Matchday 9 of the PKO Bank Polski Ekstraklasa will take the Lechia players to Szczecin, where they will face Pogoń. On Friday morning, head coach John Carver answered questions from the media.

A small marathon of games awaits the White-and-Greens. Here’s how the coach looks ahead to three matches in a short span of time:

We have three games in a week and I have to manage that. There are also certain decisions we cannot make yet today. We want to compete in every competition and we will definitely play our strongest eleven. Playing three away matches is not a comfortable situation, so after the cup match we won’t return to Gdańsk — instead, we’ll prepare in Warsaw for the clash with Korona.

Recently, Pogoń’s coach lost his job. Does this affect Lechia’s preparations?

It certainly makes things more difficult for us in terms of planning. I don’t want to comment on another club’s decisions, but I’m sorry Robert was dismissed. He became a victim of his own success. Robert is a very good and intelligent coach, who places great emphasis on tactics. In fact, last season he was only one win away from the podium. I watched them in the Polish Cup final, and they played very well there too. They are now 9th in the league with 10 points, but they are only 4 points off the top positions. It’s a bit unfortunate in our profession, but we all know football is about results.

Benjamin Mendy recently joined Pogoń. John Carver knows him from his time in the English league:

I faced Mendy when he played for Manchester City. He was a top player, but then a lot of troubling things happened. I don’t know what shape he’s in now. From my experience, if someone hasn’t played for a long time, it’s harder to get back to form and it takes more time. We’ve had a few examples of that in our team.

What kind of match does the coach expect?

If we look at what happened recently in Szczecin, it was an open game. I wouldn’t want such an open match on Sunday. The opponents have changed somewhat, they brought in some new players, and it’s already a different team. The fact that the coach is gone might also influence some changes. We are focusing on ourselves and on what we have to do. We showed our players a few scenarios of how this match might look, and we will have to adapt.

There was also a question about Matej Rodin, who has brought calm to Lechia’s defense:

I know how important it is to have such an experienced player as Matej Rodin in the dressing room. He’s a leader, and we needed someone like that. It certainly gives us more composure and makes managing the game easier. It’s a strangely nice feeling to stand on the touchline and have the impression that you’re in control of the match. The calmness he brings on the pitch also translates to the bench, and that’s important.

And the health status of Tomas Bobcek:

Tomas has trained all week, which is a good sign. Dawid and Tomas are different players, but there is no reason why they couldn’t play together.