Rudé before #WISWID: I expect an interesting match

Wednesday marks Wisła Kraków's match against Widzew. The Polish Cup quarter-final match will be played in front of a large crowd of fans gathered at R22.

The following injured players will not play against Widzew:

Kamil Broda - who has damaged abdominal muscles;

Miki Villar - who has a damaged thigh muscle;

Vullnet Basha - who has a damaged biceps muscle;

Bartosz Talar and Patryk Gogół - who underwent knee surgery;

David Junca - who is rehabilitating his calf muscle;

Igor Sapała - who has a torn adductor muscle.

"The main goal of this match will be to incorporate all the enthusiasm that accompanies it. We'll be able to play against a team from the Ekstraklasa and we'll try to field the best possible eleven. In the locker room, I don't divide the players into those who play in the starting lineup and those who sit on the bench. In this match, I want to focus on the players who will show their best," he began.

Billel Omrani is the newest signing for the White Star. When asked about his physical condition and when he would be able to play, the coach replied: "Billel is with us. He had his first training session with us today. He looks good. Of course, he needs to catch up to reach the team's level, but he will help us in the future." And how is Karol Dziedzic, acquired from Garbarnia, performing? "It's the same with Karol. We need to give him time to adapt to our way of playing," he continued.

Jakub Krzyżanowski was missing from the last match. Will the young defender be ready for the Polish Cup? "I said at the last press conference that he had problems after the match against Stal, we wanted to spare him, but now he is fully ready," he noted.

Recently, the R22 team has suffered from several muscular injuries, as commented by the coach: "We have a few injuries and we analyze each one individually, because each one is different and affects a different player. For example, Talar and Gogół have knee problems, and playing at high intensity can cause these things to happen. In other cases, we have muscle injuries. Of course, we're working to avoid these types of injuries in the future. The idea is to improve our training methods to prevent this from happening. Playing at high intensity, with high performance, means balancing playing at 100 percent of your potential with the risk of injury," he said. "I think that to talk about physical preparation, we need to talk about numbers and analyze them. Both of our center-backs, Joseph and Alan, ran 10 km each in the last match. Jaroch and Duda ran 12 km each. Our striker, when a striker normally runs less, ran 11 km. 86 percent of those kilometers were at high intensity. The players in this team are physically prepared like beasts. They run constantly, we press for eighty minutes. We had plenty of chances. The team is physically prepared to follow our path and meet our standards. We can measure physical parameters with numbers. That's my perspective. How many runs have you done, how many kilometers have you covered, and at what intensity. This shows whether you're well or poorly prepared physically. Looking at my experience and the teams I've worked with, I can say that this team is ready to play the way we want," he explained.

Wisła has become accustomed to changes between the posts in cup matches. Will it be the same this time? "Normally, if there are two goalkeepers fighting for a place in the lineup, the one who plays more in the league doesn't play in the cup. In our case, Anton is new to the team and has to adapt to the way we play. We need to carefully assess the situation to make the final choice and the best possible decision," he noted.

Does Saturday's league match in Opole determine the selection of the eleven? "Playing on two fronts – in the league and the cup – you have to make the right decisions. Of course, we're excited to be playing for promotion to the next phase," he assured. So what kind of opponent will Widzew be on Wednesday? "I know they're a team with a lot of history and crazy fans. When my staff and I analyzed them, we were very impressed by the fact that they play at home to a full stadium. They try to control the game. They play in a 4-3-3 system, and the center-backs aren't afraid to take the game on themselves. I think we have a similar style, and I expect an interesting match between two teams that want to play football," he analyzed.

Journalists asked about the details of Igor Sapała's injury: "It happened in training. He won't be available for this match, but we need to check exactly how serious the injury is."

What does the coach think about the theory that it will be easier for Wisła to play against a team that normally plays at the Ekstraklasa level? "I heard that kind of feedback when I arrived here. But I have to form my own opinion on the matter. I know the intensity of our league is high. I have to constantly adapt to prevent counterattacks, for example. If we had prevented three or four counterattacks in the last match, our game would have been completely different," he suggested. "I'm not as happy with how we're playing as the fans are. We have a lot to improve. However, I'm not a magician, I'm a coach. I know, however, that I can't say I need time to play the way we want. We have to put everything together. We can't drop points, we have to win, fight, and climb to the top," concluded coach Albert Rudé.