In the last international break we saw that Bartosz Slisz can be solid if not spectacular, and Bartosz Kapustka has a great passing range but perhaps not the greatest ability to get up and down the pitch any more. Łakomy could solve some of these shortcomings given he can operate well in both defensive and offensive midfield tasks. 

One caveat is the fact he hasn’t been capped by the senior side yet, and at 24 perhaps time is running out for that. Also when you consider the fact it would be some very tough play-off games, that becomes even more of a risk. However we saw under Michał Probierz and the do-or-die nature of the play-offs for the Euros that sometimes being untested doesn’t mean you’re not useful (thinking specifically of Taras Romanczuk here). 

The second caveat when it comes to Łakomy is that it’s highly unlikely he would get into a first-choice Polish midfield, although that’s not why he would be of value. As I have written earlier, his versatility really is Łakomy’s strongest quality in terms of his worth to any potential Poland squad in the coming months. 

Funnily enough, the next player I wanted to mention is again a central midfielder, albeit one who has had far more chances for Poland than Łakomy. Jakub Piotrowski has been playing a lot for Udinese this season, indeed last night he scored in an eventual loss to Genoa. 

Arguments for and against Piotrowski playing again in a Poland shirt are many. He’s had plenty of chances and he didn’t play brilliantly in the friendly against New Zealand back in October, but his goalscoring record for his country is surprisingly good. He did perhaps suit some of the tactics the last Selekcjoner sought to use more than the current one, and maybe this is why he didn’t do so well the last time we saw him playing for Poland. This is not to mention Piotrowski’s run-outs for Poland in their last major tournament, in which it would be fair to say he did look out of his depth. 

Indeed perhaps it is the view that Piotrowski’s value in a Poland shirt was at it’s highest under Probierz, and now those tactics are being moved away from with every game under Jan Urban, so that will hold Piotrowski back from the discussion around future squads. Urban has continued to pick him however, even if he has used him only sparingly or not at all given he didn’t call him up in November. 

For me, it is all well and good saying that Piotrowski is performing to a decent standard in a top league like Serie A, but much like Karol Linetty when he was at Torino, it may be that this current national team set-up is not suited to a midfielder of Piotrowski’s profile. At least not currently, but as I alluded to earlier he does have recent experience of playing for Poland and he has been through the play-off rigmarole before. I just can’t see what he would bring to the table other than experience, especially when he is not as versatile as Łakomy and does not have the same specialised skillset as either Slisz or Kapustka. 

I’ve mentioned Siisz and Kapustka a couple of times now, because for me if you look at what a front-foot, exciting Poland under Jan Urban might look like I would point to the line-up that started against Holland last month. In that midfield, you had Piotr Zieliński and Sebastian Szymański (who was replaced by Kapustka after about ten minutes due to injury). For me that would be a strong midfield, both are capable of springing great offensive passes and getting forward, and Zieliński’s ability to be a sitting playmaker would dovetail well with Szymański’s capacity to get around the pitch. 

If you take either of those two away, you change the dynamic of that midfield. Slisz can sit, although his passing range is limited, but the trade-off is he is more capable defensively than really any other midfielder available to Urban at this moment in time. Kapustka can play really clever balls to the more offensive players, but he doesn’t really have the legs he once had. 

This is why the argument for another midfielder is one that seemingly comes around so often. I know the last squad had Kacper Kozłowski and Filip Rózga, but they’re really back-up for the more advanced “no.10s” that play behind the striker in my opinion. 

Obviously Urban has tried Piotrowski and doesn’t fancy him again right now, Jakub Moder is unfortunately perpetually struggling with injury, so for me Łakomy seems like a really good option should he still be in form come the springtime. 

Moving onto the more forward positions, and I’m largely thinking in terms of Nicola Zalewski’s impending suspension for the first of what is hopefully two play-offs. He’ll obviously be called-up anyway in the belief that even with his absence Poland can beat Albania and progress to the second play-off, but who could be a left-field, very much back-up option?

On account of Zalewski’s suspension, I’d expect Poland to line-up with either Karol Świderski or Sebastian Szymański in one of those two “no.10” positions with Jakub Kamiński in the other. Obviously if you shift Szymański forward that leaves the question of who to put in the midfield two, but we’ve already covered that dilemma. 

So, who could throw their hat in the ring on the back of recent form? Well, in my opinion Adrian Benedyczak has never really got a fair shake when it comes to the senior team. Called-up in the last days of the Fernando Santos tenure, he didn’t make an appearance and frankly he hasn’t been considered since. That was two years ago, and whichever way you cut it that is a very long time to be out of the picture when it comes to being considered for the national team. 

I keep coming back to the fact, however, that the last two times we’ve had play-offs for tournaments, the Selekcjoners at the time picked players who hadn’t had a look in for a while and used them to really great effect, and that’s kind of the hook I’m hanging this whole article on if I’m being honest. 

Benedyczak has played under 500 minutes of football for Parma this season, and yet he’s registered two goals and two assists. Granted one of them last night against Pisa was a penalty, but much like Łakomy, Benedyczak is nothing if not versatile. Were he to continue what is undoubtedly a strong minutes-to-goal-contributions ratio, I think Benedyczak could really be an option given Zalewski’s suspension, not as a direct replacement but surely a strong squad option in a variety of attacking roles. 

Now, as more of an out-and-out winger, time to mention yet again an old favourite player of mine Przemysław Płacheta. If Poland have to play counter-attacking football, what greater weapon than a winger full of pace with a steady eye for goal?

Okay, Płacheta hasn’t played for Poland since Paulo Sousa was in charge and hasn’t even been called-up since the summer of 2022, but you can’t help marvel at his impact for Oxford United in the Championship, especially in crucial moments or in big games. Płacheta has scored three goals in nearly 700 minutes of league football, not a prolific output but each goal was a real stunner and vitally important to his team. 

Now I will readily admit I am throwing Płacheta into the conversation for a fringe spot in Urban’s squad purely on favouritism here, but I’d like to think I have sound enough reasoning to. Say Poland find themselves under the cosh much like they have in recent games, where a long ball forward to a speedy attacker is the best option. That is a situation tailor-made for Płacheta, and don’t take my hyperbole for it: check out his recent winning goal against Ipswich. 

Look I don’t for one second think on current form that Płacheta is going to be in Jan Urban’s thoughts, but say he keeps scoring and assisting sporadically from now through February. All of a sudden it doesn’t seem such a random shout, and granted even if we should be looking to the future in terms of Polish wingers like Oskar Pietuszewski and Jan Faberski, what’s so bad about the here-and-now of experience for a situation like a play-off?

Again in all honesty, it would take a series of improbable events for any of the four names I’ve mentioned here to be seriously in the reckoning come March, although I think the form and versatility of Łakomy means he has the greatest chance of a fighting for a spot. I think if we’re looking objectively, Piotrowski hasn’t taken his chances when he’s played for Poland since the Euro play-offs, and Benedyczak and Płacheta are both long forgotten by many. 

All that being said, you can never second-guess the fact that these play-offs will be slightly more of an isolated task than other international breaks or even tournaments themselves. I do think Urban will stick to the players he trusts and rightly so, but there will be a couple of fringe spots up for grabs and if the four players mentioned continue as they have so far this season in terms of impact and minutes played, why couldn’t they have a chance of breaking into the Poland squad?

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