#WISTYC: Coaching Duo

On Friday evening, the FORTUNA 1 Liga returned to the Round of 22, but without success for Wisła, who had to cope with defeat. After the match, coaches Dariusz Banasik and Albert Rudé met with journalists.

Albert Rudé - Wisla Kraków

"From my point of view, we tried to take control of the match by playing the ball, but it didn't work because we weren't precise. The opponent wanted to capitalize on our mistakes and launch counterattacks, and we couldn't counter them. They were better at that. They controlled the match through the open spaces on the pitch. They waited for our mistakes, took the ball and attacked with multiple players, also attacked the spaces and crossed the ball into the penalty area. We tried to change that in the second half. Finally, we had some time, some space to organize better attacks. We looked better, we had our chances to score. However, we couldn't score. The opponent defended very well. I have to give credit to the opponents, they defended very well throughout the match. In the second half, they changed their defending style, played more compactly. They weren't as aggressive as in the first half. We weren't able to score a goal, when you can't score a goal, nothing changes. The opponent's mentality was very strong throughout." and in the end we lost very important three points," began the White Star coach. "The biggest changes in a match come from goals. You score, and that changes everything. When you don't score, everything stays the same. What's more, when you're chasing a result, the mentality of the team that's ahead grows with every passing minute, while the team that's losing weakens. Especially in the second half, we had chances to score, and that would have been a real game-changer for us. However, we didn't manage to score, and the opponent felt victory was getting closer. They have a lot of strong, tall players, so it was difficult for us to create a threat from our set pieces," he continued.

Jakub Krzyżanowski was missing from the matchday squad. What was the reason for his absence? "Krzyżanowski wasn't 100 percent ready after the last match, where he suffered a blow to the leg. So we decided to leave him out of the matchday squad for the match against GKS Tychy," he said.

Miki Villar, on the other hand, did not finish the match due to injury: "As for Miki, we have to wait for the test results. He felt something in the muscle when he took off for the ball. We have to wait for the test results," he announced.

Journalists asked the coach whether he should give more Poles a chance to play, and he replied: "I don't differentiate between our locker room and people from Spain, Poland, or any other country. I see the people in the locker room and try to choose the best eleven to get us closer to the three points. Sometimes the decision will be good, sometimes bad, but I won't make decisions based on such things. This is football, the people in the locker room, interpersonal relationships, and we as a coaching staff have to choose the best of them. We have some experienced players, some younger players – if needed, we'll field them too."

For the White Star coach, Friday's match was his debut at R22. How does it make him feel? "I think the fans are very supportive of us. It's hard to expect them to be happy that we're losing at home. It was a very important match for them as well. I'm not happy about it. I don't expect the fans to be happy. The fans supported us, tried to help us win, especially in the final minutes of the match, when we were pressing our opponents. They also gave their all. My job is to meet their expectations. You can't be satisfied after a match like that," he said.

According to the media, the Krakow team played their actions too slowly. "I agree that at times we played too slowly in this match. Our opponents waited for our mistakes to launch a quick counterattack. They did it very well. They were better at it than us. Thanks to this type of play, they created scoring opportunities. We need to learn from today's match. I will work on this and analyze this match to be better prepared in the next ones," he assured. "We had clear scoring opportunities and weren't able to capitalize on them. Maybe six or seven. We made bad decisions in them – when we needed to shoot, we passed, and when we needed to pass, we shot. And when you make mistakes like that, it can lead to a counterattack. We talked about it at half-time. I told the players that if they want to avoid being forced back across the pitch on counterattacks, they need to make better decisions in front of goal. I think it worked. In the second half, there were fewer counterattacks from the opponent – ​​except, of course, in the final moments of the match, when we attacked with our whole team. It's normal for the opponent to be able to exploit empty spaces," concluded coach Albert Rudé.

Dariusz Banasik – GKS Tychy

"Let me start by saying that we have three points, first and foremost. Our team – looking at the first league – is playing very well. However, away from home, things don't always go well. We simply worked on that. Today we faced a very difficult opponent, Wisła Kraków. A very – you could even say – media-heavy team with very high aspirations, but I think we were very well prepared for this match mentally. Last week, we played a very difficult away match. 450 kilometers in one direction, 450 kilometers in the other. We had little time to recover, and we were wondering how the team would physically look today. However, I think everything looked very good, and of course we're very happy with that. As for the course of the match, I think it was evenly matched. You could say that after scoring the first goal, we could have countered Wisła. We had several chances, even 4-on-1, 4-on-2, and 3-on-2 opportunities, but we didn't succeed." Of course, the home team also had some interesting situations that they could have turned into goals, but as is often the case in football, you also need to be lucky at certain moments and in certain elements," he began. "In the second half, we knew that Wisła was a team that would press very hard, especially towards the end of the match, and that they would be looking to draw or even get something more. We were a little worried about the final result, but the team played very well. Our goalkeeper, whom I would also like to congratulate today because it's his birthday, also played very well, and the whole team deserved words of praise. Finally, I told the players earlier in the locker room that these two away games for us – against Górnik Łęczna and Wisła Kraków – would be major tests to see if we were mentally ready to fight for direct promotion. Today's match showed that we weren't scared of Wisła; we won for the second time against this team. We have six points, and we're happy with that. I think this result and today's match definitely fill us with optimism and show that we will be a team that will be in the fight for promotion until the end," he added.