Coaching duo: #WISSTA

In Round 17, Wisła Kraków shared the points with Stal Rzeszów. After the match, the coaches of both teams, Marek Zub and Mariusz Jop, met with journalists.

Marek Zub - Stal Rzeszów

"I'll put it very typically – it's an important point for us. We knew it would be difficult, considering recent results and the way Wisła has been playing lately. We were perfectly aware that we would have to, as they often say in such situations, suffer defensively. And look for opportunities on counterattacks and set pieces. The scenario was fulfilled. Therefore, at the end of the round, in the situation we're in, and also looking at Wisła's form, which clearly shows they are a class team and certainly didn't start the season well, they gained momentum in the final stages of the round, and therefore this point I'm talking about now is very valuable to us. We prepared carefully for what happened on the pitch. You definitely have to count on a certain amount of luck in such a situation, although I rarely use that term in football, because hitting the post or having the ball cleared by a defender from the goal line is simply a missed opportunity. "Interestingly, this most advantageous situation seems to me to have occurred practically in the final seconds of the match and could have tipped the scales in Wisła's favor. However, it was also a missed opportunity for the hosts, giving us an important point in this final round of the autumn round. We are also just shy of Wisła in the first league standings, and if I were to sum up anything from the last round, I would consider a draw a good result," the visiting coach began.

Has the Rzeszów team set a goal for the near future? "There is a goal. We want to finish in the top six by the end of the season. That's a very specific goal, and I think it's realistic. And what happens next? The history of the recent Ekstraklasa playoffs shows that you simply have to be in the top six. Wisła, in fact, probably has an example from two years ago of a playoff match here, and you're probably still suffering the consequences. That's why we want to be in the top six, to be among the teams with a chance of promotion. And considering the length of the season and analyzing the last two seasons in the first league and the playoffs, it's clear that it's absolutely not the favorites, not those who dominate the competition, who will directly and easily advance to the Ekstraklasa. We're counting on that, but above all, we're looking at ourselves. We're trying to raise our level, and we have a lot to work on," he added.

Mariusz Jop - Wisla Kraków

"When you draw at home, it's definitely disappointing, there's a sense of dissatisfaction, and that's how we feel after the match. I think we started the match well overall. Stal Stal were waiting for their chances on the counterattack. They converted one of those counterattacks into a goal. Of course, there were a lot of them, but they managed to score. Then there was a beautiful goal from "Zwolak." The score was level at halftime, and in the second half, we had several chances we couldn't convert into goals. Unfortunately, sometimes there are days when the ball, instead of going from post to goal, ends up somewhere in the penalty area. Today was the day when we struggled to score that second goal, and as I said, we're definitely feeling a lot of disappointment, because we really need these points," said coach Jop.

According to one journalist, Wisła's play was imprecise, a point the coach disagreed with: "I wouldn't say it was a match with a lot of inaccuracies, because in some matches we had significantly more of those losses. However, when it comes to Stal, yes, we knew they were an intense team that worked well, and were good in duels. In their low defense, they were sometimes very flat, and it's not easy to create chances in a positional attack. At times, we were a bit of a nuisance in the penalty area, where one player was stealing the ball from another player. We also had a few good chances after set pieces that we should have converted – at least one of them – into a goal. However, building a positional attack is a difficult process, and today we broke through several times in the wide areas and looked for those solutions. As I said earlier – it's disappointing; we're not scoring goals, we're not converting those chances into goals, and unfortunately, we're not getting the three points because the opponent has one real scoring chance somewhere, which they turn into a goal."

The points Wisła has dropped could be crucial in the final count. "Of course, they might be missing later, but I'm not focusing too much on the table right now, because we still have a long way to go. And just as I wasn't focusing on them when I started working here, I'm not focusing on them now. I think the time for such a review will be at the end of this year. And then we'll look at the table and see what the team has achieved since my time as head coach, so I think there will be time for such a broader review. However, of course, they might be missing at the end; that's a rather natural thing," he said.

Bartosz Jaroch has been plagued by some health issues. "He didn't have any during preparation. He indicated he felt a bit tired in his biceps. He'll have tests on Saturday. He has a doctor's appointment at 11 a.m., as does "Zwolak," who also grabbed his biceps near the end, so we'll see tomorrow. It doesn't look like any serious situations, or any serious injuries. It's more of a precautionary move by the players," concluded coach Mariusz Jop.