A crisis to overcome

One thing is sure – Lech is having a bad period which can now be simply called a crisis. However, the team has proved time after time that they can overcome such crises. In the autumn, Lech was playing in three different competition – PKO Ekstraklasa, Europa League (qualifiers and group phase), and Fortuna Polish Cup. Now they’re down to the league only since the team from Poznań was eliminated from the latter competition by Raków Częstochowa (0:2) on Tuesday.

When you take a look at the recent seasons, it’s hard not to notice that whenever there was a performance dip in the league, it was following an intense autumn schedule. In the past 10 years, Lech was lowest ranked in March whenever the team performed on the international arena in the months prior. In the season 2010/2011, Jose Mari Bakero’s squad reached the stage of 32 in Europa League but the great result had repercussions on the performance in the national competition – in early spring, Lech was ranked 8^th in the Ekstraklasa table with just 25 points. The current squad is also occupying the 8th rank with 25 points, however, Żuraw’s team has played two matches more at this stage. The performance of Lech under the lead of the Spanish coach is highly contrasting with the achievements from the campaigns one and two years prior when the squad had, respectively, 10 and 14 points more at that specific stage of the season.

This season’s no different – with just 25 points, Lech is, respectively, 14 and 16 points behind in comparison to the two most recent campaigns. It’s worth mentioning that back in 2015/16, Lech was in even bigger trouble when the intensity of Europa League got them ranked at the bottom of the Ekstraklasa table but a great series of performances in November and December helped them bounce back. In March, the team was ranked 6^th but ended the season on the 7^th position.

Of course, there were worse seasons than that. For instance, at the beginning of the 21^st century, Lech Poznań had to focus on avoiding relegation rather than aiming for the top positions like it’s been for the past few good years now. The statistics are there as an interesting fact, however, what really matters right now is for Lech to find a way out of the crisis. Still, an analysis of the performances from the past seasons and the struggles Lech has encountered when competing on the international arena could serve as a good lesson for the future.