"Rivalry is essential"

At the beginning of last season’s spring round, Sousa was forced to miss a couple of games due to an injury. He returned to the squad in April and started in all six following matches. However, he was again absent in the last two matches of the season because of health issues. Fortunately, the 24-year-old is back in great shape and he was able to compete in four pre-season friendlies. What does the Portuguese midfielder think about Lech’s performance in the summer training matches?

“In the friendly matches, we wanted to work on specific elements of our game that weren’t functioning the way they should. In my opinion, we managed to improve a lot during the pre-season, but our goal is to continue to develop. We need to convert our [goal-scoring] chances. We had plenty of them in the friendly with FK Teplice, but it’s a good thing that we still have a week of training before the league starts,” explained the midfielder who was one of the most active players in the friendly clash with the Czech club.

The pre-season is slowly coming to an end as PKO BP Ekstraklasa is about to kick off. On Sunday, Lech will face Górnik Zabrze at home. Sousa is emphasizing that his squad’s objective is to win and that this way, they will hopefully "catch the wave". However, according to the midfielder, the key goal is to make up for last season when Lech finished 5^th in the league table. This is where coach Niels Frederiksen, who took over the squad a month ago, comes in.

“This season has to be better than the previous one and we are working on it every day. For the past four weeks, we have been training with the new coach, who is introducing his ideas. I hope that the results will be visible on Sunday,” highlighted the Portuguese midfielder.

Recently, the club parted ways with another midfielder – Nika Kvekveskiri – but as a result of Antoni Kozubal’s return from loan, Sousa now has a new rival in the fight for a spot in the line-up. The young Polish midfielder performed well in the summer friendlies. Sousa is emphasizing that the rivalry is beneficial for him and for the team alike.

“I am always happy to see a quality player join the squad. It’s the same in the case of “Kozi” who, now that he has returned from loan, will be able to give a lot to the team. Me, “Muri”, and Jesper are not afraid of rivalry because our primary focus is on the team’s well-being and we know that it [rivalry] is essential,” added Sousa.