"We are more capable than the table suggests"

The first half of PKO Ekstraklasa main phase of the 2019/20 season has just ended and there is a lot of disappointment within and around Lech Poznan. The team is currently ranked 9th and they are 9 points behind Legia Warsaw who’s occupying the leader’s seat. Even though 15 league games are already behind us, the point differences between ranks are fairly small and leave space for Lech to climb up the ranks if they start collecting full sets of points.

Lech’s current rank is the lowest they’ve been this season so far. A good start of the campaign helped Lech secure the leading position after the clash with LKS Lodz, however, with every match, the team from Poznan started falling further down the table.

“We don’t have enough points. The beginning of the season was successful and then gradually the situation worsened. What was the reason? Our form wasn’t consistent. I still believe that our performances demonstrate the potential we have; it’s just that we’re failing to do the last and most important thing which is convert our skills into wins,” explained Tymoteusz Puchacz.

5 wins - 5 draws - 5 losses – these are the statistics so far. 3 of those wins were away triumphs (against LKS Lodz, Rakow Czestochowa, Gornik Zabrze) and 2 of them took place at home (against Wisla Plock and Wisla Cracow). There were also games during which Lech dominated but failed to convert their chances into goals (e.g. against Arka Gdynia and Korona Kielce). Had the team from Poznan managed to collect all three points in the mentioned two matches, the situation would have been much different.

“Often the main issue was not that we played poorly – quite the opposite, actually – but we simply failed to create a sufficient number of chances or convert them into goals. We tend to make mistakes in the very last phase of the attack. It’s our main problem and we ought to work on it. Nonetheless, I believe we have plenty of potential and that we will bounce back and perform well,” emphasised Christian Gytkjaer.

“We have a lot to improve but we should remain true to our style of play. For me, the first half against Korona was our best performance this season, however, unfortunately this was the kind of unlucky match that even if we played for 3 hours, the ball wouldn’t hit the back of the net,” said Lubomir Satka.

Currently numerous players have left Poznan to join their national teams for the international break. However, as soon as they return, the second part of the main phase of the season will kick off and Lech will have the chance to get revenge on those teams who stole points from the Poznan squad earlier this year. The next game is a home clash with Piast Gliwice, and then Lech will travel to Wroclaw where they are going to face Slask – i.e. the first team that have found a way to beat Lech this season. There are still 5 matches to go before the winter break which gives the team from Poznan plenty of time to improve their rank in the league table.

“I believe that there are details we need to improve which, although small, have a big impact on the final score. We can’t give up; we need to keep on believing in ourselves. We are more capable than the table suggests,” added the Slovakian defender.