The goalkeeper is a key area for every side and Poland are no exception as they have a few shot-stoppers that could do the job in the present and moving into the future.
Poland have used Wojciech Szczesny and Lukasz Fabianski as the duo that rotates in goal. The experienced pair have been the two that get the most game time for the national team from all the goalkeepers.
With Paulo
Sousa now in the driving seat of the Polish national team, he will have a tough choice on his hands whether he wants to change the squad a little and give the experience to other goalkeepers or whether he sticks with the big guns.
These five goalkeepers will definitely be in the running to be the number one for their national side and will want to gain the trust of their new manager.
Wojciech Szczesny
The 30-year-old shot-stopper has managed to get his career back on the right path after a few costly incidents that saw him leave Arsenal and subsequently make the move to Italy.
With Roma, he kept eight clean sheets in his first season and in his second kept 14. That tally was the highest number of clean sheets the goalkeeper has kept since 2013/14 where he kept 16 with Arsenal in the Premier League.
In every season since his move to Turin with Juventus, Szczesny has made 11 clean sheets in Serie A in each of his last three seasons.
With Juve, he has made 119 appearances conceding 104 goals and keeping 50 clean sheets as he remains a firm main-stay in the Serie A giants side.
This season, he has played in 14 out of 18 games for Juventus in Serie A conceding 16 goals and only being able to keep two clean sheets with the Italian Champions sat in fifth-place.
Szczesny will be hoping that he can keep the number one jersey, but challenges from other goalkeepers around him will mean that he needs to turn Juve’s fortunes around with more vital clean sheets and to most importantly keep the goal conceded tally down.
Lukasz Fabianski
Fabianski has played in the Premier League since 2007/08 after he joined Arsenal from Legia Warszawa. 14 matches was the most he got to play in one season of Premier League action for the Gunners as his compatriot Szczesny was ahead of him in the pecking order.
His best season since his move away from the Gunners was in his first season at Swansea with the goalkeeper playing 37 Premier League matches conceding 46 goals and keeping 13 clean sheets in the process.
The now 35-year-old was sent off during that season which was the only red card he has been given in his whole career.
This season, Fabianski’s West ham side have been on a charge in the Premier League and see themselves challenging for the top six at the moment.
Managing 19 out of 20 league appearances this season, he’s conceded 24 goals and kept six clean sheets, the same total he managed last season in 25 matches in the league.
The very-experienced Polish goalkeeper has a very good chance at retaining his spot in the Poland set-up and may even push Szczesny to the side if he continues performing so well at club level.
Lukasz Skorupski
A goalkeeper that has declined in his quality over the last two years is Bologna goalkeeper Lukasz Skorupski. The shot-stopper has not been the same since 2018/19 as he concedes goals left, right and centre.
Combining last season and this season, he kept four clean sheets in Serie A and shipped 85 goals in 50 appearances for I Rossoblù.
2012/13 was probably the best season for the 29-year-old as he played his second season in the Ekstraklasa for Gornik Zabrze.
29 appearances, 29 goals conceded and nine clean sheets saw Skorupski perform tremendously as he secured a move to Italy which didn’t pan out well with AS Roma.
He’s definitely one of the goalkeepers that will be in with a shot of being in the national team but compared to Fabianski and Szczesny he is a long way off them.
Skorupski may need to seek for a move elsewhere to get his final moments of his goalkeeping career back on track and if he wants to add onto his four Poland appearances so far.
Kamil Gikiewicz
Gikiewicz has been a consistent performer for the last few years in goal whether it is in Bundesliga 2 or if it is in the German top flight.
His two seasons for second division side Eintracht Braunschweig saw him make 66 league appearances, conceding 75 goals and keeping 21 clean sheets in the two seasons he spent at the club.
He wasn’t able to make an impact in the Bundesliga after he moved from Braunschweig to Freiburg and saw a chance at Union Berlin which he took very well.
In 36 appearances in the second division, including the Play-Offs that Union did win, he conceded 35 goals and kept 16 clean sheets as the Polish goalkeeper played an instrumental part in the promotion-winning side.
The 33-year-old also managed a goal and an assist in the season with the goal coming in a 2-2 draw against 1.FC Heidenheim 1846.
Now playing for Augsburg in the Bundesliga, he has played 19 league matches this season having conceded 30 goals and kept four clean sheets. In the pecking order, he looks to have a better chance that Skorupski currently with the form the Bundesliga goalkeeper is in and could boost his chances if he can keep the consistency up.
Bartlomiej Dragowski
One for the future that can definitely feel like he can push for the Polish national team is 23-year-old Bartlomiej Dragowski.
2014/15 and 2015/16 saw the young shot-stopper keep 20 clean sheets across the two seasons for Jagellonia Bialystok as he made his move to Italy like two of the goalkeepers in this list.
He kept eight clean sheets last season in 31 matches as he looks to smash that record for his side Fiorentina having collected five this season.
Dragowski is definitely one for the future as he looks to continue his rise and make his way into the Poland set-up ahead of Szczesny, Fabianski, Skorupski and Gikiewicz.
His one and only appearance for the national side came in October 2020 in a 5-1 win against Finland. If he was to hold onto the clean sheet, it would have capped off a fantastic performance in his debut for the side.
With the goalkeeper only being 23, he has the best chance of being an influential player in the next five to ten years as he will continue to rise and prove his worth with the potential he holds.
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