In the 12th round of the PKO BP Ekstraklasa, we lost 0:2 to Legia Warsaw. We invite you to listen to the post-match press conference featuring coach Szymon Grabowski.
– The better team won, the one that deserved it, and it was visible throughout the entire match – said coach Grabowski. – As for my team, if we play responsibly and with discipline in defense, if we focus on maintaining the right distances between ourselves and our formations, we can stand up to Legia Warsaw, as we did in the first half. However, if we continue to repeat simple, individual, foolish mistakes, there are very few teams in the Ekstraklasa against which we will win. That’s definitely a painful issue for me internally. Once again, we allow the opponent to score, or we help them significantly. Legia’s individual and team quality was certainly higher, which was evident, for example, in the 46th minute when Augustyniak came on and controlled the midfield more, and we were often too far apart. We started the second half fairly well, but we lacked the discipline that allowed us to keep a clean sheet in the first half. Congratulations to the Warsaw team; we will focus on our work and the next match on Friday.
On offensive play:
– In the first half, Bohdan Viunnyk certainly had two or three chances, where he took shots, and one was particularly dangerous and could have ended in a goal. We didn’t create many chances and didn’t capitalize on the opportunities we wanted to, such as the high positioning of their central defenders. Kapuadi left his zone twice, pressing our half-right center-back. We discussed at halftime that this was the moment when space should have been attacked, particularly by the number nine. At times, we made the game difficult for ourselves, even on the wings, where our decision-making was slow, and we weren’t playing forward. In the first half, we also didn’t maintain our structure, building more on two number sixes, where our defensive play should have relied on those two positions, but we didn’t fully succeed. In the second half, we didn’t pose a threat to the opponent, apart from one shot by Zhelizko at 2:0, but it was far too little.
On the players’ mentality:
– Obviously, during this period, our mental state isn’t at its highest, but I wouldn’t blame everything on mentality. I think we approached the opponent with a lot of respect, but was it too much? I don’t think so. However, our reaction after conceding that first unfortunate goal wasn’t good. That was the moment when we didn’t react as we should have, meaning we didn’t try to get back into the game the way we did at the start of the second half. So mentally, after conceding the goal, it wasn’t as it should have been.
On recurring individual mistakes:
– We’ve already discussed a few things in the locker room, and even the players spoke up because, indeed, the Ekstraklasa level shows us time and again that it doesn’t forgive such mistakes, especially against teams like Legia or Raków. Players of high quality come in, and despite their talent, we give the first stimulus to the opponent, making the game easier for them and allowing them to play more freely. What we can do is further replicate match-like behaviors in training and try to address mistakes during the microcycle.
On Bujar Pllana’s suspension due to yellow cards:
– We’re fresh out of the match, so I can’t yet say who will play or in what structure. We certainly have options both with and without Ivan, with Andrei, and with Bujar, and with Gueho, so we will definitely choose the optimal solution at that moment. As for stability, there hasn’t been much, even in defense. We’ve changed the center-back pairing, Conrado has been out, Miłosz has come in, and there have been rotations at right-back. There have been times when we’ve had to be more flexible in dealing with the absence of defensive players, but I hope that in the next microcycle, we will make the right choices.
On plans for improving the situation:
– We definitely need to get back to what we were known for, what gave us chances, namely quicker ball movement in the final third and faster use of the wide areas, which used to create a lot of threat. Both the right and left sides were driving our offensive play. Right now, we’re also dealing with health issues. Camilo was out, Maks is playing with an injury, and it doesn’t look as we would like. It’s something we need to improve, as well as opening passes from the middle. The decision-making needs to be quicker, especially when deciding to take a shot.
On the positives in the team:
– We always try to look at what we did well, even in defeat. Today, there wasn’t much of that, but the first half showed me that the structure we changed to — 1-4-2-3-1 in defense, where we were responsible and focused on our tasks — was a positive. Unfortunately, I can’t say the same for the entire match because, in the second half, the spaces and distances were much too large.
Listen to the full conference below:
