Rivalry in the midfield

Darko Jevtić, Pedro Tiba, Jakub Moder, Karlo Muhar, Joao Amaral, Filip Marchwiński and Mateusz Skrzypczak – the rivalry in the midfield is intense. In the 14^th league round of the season, Muhar, Tiba and Moder all got a place in the starting line-up. On Saturday, Lech’s captain watched the first 45 minutes from the bench. “Darko has been training individually for some time and he has only recently returned to team sessions. Therefore, I decided to keep him off the pitch during the first half,” explained Lech’s coach.

For Jakub Moder, it was the 5^th time that he was a part of the starting line-up. At first, Lech’s homegrown player didn’t appear on the league pitches too often apart from his debut against LKS Lodz. However, ever since he played against Chrobry Glogow in the Polish Cup, the youngsters didn’t give away his spot in the first XI. In the clash with Pogon, the 20-year-old was positioned the highest from all midfielders; until now, he used to have one more teammate in front of him. “The reason behind positioning Moder as no. 10 was the tactics – we wanted to apply high pressing,” emphasised Zuraw.

Since the start of the season, the fans could observe an intense rotation in the midfield, both, in terms of positions, and players. Tiba has already been tested in all possible variants.

“The Portuguese is capable of playing on every position in the midfield. Even when he was placed as no. 6, he still did well. He’s an essential figure and the youngsters can learn a lot from him. Even though our homegrown players are doing great, there are still plenty of lessons they can learn from Pedro and Darko,” highlighted coach Zuraw.

So far this season, the midfielders who spent the most minutes on the pitch are Karlo Muhar (1148), Pedro Tiba (1013), and Darko Jevtic (938). In addition, all three have appeared in the starting line-up the most frequently. Although the Croatian is mainly focused on the defense, the remaining two have a great impact on the offensive achievements of the team. The Swiss captain has played a key role in 10 goals so far (5 assists and 5 scored), whereas Tiba has 2 assists on his account. What is even more impressive is the fact that the two players combined have completed over 30 key passes which only emphasises how important they are to the team. Moreover, there is Amaral who hasn’t been a regular starter, but nonetheless managed to score one goal and assist his teammates 3 times.

The number of talented midfielders in Lech’s squad only proves that if all of them are fit to play, the coaching staff faces the ‘problem’ of picking just three of them for every match. Even though the mentioned midfielders play the most important roles in the squad, we cannot forget about Filip Marchwinski, Mateusz Skrzypczak, and Julisz Letniowski (who is currently competing for the reserves after a serious injury), all of whom can add great value to the team.