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Wisła Kraków has recently found a recipe for beating current Polish league champion, nevertheless, they are not going to rest on their laurels. Tuesday was a regeneration day, but on Wednesday the team showed up in the training camp in Myślenice to take part in training session preceded by pre-training talk.

After warming-up, with use of coordination hurdles and training poles, and running for a few minutes, they went on to train with the ball. The aim of the first exercise, made in pairs, was to improve receiving accuracy and proper foot positioning.

The training’s main focus was on task games, and more precisely possession based games. Though it was not an exercise to be done in accordance with adopted standards. This time the players were divided into two teams and were instructed to move within a square, outside of which, on the opposite sides, there were two pairs of players: one from the blue team and one from the red one.

Working on counter-pressing

The rotation of the players took place every time a player outside the square, who acted also as an inbounder, got the ball. A neutral player who could help both sides was Tomasz Cywka, who wore the captain’s armband in the game against Wisła Płock.

This task not only helps to work on keeping the ball but also, on using counter-pressing system, that consists in trying to win the ball back instantly after the loss. Players’ acts are oriented toward tackling the ball immediately and the term of counter-pressing, that describes the transitional phase between defence and attack, is gaining more and more importance in modern football.

Counter-pressing is used by the teams that prefer positional attack and feel comfortable having the ball. Recently, the ones that have used this system were the teams led by Juergen Klopp or Pep Guardiola. Therefore, what counts is the time of reaction, approaching fast the rival with ball and cutting off pass lines. All White Star players’ moves were characterised by great intensity and combativeness.

Zoom on the goalkeepers

Wisła goalkeepers worked under the watchful eye of coach Artur Łaciak. An additional member of this training team was Kacper Loranc, who on daily basis plays in the Central Youth League. Goalkeepers coach decided on exercises that improve footwork and coordination.

Footballers that hadn’t played in Płock and those that had played only few minutes stayed on the pitch a bit longer. Also, in the training took part Kamil Wojtkowski who came back after an injury.   

K. Biedrzycka
Wisła Kraków Press Office