Lech Poznan's Emotional Rollercoaster John Van Den Brom Should Be Proud Of Himself

It is necessary to realize that the success, which was undoubtedly the exit from the Conference League group and the battle with FK Bodo/Glimt, was achieved more despite something than thanks to something When we look at the road that Kolejorz has traveled from July to now, we will see .

Well, maybe not a cross road, but certainly not a pleasant walk either In order to reach the 1/8 finals of the LKE, the Poznań team had to avoid many obstacles.

John van den brom took over Lech Poznań in an extremely difficult moment The root cause in this whole story was, of course, the unexpected resignation of Maciej Skorża from the position of Lech's coach.

The current coach of Urawa Reds had to take a few months break from the coach for private reasons When this decision was officially announced, there was a huge stir in the environment, and in the club there was quite a stir.

The interregnum lasted almost a month It is true that the employment of John van den brom was announced after - more or less - two weeks, which does not change the fact that the change itself was not planned.

In addition, it was difficult to carry out as the team led by Skorża recorded the best results for years - suffice it to say that it won the first national championship since the 2014/15 season Naturally, the Dutchman was not a round-up man, random.

As much as possible, he was screened to meet the appropriate criteria: preferred offensive style of play, youth development, and above all, experience in leading teams on several fronts The latter sounds quite general, but it was very important.

We all remember how it was before, when Kolejorz played in the group stage of the European cup during the tenure of Dariusz Żuraw There was no promotion - neither from the group in the Europa League, nor to international games from Ekstraklasa.

Then the team from Wielkopolska finished the season in the middle of the table Several previous attempts ended similarly.

To find the previous season, when Lech was doing well both in Europe and at home, one would have to go back a decade and a half Read also: Łukasz Trałka for "Wprost": The success of Lech Poznań is something important for the whole Polish football.

Well, at least not fully Those who see the glass half empty will notice that Kolejorz loses 13 points to the first Raków Częstochowa and has no chance of winning the championship.

Optimists will mention the currently occupied third place and, above all, the transition to the play-off phase of the Conference League and the defeat of the team from Norway Above all, however, the optimists will turn a blind eye to the style of play of the Poznań players in some matches, and at best they will understand it.

After the first meeting, thunders fell on Lechity In Norway, they mainly defended, and then there were headlines in the media suggesting that 0-0 away was a disgrace.

Indeed, that meeting smelled a bit of Michniewiczówka straight from the World Cup, but in the end the goal justified the means At the end of the day, it was also about strategy for a particular tie, not a general football philosophy.

This difference is subtle but crucial in terms of a proper assessment of van den Brom's actions It is worth taking into account the fact that that the cautious approach to the tie against Bodo/Glimt did not result from desperation and the need to improvise.

On the contrary, that was the plan and Lech executed it perfectly When asked about the basis of success, he repeated one word like a mantra.

“Organization is my favorite word and if you are playing against a strong team and you have two clean sheets then you have done a good job Naturally, we wanted to show more in attack.

We missed a lot in the first half of the game It was difficult for us to put pressure on the opponents.

The second half was much better in that respect We had the physical advantage, we pressed better and created more chances.

– We talked about this at the break – he explained, emphasizing once again that the better game after the break was due to the fact that that Lech has improved organizationally both front and back – We lacked such control in the clash with Zagłębie and therefore we lost.

With Bodo we improved and that's why we got promoted - he said He did not go into tactical meanders, although he gave an example of better organization, among others, much faster and more surprising for the rival transferring the weight of the game to his penalty area.

The Lech Poznań team is always full of holes - We have written history There was a lot of emotion in this match, it was like a rollercoaster at times.

Radosław Murawski was not with us today, but Afonso Sousa and Jesper Karlstroem did a great job – he argued The comparison to a rollercoaster seems extremely accurate, even when we extend its meaning and refer it to the entire current season, and not just the two-match with the team from Norway.

It is on this example that we can notice a certain thing, despite which Kolejorz has achieved success It was not the first time that the team lacked a leader in an extremely important meeting, and yet it was he who came out with the shield, not on it.

In autumn, there were plenty of such scenes, sometimes much more extreme After all, Bartosz Salamon, team leader and one of the best stoppers in Ekstraklasa, lost the whole round.

The 32-year-old was unlucky again, because in the rematch with Bodo / Glimt he was injured again and did not go out after the break "It is doubtful that he will play on Sunday," said van den brom when asked about the defender's health.

Injuries also multiplied with other players At times, there were bizarre scenes in Lech.

After all, there were meetings in which the duo of stoppers was made up of Barry Douglas, a nominal left defender, and Maksymilian Pingot was his partner, i e.

a complete rookie, who is currently playing on loan in the first league Odra Opole twitter In such moments, his old demon returned to Kolejorz - the ever too short quilt.

In this respect, for several years the inhabitants of Poznań have been living like in "Groundhog Day", experiencing the same problem over and over again The center of defense was full of holes, which we have already discussed.

Goal? Artur Rudko acted like Loris Karius in Liverpool at times In the second line, there was and still is no quality replacement for Joao Amaral.

Currently, Lech simply does not have a valuable ten An injury to Mikael Ishak would also be a tragedy for the team.

To storm Ekstraklasa and European cups without a man who scored 17 goals in 25 matches in the latter… It would be a horror Filip Szymczak is not yet that shelf.

Artur Sobiech in Lech will rather not jump on it And there are also eternal problems on the wings, where Adriel Ba Loua still doesn't give specifics, Kristoffer Velde plays as hard as if he were a Scot, and recently even Michał Skóraś is not doing numbers.

John van den brom did not have greenhouse conditions The above mentioned problems are the result of Lech's timid transfer policy, whose owners are afraid to invest in qualitative reinforcements They earned the name of greedy, but it's hardly surprising, since they regretted 200,000 for a great goalkeeper, Frantisek Plach, and instead of him, they brought in hopeless Rudka and on loan.

Piotr Rutkowski and Karol Klimczak also did not dare to pay EUR 1 5 million for Dawid Kownacki.

This one shone in Kolejorz on loan during the last spring round, and then declared that he would like to return to the club permanently In the end, he had to stay in Germany, where he was also doing great until he got injured.

In addition, the helmsmen of Kolejorz were afraid to invest in Damian Kądzior from Piast Gliwice, but preferred to borrow Heorhij Citaiszwili, who had not yet smelled the pitch in spring, because he would lose the competition today even with the author of this text Putting it all together, one can come to the conclusion that John van den brom certainly did not work in greenhouse conditions and this will probably not change until the end of the season.

Just remember his silent war with Amaral (or Amaral with him?) The coach and the player cannot find a common language, which is nothing new in the case of an attacking midfielder.

Only Maciej Skorża could reach him, and his successor could not cope with it at all Today, Amaral is mentioned only in the context of the summer transfer, and yet the team lacks good .

Come back, any sensible successor for the Portuguese After the departure of Dani Ramirez, Marchwiński was to become it, although in his case it ended as usual - a concert of unfulfilled wishes.

twitter The coach of Lech Poznań should be proud of himself Winning 1/8 of the Conference League and third place in Ekstraklasa after 2/3 of the season in such circumstances? van den brom deserves a lot of respect and a lot of trust, not the thoughtless criticism that Kamil Kosowski or Sylwester Czereszewski expressed towards him No wonder, however, that after the second match with Bodo, the Dutchman entered the conference room in a great mood, with a beer in his hand and the first thing he did was say "Cheers!" towards journalists.

Only a madman wouldn't appreciate a moment like this – As a coach I have never come this far, so this is my best European adventure – he reminded during a meeting with journalists.

"I told the team I was proud of them," he admitted without any artificial modesty However, he should be proud not only of his charges, but also of himself.

Because he did something that several of his predecessors could not, he achieved a historic success, despite problems that could quickly lose his head (and job) to some other, even experienced coach So there is a sense of pride here.

Read also: Lech Poznań will play with them in the 1/8 LKE! A great spectacle is coming! Read also: The new president of Rakowa Częstochowa .