Jan Bednarek highlights Poland’s flaw: “There’s a lack of communication” | OneFootball

Jan Bednarek, FC Porto centre-back and Poland international, broke down Poland’s 3-1 defeat to Sweden in the Nations League. In the aftermath of the match, he pointed to problems adapting to a three-centre-back system, a lack of cutting edge, and set pieces. Above all, he identified the defensive sin: “There was a lack of communication.”

Speaking in the mixed zone, Jan Bednarek found a national team searching for answers after taking just one point from matches against Bosnia and Herzegovina and Sweden. Poland sit third in the group and are having an underwhelming 2026 calendar year, with only one win in six matches, a scenario that made the defender’s assessment of Jan Urban’s side even more pointed.

The switch from a back four to a system with three centre-backs was at the heart of his initial analysis. Bednarek accepted the coach’s choices, but made it clear that the different tactical demands require a more rigorous collective adaptation.

“You play in a completely different way with three or four defenders, and I think we all understand that,” he said. “The coach makes the decisions and we are professionals, we have to deal with that at this level. It seems fundamental to me to have the opponent in front of you when we play with a high line. These are things that, after analysis and reflection, can be corrected relatively easily.”

Going deeper into the defensive diagnosis, the centre-back pointed to a lack of communication and limited understanding between the players.

“There was a lack of communication. If Tymek Puchacz had shouted to Kiwi [Kiwior] that someone was coming in behind, we would have dealt with the situation,” he explained. “That understanding is missing, there are new players, changes, and we have to reach the highest level more quickly.”

The picture Bednarek painted was not one of a structural flaw impossible to fix, but of a team still lacking synchronisation. Amid changes and new players, Poland need to turn tactical principles into automatic responses on the pitch more quickly.

On the ball, the Poland international saw more positive signs, especially in the team’s ability to find spaces and build in the first half. The problem came in the decisive areas, where they lacked composure, efficiency and aggression.

“We found the spaces between the lines well, it was difficult for Sweden to stop our build-up in the first half. We lacked a bit of efficiency and more calmness in the pass from the wing into the middle,” he assessed. “We get to the penalty area and we lack aggression. Gyokeres had one cross and turned it into a goal. Once again, it’s the small details, the little things in which Sweden were superior.”

The comparison with Gyokeres summed up the difference Bednarek saw in the match: Poland managed to get forward, but Sweden were more ruthless. In a game also decided by execution, the small details ended up carrying decisive weight.

Set pieces were another sensitive point, with Sweden capitalising for two goals through the work of Andreas Georgson. Bednarek knows the coach well from their Southampton days and was not surprised by the importance placed on that phase of the game.

“Yes, he is, so to speak, a set-piece fanatic and, when we worked with him, he used to say that 25% of goals in modern football come from tactical routines. I think they are aware of that. We have to learn from it,” he recalled. “It seems to me that, while defending zonally, we can assign some players to man-mark in order to block their movements. They are small things, small details, but they can help the players in the zone gain momentum and attack the ball. We are perfectly capable of correcting this and improving as a team.”

Here too, the message was one of correction rather than resignation. The centre-back proposed specific adjustments within zonal defending, insisting on the idea that improvement comes from fine-tuning details that become decisive against efficient opponents.

Romania are next up for Poland on Friday at 19:45 at PGE Narodowy. Despite the importance of the clash, Bednarek refused to turn the match into an ultimatum and preferred to focus on the possibility of combining the best from the first two games.

“There’s no point creating excessive pressure by saying it’s the game that decides everything. It’s a game worth three points and that’s what we have to focus on,” he said. “We want to bring together the best of the two matches: against Bosnia we were very good defensively, and against Sweden we created chances and built play. The key is to put all that together and produce a complete performance. I hope this third game goes our way and that we can give our fans plenty to celebrate.”

Between the solidity shown against Bosnia and Herzegovina and the ability to build play displayed against Sweden, Bednarek outlined the objective without any drama: to complete what has so far only appeared in flashes. For Poland, the desired response is to turn positive fragments into a full performance.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇵🇹 here.