We have been linked with Polish striker Pawel Brozek this week. In the last two seasons Brozek has scored 23 in 27 and 19 in 27 (30 game seasons) as Wisla Krakow have dominated the Polish league.
2007-08
| 1 | Wisła Kraków (C) | 30 | 24 | 5 | 1 | 68 | 18 | +50 | 77 |
2008-9
| 1 | Wisła Kraków (C) | 30 | 19 | 7 | 4 | 53 | 21 | +32 | 64 |
Top scorers 07-08
- 23 goals
- 16 goals
Top scorers 08-09
- 19 goals
- 14 goals
In short he’s been top scorer in the league and scored a third of his team’s goals. And the thing that interests me is that his team have only conceded 18 and 21 goals along the way, which gives their goal difference a Man Utd/Chelsea/Liverpool type shape:
| 1 | Manchester United (C) | 38 | 28 | 6 | 4 | 68 | 24 | +44 | 90 | UEFA Champions League 2009–10 Group stage |
| 2 | Liverpool | 38 | 25 | 11 | 2 | 77 | 27 | +50 | 86 | |
| 3 | Chelsea | 38 | 25 | 8 | 5 | 68 | 24 | +44 | 83 |
From this we can see that Wisla are a very good side I think, neither emphasising attack nor defence. Further to all this, the Polish league doesn’t appear especially “open”, with most teams quite tight in defence and nobody conceding more than 46 goals and plenty of teams a lot less than that.
P |
Team |
Pld |
W |
D |
L |
GF |
GA |
GD | Pts |
Qualification or relegation | Head-to-head |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wisła Kraków (C) | 30 | 19 | 7 | 4 | 53 | 21 | +32 | 64 | UEFA Champions League 2009–10 Second qualifying round | |
| 2 | Legia Warsaw | 30 | 18 | 7 | 5 | 52 | 17 | +35 | 61 | UEFA Europa League 2009–10 Second qualifying round | |
| 3 | Lech Poznań | 30 | 16 | 11 | 3 | 51 | 24 | +27 | 59 | UEFA Europa League 2009–10 Third qualifying round 1 | |
| 4 | Polonia Warsaw | 30 | 15 | 9 | 6 | 40 | 23 | +17 | 54 | UEFA Europa League 2009–10 First qualifying round | GKS 1–2 PWA PWA 1–0 GKS |
| 5 | GKS Bełchatów | 30 | 17 | 3 | 10 | 40 | 28 | +12 | 54 | ||
| 6 | Śląsk Wrocław | 30 | 11 | 12 | 7 | 40 | 34 | +6 | 45 | ||
| 7 | Polonia Bytom | 30 | 10 | 5 | 15 | 30 | 46 | −16 | 35 | ||
| 8 | Jagiellonia Białystok | 30 | 9 | 7 | 14 | 28 | 34 | −6 | 34 | JAG 1–0 RUC RUC 0–0 JAG |
|
| 9 | Ruch Chorzów | 30 | 9 | 7 | 14 | 22 | 32 | −10 | 34 | ||
| 10 | Piast Gliwice | 30 | 9 | 6 | 15 | 17 | 26 | −9 | 33 | ||
| 11 | Lechia Gdańsk | 30 | 9 | 5 | 16 | 30 | 44 | −14 | 32 | ODR 1–0 LGD LGD 3–1 ODR |
|
| 12 | Odra Wodzisław | 30 | 8 | 8 | 14 | 23 | 40 | −17 | 32 | ||
| 13 | Arka Gdynia | 30 | 7 | 9 | 14 | 27 | 39 | −12 | 30 | ARK 2–1 CRA CRA 0–0 ARK |
|
| 14 | Cracovia Kraków | 30 | 7 | 9 | 14 | 24 | 40 | −16 | 30 | Relegation play-offs | |
| 15 | Górnik Zabrze | 30 | 7 | 8 | 15 | 20 | 33 | −13 | 29 | Relegation to First League 2009-10 |
|
| 16 | ŁKS Łódź | 30 | 10 | 5 | 15 | 27 | 43 | −16 | 352 |
Paweł Brożek
So what we appear to have is a player who is top scorer in a league where scoring isn’t that easy, is delivering the goods for the best team in the league, and has done this twice in a row. Intriguing.
Incidentally, note the contrast with the above and the 2006-07 Heerenveen/Alfonso Alves season:
Heerenveen finished fifth:
| 5 | Heerenveen | 34 | 16 | 7 | 11 | 60 | 43 | +17 | 55 |
Their defence wasn’t great, their attack nothing out of the ordinary (not when you’re conceding over a goal a game), and that year the Eredivisie featured 2.99 goals per game, the most in Europe. To be fair to Alves, his 34 goals is impressive, but then again, people have always scored goals in Holland:
There are some big names on that list, but not every player has turned out to be the success their goals would suggest they might be. Clearly this is second guessing of the worst kind, picking an obvious example while showing why it might not have been a good idea, but hopefully the general thrust of what I’m saying has a bit of substance. I’m not saying for a minute that you could look at the above and say that Alves was doomed to be a bad buy and that Brozek will work out, but it’s all this kind of stuff that needs to be factored in.
(The French league intrigues me, incidentally, having traditionally been the hardest to score in in Europe.)
So anyway I’d be curious about Brozek. When I initially heard his name I assumed he’d been filling his boots in a wide open league, but having had a rummage around I don’t think that’s necessarily the case (although we must note that the standard of opposition is relatively low).
Fascinating look and analysis at Brozek.
There’s a massive Polish community in West London as well, so he might help fill some empty seats.
Comment by Bad Andy — July 5, 2009 @ 1:51 pm |
[...] put up an excellent analysis of Brozek’s goalscoring exploits – he found the net 42 times over the last two seasons [...]
Pingback by » Blog Archive » Fulham in talks with Brozek — July 7, 2009 @ 7:38 am |
Whenever I start to question a move for a player like this, I just remind myself to trust in Hodgson’s judgement. This approach is obviously not very exciting for blogs or message boards.
The big question is what is our squad going to look like at the end of this window? Zamora seems like he’s on his way to join Bullard at Hull with Hangeland, Dempsey & Schwarzer all in various stages of contract disputes.
Comment by George H — July 7, 2009 @ 5:52 pm |
Having seen your stats and the YouTube footage on HammyEnd.com I like the look of this guy. He looks to be a real finisher, with a good touch and good balance. I know he’d be unlikely to get as many goal scoring opportunities at Fulham, but reckon he’d convert a much higher percentage than Zamora, Gera or almost any other player we have at present.
Crouch would undoubtedly make a big contribution too, but I do worry about the effect of paying one star player way above what the others are earning. Would the great togetherness and team spirit of last season start to be eroded?
Comment by Nick Johnson — July 7, 2009 @ 6:35 pm |