The right mindset is the key

The journalists gathered at the press conference ahead of the second match of the II round of Champions League qualifications asked Maciej Skorza tons of questions. What did the coach have to say?

Rotation in the squad

Our performance against Pogon Szczecin differed completely from what we saw in the two recent matches. The changes in the squad may have influenced the result. Most of all, the whole team played poorly in defense. It cannot be forgotten that most of the changes in the squad were forced by injuries. In addition, for some of the footballers it was a debut in front of the fans from Poznan, and therefore they still haven't gotten used to the atmosphere of INEA Stadium. The autumn league round will be long and so rotations in the squad are inevitable. With time it will get easier for the new players to adapt to the team and I believe they will present themselves better with each match.

FK Sarajevo

The team from Sarajevo won't give up easily and they will aim at the next round of qualifications. We have analyzed their performances in the second legs last season, all of which Sarajevo played on the rival's home ground, and we noticed that the Bosnian team did not attack spontaneously - they fulfilled their tactics and that helped them advance to the next round. It cannot be forgotten that during one of those matches Sarajevo lost 0:7.

Most probably there will be some changes made in the squad because their captain has returned, having paused for yellow cards in the previous match.

Mindset before the game

Attitude is the key to tomorrow's match. Most probably, our loss against Pogon gave some hope to our opponent. However, if my players have the right mindset, we will advance to the next round. That's what we have been working on since yesterday. What I want to pass on to my players is that at the moment this is the match of the season for us. Every single one of them has to give his all and we cannot allow any player to be unfocused. I hope that tomorrow we will prove our superiority.

The current squad

Tomorrow for sure I will have Hamalainen and Lovrencsics at my disposal. When it comes to Linetty and Kedziora we are still waiting for the decision whether they are ready to play, or not. However, we will have to manage without Kownacki, who will be out for weeks.

We are still waiting for Paulus. I won't deny that I am disappointed with how long Paulus has been unable to play. We know how important he's been to us in the previous season and so his recovery is the priority.

We have 25 players in our squad and I believe that in 2 or 3 weeks' time most of them will be at my disposal.

FC Basel

Neither Lech, nor Sarajevo will be the favorite in the next round of the qualifications. Just because we know the rival that will be waiting in the next round does not mean that it distracts us - I believe it's the opposite. Both we and the Bosnians want to advance further because it's a dream to play against such a team as FC Basel and that surely mobilizes the players. However, we are solely focused on tomorrow's game and there is still the match on Saturday to be played.

Formation with two forwards

It's the matter of outworking the model of movement. I think that circumstances will force me to use this formation. Perhaps some people might say that Robak and Thomalla are very similar players, but I believe that each one of them has different assets. They might be an interesting pair and I hope that they will complete each other on the pitch and that next time they will play better than against Pogon.