Mariusz Jop before #TYCWIS: Every match is for 3 points

On Friday, May 9th, Mariusz Jop's players will take to the pitch at the Tychy stadium, where they will battle it out against local GKS in the 32nd round of the Betclic 1 League. Before the match, the Wisła Kraków coach met with members of the press.

Medical report before #TYCWIS:

Mariusz Kutwa, Wiktor Biedrzycki, Patryk Gogół, Bartosz Talar, Piotr Starzyński and Kacper Skrobański are unavailable due to health reasons.

Wiktor Biedrzycki and Mariusz Kutwa have joined the injured list. So what's their current health status? "The situation has changed somewhat regarding the available center-backs. I wouldn't like to talk about any prospects at this point regarding Wiktor and Mariusz. However, they cannot be considered for this match due to health reasons. Patryk Gogół is still working his way back to full fitness," he began.

Are you planning a change in goal, taking into account Patryk Letkiewicz's performance during the match against Wisła Płock? "Of course, I won't say whether there will be a change in goal or not. However, I can say that all three of them—Jakub Stępak was taking his final exams, so I'm referring to Anton, Patryk, and Kamil—looked very good throughout the week of training. Of course, the decision has already been made in my head, but the players don't know what the choice will be yet," he said.

Łukasz Zwoliński remains goalless this spring. In the last match, you decided to start him again, but it didn't help the striker. Are you planning the same formation for the match against GKS? "I don't want to make it easier for my opponents by announcing our lineup, because each player has their own unique movement and play style. The players don't know the starting lineup yet. Not everyone knows who will be playing from the start and who won't. It's normal that I won't reveal how we'll play here," he replied.

There's still the question of the player in position ten. Are you looking for another solution here? "Maybe I can say who could potentially play in the number 10 position. Duarte could play. Maybe Sukiennicki. Maybe Duda. Maybe Jesus. Maybe Rodado. So there are quite a few options, and I know who will play there. But going back to the previous answer, I don't want to reveal or dictate what the solution will be."

You're entering the final phase of the season. The final and most important one. Do you emphasize the responsibility of on-field decisions and the consequences of mistakes during your briefings? "We know we conceded goals due to simple mistakes. Of course, we want to avoid those mistakes. The players know perfectly well that if someone makes a mistake, they have an inner feeling that they made it, and I think it was important for all these players to regain that balance as quickly as possible and regain that confidence, because every mistake causes a bit of that to evaporate. Only with such uncertainty do players often make much bigger mistakes and more of them, so from my perspective, it was crucial to get all the players in the best mental shape possible for today," said the White Star coach.

Getting the ball out - how to avoid mistakes during this and, consequently, the goal? It's always the player's decision how to do it. "We don't have a philosophy of having a defender dribbling, yes, that's not our philosophy. In Termalica's case, it was obviously a matter of choosing whether to play inside or outside, because those were the options and the precision of the pass, so these are always decisions on the pitch. Of course, we would like these decisions to be optimal and effective, and the way we play, it seems, means we score quite a lot of goals. If we look at the statistics and analyses, we're underestimating almost 20 goals. If we look at the top of the table, how many goals we potentially should score. I know that what counts is what's in the net, not what you create, but that's the first step. To score a goal, you have to create chances. Then there are elements like effectiveness, of course, and some element of luck in a given situation, but I don't see any reason for us to turn everything upside down and play differently. Of course, we are making some adjustments and will continue to do so, because we also know where we are in the season and what lies ahead. However, I don't assume that we will suddenly do something completely different," he replied.

How important is Friday's match, assuming that if your team wins, it will move away from its rival from Tychy in the table? "I think that this approach puts additional pressure on us, because each match is worth 3 points. Of course, we realize that these are the last 3 rounds and that our opponent is in really good shape this spring. Their statistics and average points per match are truly impressive, and we definitely have to respect and appreciate that we will be playing against a team that has been in very good shape all spring - they are effective and have a very similar playing philosophy to ours, because there are many similar elements. They also try to play from the back, with short passes. Going back to the last match, I think Letkiewicz's mistake in the match against Termalica was incomparable to the mistake Tychy's goalkeeper made in the match against Znicz, but this is an element that sometimes happens when we play this way, and of course, we either accept it or not. We can look for, like some teams do, direct play from the goalkeeper and just wait for the second ball to be collected and try to win the ball there, and build a play from there - that is also a philosophy, but for now it's not my philosophy," he said.

GKS Tychy is scoring very well this spring. So what's your assessment of this team? Every team has its shortcomings. "I certainly wouldn't look at Tychy through the prism of their last match, or the last two matches, because looking at them holistically, as I said – the statistics show, primarily in terms of points, that this is a team that is very well prepared for the season; that is effective; that plays until the end, often scoring goals in the final minutes; that tries to build from the back, at least that's what they've done so far; they know what to play; you can see the structure there in terms of attacking and defending. I think that's where coach Skowronek's good work is evident. After taking this team on last season, they didn't win, as there were many draws, but it was a team that knew what they wanted to do on the pitch," he assessed.

How do you get back on track? Your last two matches have been a draw and a loss—do you consider this a temporary slump? "If we look at the results and points alone, it's definitely something we're not satisfied with. However, I think we need to look at the bigger picture and see how these matches unfolded, because I think we performed well in both matches. Of course, individual errors were the deciding factor. I don't see the team suddenly starting to play weaker, definitely weaker, or that we're seeing any signs of a crisis. So, from my perspective, that's not the case," he said.

Are you expecting a similar match to the one at R22 in the fall? "It's hard to say what it will be like. However, I think the GKS team will play in a similar way, because it's been a recurring pattern in their matches, not only against us, but also in those they've played since. We also have our own tactics and plan for this match, so we'll see. Our goal, as always, is to play for three points."

The White Star players have a lot of matches on their feet. How's the physical fatigue? "I think we should forget about the cup competitions, because it was the winter break, and I think the players have fully recovered. We didn't have such a large number of matches this round, because apart from the Super Cup match, we didn't play in the Polish Cup, so I don't see any problem with fatigue. Of course, some players played everything, or almost everything, in a cycle where we had five matches in two weeks. But now we have weekly micro-cycles. There's time to rest. There's time to prepare optimally, so there's no reason to seek rest from some players."

When analyzing your opponent, did you pay attention to any specific player from Tychy? "I wouldn't want to single anyone out here, because I think Tychy functions well as a team. Of course, individual players have their very good or even good moments – especially those who score goals, but I also think there are some interesting defenders there. As I said, I think they need to be viewed from the perspective of team play and tactical functioning as a team," he concluded.