– Personnel situation? Patryk Janasik will be missing in Warsaw. We are going to the capital with 21 people, practically everyone is healthy.
– I really like going to Legia matches, being at this stadium. I know there’s going to be a record attendance, 30,000 people. I know that I will be well received there, because it is always like that when I appear at Łazienkowska. The fans appreciate me. For this club – as a player, assistant coach and head coach – I won a total of 25 trophies, that’s a lot, I have something to be proud of, but on Saturday it won’t matter at all. Teams with completely different goals will stand against each other. Legia won the Polish Cup and the vice-championship, Śląsk is fighting for survival. The morale of both teams is completely different, as are the goals. Our goal is for Śląsk Wrocław to stay in the Ekstraklasa.
“It is known that after each game the table changed, it was arranged completely differently. The first meetings were different from the last ones. We built, we worked, the team played completely differently, better and better, gained more and more self-confidence, which could be seen with each match. If someone said after the competition in Białystok – when we came back and there was a league round, during which we were 5 points behind the safe zone – that we would be above the line for the round before the end, everyone would take it. Today, what some people will say: “It’s a pity that we didn’t win in Bialystok, that we didn’t score a point with Radomiak, our situation would be completely different”. Any team can say that. We have to face the situation as it is. Of course, everyone has a different atmosphere and a different approach to the meeting. Some players are relaxed and free because they have practically finished the season, there is only one match left to play. Others are fighting for something. But life is so perverse that maybe those who fight for something today will sit back in a year or two and look at everyone with a smile. And those who smile today will face such a situation in two years. You always have to be yourself, be able to calmly look in the mirror. That’s what I focus on, I look at myself.
“The truth is that winning 100 percent keeps us alive. We know that. The other possibilities are so great that I don’t even look at it. I focus only on preparing the morale of the team and making this team have enough energy to believe that you can win at Łazienkowska Street. It is true that few people have done it in recent months at the Legia stadium, but this is football. On Wednesday I saw, although I don’t know how the match ended, that France played Gambia in the U-20 World Cup and lost 1-0. Everyone looked on in amazement: how is it that insignificant players win or lead against great France? Everything is possible in sport. The most important thing is courage, self-confidence, overcoming weaknesses inside yourself and in your own head, all the barriers that you have in yourself. There’s no better way to end a season than to go out and play in front of 30,000 people. The stadium will be pulsating and rumbling, we will have unbelievable cheering in our ears. There will be 1,100 fans of Śląsk who will also support us. This is a special encounter and you have to deal with it. In recent days, we have been working to make the team ready for what it may encounter in Warsaw.
– I do not know if this will be my last match as a coach of Śląsk. A year ago I could say that the meeting with Legia, after which I was released, is my last. Now we will face the capital team again, the story comes full circle. I am saying this for the third or fourth time – I left Legia after the game with the club from Wrocław, I left Silesia after the match with Warsaw. Third time lucky. I have a scheduled meeting with the mayor of the city, but at the moment I can’t talk about any specifics, because I don’t know anything. My goal is to prepare the team for the game and what happens after that, we will keep you informed.
– I spent 20 years in Legia and I know what the atmosphere at this stadium is like. I also know where teams usually lose. My role is to convince the players to the idea that we will have and to go out to the meeting as a normal match that is usually played. The pressure is inevitable. It’s a beautiful thing that we can experience such things. Years later, players will remember such a match with great fondness.
-“In today’s football, in the age of the internet, we will know the results of other games, it’s inevitable. I won’t have my phone with me, but one of my co-workers will, but we don’t want to cause any disorganization. Any moment where the bench reaction is appropriate or inappropriate, nervous or calm can affect the team. Players are to concentrate on themselves, on the game, on going out on the pitch and playing. Let’s leave the rest to the people who will sit on the bench.
“Nothing is done. It will be done if we have more points than the bottom three teams. Then we can say that. There is still a long way to go, 90 minutes plus added time to confirm the good disposition from the last days, matches, i.e. that the team is playing better and better, with greater intensity. That’s our job, that’s the most important thing. I can’t imagine a situation where any of the players will think that something has already been done, because it is not. Throughout this month we have been working hard on improving morale, mentality, game organization, running, intensity and decision making. This is certainly a plus of all this, but in sport it is here and now that counts. For us, “here and now” is on Saturday, at Łazienkowska 3, during the match between Legia and Śląsk.
– You can see and judge for yourself what our players look like, who has made progress, plays differently, smarter, better, faster, more dynamically, more consistently, is more disciplined, determined. After the season, we can talk about some things that have gone through the dressing room, but now there are other goals. The next match is the most important.
