Legia has started a series of hellishly difficult and demanding matches, clashes with the strongest in the Ekstraklasa will start to intertwine with matches in the European cups. In a few days, we have to play Pogoń Szczecin, and until the international break, Górnik Zabrze, Betis and Jagiellonia Białystok are still on the schedule. If Goncalo Feio wants to come out of this period with the shield, and not on the shield, he has to change something.
Legia was quickly verified
Feio has repeatedly stressed that he wants his players to play offensively, creatively, unyieldingly and to show great commitment. But how long is Legia supposed to rely solely on this approach? With Raków, whose plan was to disrupt at all costs, maintain a defensive formation and look for opportunities to counterattack, something more was needed. And no one among the “Army” was able to provide that.
In fact, throughout the entire 90 minutes, there was not a single action in which we had a flash of creativity from Luquinhas or Bartosz Kapustka. Both played boringly, schematically, adapting to Rakow's formation. They had a big problem finding space for better and more surprising plays. The striker duo turned out to be a complete failure. You could argue that the entire quartet couldn't cope. Migouel Alfarela was lucky not to be sent off. Jean-Pierre Nsame – without any specific situation. The changes of Tomas Pekhart and Marek Guala did not bring much. The Spaniard has been out of form for over a month.
If there is no one in the attack who could shift into a higher gear, then it is no wonder that Legia did not score a single goal against Częstochowa. Raków defends worse from set pieces, but they did not manage to use even that – although here one could say that they lacked luck.
Legia's Sunday match with the previous Polish champions revealed certain deficiencies in Feio's skills – when a match is closed and unattractive, he lacks a specific plan “B”. It is true that the Portuguese argued that “at some moments we played with a different system”, but it is clear that switching from one formation to another, depending on the match result, is not something natural for the players.
– We finished the game with a different system, a rather risky scenario. The fact that we lower the game in such moments as we do is not just that. We work a lot on different solutions every day – Feio convinced at the post-match press conference.
The defensive play also left something to be desired. The problems were obvious and immediate corrective action is needed to avoid so many simple mistakes. But improving the offensive play in such matches is also important.
Legia with the syndrome of a ruthless perfectionist
The defeat at the start of the marathon of hits meant that the Legia players were already under great pressure from the fans, who demand that the machine be perfectly oiled for such clashes as with Raków. At times it could be nice when Legia's game showed dynamics. This is one of the foundations of Feio's philosophy. But moments on Łazienkowska are not enough, especially in the case of a team that has championship aspirations but has not yet shown the right quality.
The Legionnaires were already leaving for the locker room amidst loud boos. And there's no wonder – there's a hunger for trophies, a huge need to be at the top, and even one defeat makes you uncertain, and doubts appear whether you'll manage to do it.
Michał Żyro, in an interview with Sport.pl before the match, emphasized that the players need to be given time. – I myself experienced several players in the locker room who had quality, but were completely unable to adapt to Legia's requirements. There were also those who needed a moment to acclimatize, and later became stars of the league. At first, they did not confirm their class, but as soon as they understood the specifics of Legia, they felt more confident, they immediately became leaders of the team – he emphasized.
The characteristic of today's Legia is that there is not much time to acclimatize, you have to be ready to fight for the highest goals as soon as possible, and not implement yourself endlessly. On the one hand, this is understandable, on the other it can be a threat and a problem. There is a risk that something will suddenly fall apart, burn out. Maybe something in the approach has to change.
Legia is perfectionism, sometimes ruthless, which is why Feio has a difficult task ahead of him – to find the golden mean. Proposing a dozen or so tactical solutions at once during training and demanding that everyone learns them by heart within a week or two is not a good solution. On the other hand, there is the method of small steps and learning from mistakes – but these steps cannot be too small, and you cannot constantly learn from the same mistakes.
The match with Pogoń Szczecin is on September 20, so there is relatively little time for improvements. But knowing Feio's approach, we can expect that he will be able to work something out at the start with “Portowcy”.