Mariusz Jop before the match against GKS Tychy: We're playing at home. As a team, we're confident.

Wisła Kraków is back in action. Before the first match after the winter break, Mariusz Jop met with journalists at a press conference. The Wisła Kraków coach answered questions from the press.

Below you will find a recording of the conference.

Question about Kacper Duda and Darijo Grujcic .
"The players have been involved in the training process since the first day of the week. Today we have another training session here on the pitch, and after training we will make a decision regarding their performance and tomorrow's match ." – said coach Mariusz Jop .

About preparations in Turkey and Krakow.
"We executed the plan we had established before preparations. As usual, there were slight issues with individual players, and sometimes they had fewer training sessions, or the training sessions were different. Overall, as I said, the plan was executed ," concluded the Wisła coach.

"There's always a slight uncertainty before the first match after a long break. That's natural. If you haven't played competitive matches for a long time, friendlies can never replace that ," he added.

Information about the rival.
"Of course, we have information. It concerns the friendlies they played in, but we also have data from the last matches from the fall, when Łukasz Piszczek was already the coach. So we have this information, we have this data, and we're looking for similarities there. And again, if this is the first match for points, you can't completely rely on friendlies, because sometimes coaches look for different solutions there, and ultimately decide on different solutions for league matches. It's not all as obvious as it might seem. Besides, GKS Tychy is a team that has changed a lot, so finding parallels here will certainly be more difficult compared to the previous round. I'm curious to see how our opponents will perform. However, as always, we're focusing on our own actions and what we have to do ," the coach analyzed.

In the Ekstraklasa, the first round after the break showed that the favorites were forced to concede their opponent's superiority. Are you urging the team to stay focused from the start?
"We're playing at home. As a team, we're confident. We know what we're capable of. Of course, we take our opponent into account and respect them. Our mindset is that we're playing for three points. We want to win this match and impose our style of play right away. We're playing in front of our home crowd. I think a large crowd will turn out, considering the weather conditions, and we want to give them positive emotions ," stated the White Star coach.

Have the injuries that occurred during the preparation period thwarted your plans and are you satisfied with the preventive measures implemented , as there are fewer such injuries ?
"We have virtually no muscle injuries at all, because the injuries or absences that did occur were caused by infections or more mechanical injuries related to contact with an opponent. Such things are difficult to eliminate, so when it comes to the overall work of the medical department, I'm very satisfied. I think we're continuing what was started at the beginning of this season. We have our protocols. We don't want to rush things. Therefore, as you can see, there's a lot of patience when it comes to players returning from longer-term injuries. I also never feel pressured to play if I'm not feeling fully fit. I prefer to wait a few days for a player to be 100%. Regarding the percentage of how much this has hindered, it's difficult to say. There haven't been many such situations, and I think that's quite natural. It's never the case that 100% of players are always available for training. There are no such teams ," explained coach Jop .

The most important match is the most important, but is there already a murmur in the locker room that promotion is getting closer?
"The fact that we're counting on it and believe that this is the season is, of course, always with us. However, the way to achieve it is to focus on each training session and the upcoming match. I think this mindset has given us tangible results, because we've approached it the same way since the beginning of this season, and we don't intend to change that ," Mariusz Jop stated confidently .

Joseph Colley's Situation.
"We must remember that Joseph's case was unique, as he returned from a very serious injury. There's a rule that if someone has been sidelined for eight months, they need a similar amount of time to return to their pre-injury form. Joseph performed well throughout the pre-season. He also performed well in friendlies, and that's what team competition is all about – those further down the pecking order have a chance to move up. And Joseph certainly made that progress ," he said.

Question marks in the selection of the starting lineup.
"I think that maybe one or two positions are still in question, but of course the skeleton is, you could say, certain, and these question marks are related to either the tactics for a given match, what we expect in a given match, or the performance of the day, or the performance from the last period ," he added.

How is Angel Rodado coping with no longer being the only nominal striker? Does he feel Sanchez breathing down his neck?
"I think he's doing very well. He's a player who's confident and continues to train the same way he used to, with a similar level of commitment. It's not certain that Jordi will be his one-on-one rival, as the possibility of them playing together is also being considered. So it all depends on the players, how much playing time they earn with their performance in a given match, in order to play in the next one ." – the coach commented.

Wisła is leading the table. How can we prevent players from getting too caught up in the future and thinking about upcoming matches?
"Exactly, not in the next few weeks, but in the next and upcoming training sessions. That's the answer to your question. I've already said it before, thinking about what will happen in two weeks or taking some kind of package. I hear attempts to divide this round until the break into the national team, that there are a number of matches, you have to earn some points... We try to stay as far away from that as possible. We know that the environment, fans, and journalists will keep bringing up the goal. We are aware of what the goal is. That hasn't changed ," confirmed the Wisła coach.

"This season is different, so I don't think you can compare last season to this one on a one-to-one basis. After 19 rounds, the teams generally have significantly fewer points. That's why our advantage is so large, as our opponents dropped points among themselves. The rest of the field is very even, and I think it will be similar here. Although it's not impossible that one of the teams will have a great run, as Tychy was a prime example last spring, where they scored fantastically ," he analyzed.

Do matches played against teams managed by coaches with national team experience differ from those played against teams with a coach with less field experience or experience in lower leagues?
"I think that player achievements don't matter much here. The work of a coach and the work of a player are two completely different things. I wouldn't look for any particular differences here compared to how other coaches work, " said the coach.

Igor Łasicki has joined our rival's ranks. Could his knowledge influence how GKS Tychy will play against us?
"Igor certainly knows us very well, he knows the nuances we've discussed within the team. However, it's not like we're going to repeat everything one-on-one, because we also have a few other solutions that Igor doesn't know about, which are being prepared for the next meeting ." – Mariusz Jop reassured .

"I think that Igor, and I've said this many times, I value him very much as a player, as a person, and I think that the fact that he became captain so quickly is also very telling, " added the coach.

A question about Arkadiusz Ziarko and Wiktor Szywacz , who trained with the first team during preparations.
"I think both of them showed a good performance. I was pleased with their work during the camp. They will definitely be invited to training. To what extent? I wouldn't like to say now, because that's also related to problems in individual positions ," he explained.

On the day of the match against GKS Tychy, you'll have been coaching for exactly 500 days. How quickly did those days at Wisła fly by? What are your memories of that time?
"You surprised me! That means my time went by very quickly. I think that when the schedule is tight, there's a lot of work, a lot going on, a lot of emotions, then the work—or maybe not work, but what I like to do, what isn't really work for me—goes by very quickly. For me, statistics don't really matter; I think the most important thing is that the head coach's position benefits the first team. For Wisła Kraków, it's always something that will be dominant and doesn't really matter. For me personally, whether it's me or someone else, the important thing is that the team is successful and achieves its goals ," concluded Wisła Kraków coach Mariusz Jop .