PZPN

"I would like to thank the president and the management board for their support. I realise that I was controversial, the choice was not obvious," said Michał Probierz. "I would like you to remember that I worked for 20 years to become a head coach. I have led teams in almost 500 Ekstraklasa matches. I have led many players who are now in the national team. It is not that I am an accidental coach. I will not agree that my appointment constitutes cronyism. I believe I deserved it for my years of work. Have I not achieved success? I did not lead either Legia Warsaw or Lech Poznań. I did, however, win the Polish Cup and Polish Super Cup with teams from the middle of the standings. I am not the most important. The most important thing is the good of the national team. I want us to strive together to rebuild the national team and be proud of it. It is rare to start work and hear so many negative things about yourself. The atmosphere around the team is not very good. I ask to be given the opportunity to work in peace, so that the players are happy to come to training camps, so that we all strive for one goal: advancement," he added.

The head coach announced the opening up of the national team to the fans once again. "We want to open up to the media, to the people, we want to bring back the vlogs so that the fans can judge for themselves how everything is going in the national team. I want us to be liked. And I ask for more objectivity, because I haven't even started yet, and we already hear that it definitely won't work out," stressed the 51-year-old coach.

Asked about personnel matters, Michał Probierz stresses that no shakeup is to be expected in the national team. "We will not start a revolution and we will not sideline Robert Lewandowski in any formula. He is the captain and we will not suddenly shake everything up. On the pitch we need to take more risks and the players need to aim for duels, look for free spaces. I believe that this can be worked out. We'll do all we can to have the best possible players in the national team. The trick is to select someone who is out of the ordinary, sometimes to change a player's position, to look for something unconventional. We want the stars to shine and those next to them to match their level. There is no player who doesn't have a chance to play for the national team. All those who play in clubs can be reinforcements, can play for the national team. Wojtek Szczęsny and Robert Lewandowski are in great physical shape. We don't want to focus on whether someone is young or old. We want to have a team where one will step up for the other," stressed the head coach.

"There are generational changes in many national teams. When this national team was successful, all the players were playing in top clubs. Now we have a group that has to suffer a bit, and we need to co-opt players hungry for the opportunity to go abroad, but also to represent our country with dignity. We are not dependent on one system. I have adapted the system to the players over the years. We will play with the line-up to expose the strengths of Robert Lewandowski or Piotr Zieliński and match them with fitting players. The national team is a national asset. You can lose, but when someone looks from the side, they will say that they gave their best," he added.

The head coach's staff includes former Polish national team players Sebastian Mila and Tomasz Kuszczak. "The staff is a mixture of routine and youth. I did not want people who only say 'yes', but people who will speak their mind, say what bothers them," commented Michał Probierz.

The new coach of the White-and-Reds did not want to talk about the appointments for the matches against the Faroe Islands and Moldova for the time being, the list of which he must present in the coming days. He announced that, as before, he will be a frequent visitor to Polish stadiums, and this weekend he is travelling to Italy to watch Mateusz Łęgowski, Mateusz Wieteska and Paweł Dawidowicz in action.