Rafał Janicki: We lacked effectiveness
After the final whistle of Sunday's match, Rafał Janicki was among those who answered journalists' questions. Below is a transcript of the experienced defender's responses.
Disappointed with one point?
- Well yes, clearly dropping two points, I think it was visible on the pitch that we were controlling the game, creating those chances, but the second goal just wouldn't go in. It's a shame because over 20 shots, there were quite a few dangerous situations, and yet we're the ones conceding, they were in our penalty area twice - that definitely hurts.
Eleventh round, you already have two goals to your name and are you on track for your scoring record?
- No, that's not the most important thing, what matters more is that we collect points, today that didn't happen, but if on Tuesday we advance (to the next round of the STS Puchar Polski) then I'll take that without hesitation.
Look, tell me what was missing because you scored a goal, the match was going great and suddenly out of nowhere they score a goal.
What was missing? Well, generally speaking, I'd say effectiveness. And on that conceded goal? Katsantonis was shooting, I think I blocked it, then there was a loose ball, Hugo Vallejo was closing in. It's hard to defend against that, a deflected ball that just goes in and that's it. It's a shame, a shame because they didn't create such dangerous situations, they didn't threaten us too much, and we conceded a goal. So we just need to maybe score one more goal and work on that effectiveness.
— Rafał Janicki, Górnik's defender
Rafał, I wanted to ask you about something, because okay, maybe they didn't create many chances, but their attacks, when you look at them from the outside, are really dangerous, they're fast, creative. How does it look from your perspective?
- We were prepared for that, it's not like Piast can't play football. We had an analysis, we know about their strengths, we know they can sit back and wait for a counter-attack, we know that those offensive players don't defend and it's hard to set up against them. I think we controlled it reasonably well, they managed to break out a few times here and there, but I think for most of the match we had it under control. We were prepared for it, because the fact that they can play football is shown by their recent results.
You could have pulled a few more points ahead of Legia, it didn't happen, but it's also known that this league is competitive, and there will be more of those different kinds of matches.
- I don't look at it that way, we just focus, well today it didn't work out, now on Friday we have a match against Widzew and that's what we're focusing on, whatever the table shows. I said somewhere recently on Liga+, that the end of the season will verify that. I think there's no point in looking at what's happening right now, because it's not important.
That STS Polish Cup match against Piast in Gliwice will obviously look completely different, do you think?
It seems to me that it might be similar, they can play football, it's hard to take the ball from them when they play from the back. You have to be careful up front, because they have creative offensive players. We're going there to advance, last year showed that to reach the final you have to beat strong teams along the way and we're facing a strong team in the first round, and away from home at that. Hopefully luck will be on our side and we'll see what time brings.
