Jop: The players are becoming more and more confident

Saturday, October 5th, means the #PGSWIS match. The Krakow team traveled to Siedlce on Friday, and coach Mariusz Jop met with journalists before leaving.

Due to health reasons, the following players are unavailable: Bartosz Talar, Kacper Duda, Jakub Stępak, Joseph Colley, Enis Fazlagić and Igor Sapała.

The role of team manager will be temporarily taken over by Damian Urbaniec, the club's promotion manager.

Kacper Duda is on the absentee list. What happened to the midfielder? "It was a situational matter. Kacper slightly twisted his ankle while fighting for the ball, and we need to give him a few days off so he can train at full speed," the coach began.

The win against Odra Opole calmed things down for the Kraków team. Did Wisła's workload become easier this week? "I think it was similar. I see in training that the players are gaining more and more confidence. It's obvious that if you don't score points, you don't win, that confidence fades a bit. However, in terms of mobilization and what we want to do in training, the intensity and discipline we maintain, this week was no different from the one before Odra Opole. We definitely paid close attention to ensuring that no slackness crept in, because there's no reason for it to," he noted.

Giannis Kiakos is back in training after his injury. When will we see him in a match? "Kiakos is expected to play as many minutes as possible tomorrow with the reserve team. This is to ensure he's available for the next match, the cup match," he explained, referring to Dawid Szot: "Dawid has returned to full training with the team. However, his break has been very long, over four months, so we need to give him time to get into a good rhythm. I'd still be cautious about even sending him to the reserve team, as he needs some time. A full week of training with the team and a full micro-cycle to get him into a good rhythm."

The rule is that you don't change a winning team. Will the coach adopt this method in Siedlce? "The team doesn't have information about the starting eleven yet, so I can't reveal what it will look like. I wouldn't want the players to find out from the press conference who's playing and who's not, so unfortunately I can't answer that question," he announced.

Adam Nocoń has taken the helm of Pogoń's team. Does this make it difficult for the Kraków team to prepare for the match? "Generally, our principle is that we look at ourselves and want to improve our way and model of play. However, we also know what kind of football coach Adam Nocoń preferred, as he was recently the coach at Odra Opole. We still have that away match under coach Rude in mind. We know what to expect; the team is prepared for various solutions, for various scenarios, so here, as I said, we look at ourselves. We want to improve our own behavior, and regardless of the opponent or the system they play, we have to know what we want to do better with each match. That's our goal," he continued.

Mental issues are constantly raised during press conferences. So, does the coaching staff need to warn the players not to relax because of their opponent's poor start to the league? "I think we have no reason to relax as a team, because we need to win. Of course, our closest rivals have lost many home games by a single goal, and those were difficult matches. The players also know that to show their footballing quality and technical ability, it's absolutely essential that their commitment and concentration are at least at the same level as their opponents. This is an obvious footballing truth," he said.


The Polish Cup Round of 32 match will be played on October 12th, earlier than planned. Is this positive news that will help maintain a rhythm? "We also perceive it as a beneficial solution for us. Later, five matches were scheduled over the next two weeks, every three or four days. By moving the Polish Cup, we have three matches in a week and a week's break, so it will be easier to manage our strengths and rotate players, and it's a better solution for us," he added.

Krzysztof Siłka, who had previously worked with R22, returned to the coaching staff as an analyst. "I'd never worked with Krzysiek before. However, it was a topic that had been discussed much earlier, as we knew Dominik Dyduła would be moving to GKS Tychy. Krzysiek was still under contract with Stal Rzeszów, and we were waiting for him to terminate it there; we were held back by these formalities so he could join us," he concluded.