Who is Marek Papszun? Profiling the serial winner linked with Sunderland job

admin | February 21, 2024 | Other Clubs | 1 Comment

Rakow Czestochowa stats

Strap yourselves in for a few months of Sunderland being linked with coaches from all over the world, with Marek Papszun apparently the first.

Back in familiar territory, Sunderland is in need of a new head coach and is being linked to a wide range of odd foreign names. Marek Papszun is the most noticeable in the early going, but who is he really?

In summary, he is a 49-year-old very accomplished Polish coach who is presently unemployed despite having guided Raków Częstochowa from the third division of Polish football to the league title in seven years.

In fact, he was a primary school teacher before getting his break in coaching. At the time, that was in the amateur sixth level of Polish football with KS Łomianki.

Sunderland fans might be forgiven for being a little wary of the career coach following the Michael Beale disaster, but it’s just a reality in football now that’s not going to change.

Marek Papszun coaching career

Marek Papszun - Sunderland linked

While Will Still is the one actually associated with the Football Manager games, Marek Papszun’s real life career would not be out of place in them.

After leading KS Łomianki to promotion, he stepped up into the Polish fourth tier with Legionovia Legionowo. He got them promoted as well before moving to Raków Częstochowa, who were then a former top division club who had suffered an alarmingly quick slide into the third tier. Sound familiar?

Within three seasons he had restored them to the Ekstraklasa, the top tier of the Polish game. Four years after that he had delivered two Polish Cups, two Polish Super Cups and one League title.

He decided to leave at the end of the 2022/23 season and has been recharging his batteries and awaiting his next opportunity since.

Since then he has been linked with Legia Warsaw, the Poland National Team and Premier League club Brighton, which usually means he has something about him. In the end, though, the Seagulls went with Roberto De Zerbi instead.

Papszun record with Raków Częstochowa

Games	Won	Drawn	Lost	Scored	Conceded	Points Per Game	Win %
288	166	63	59	491	286	1.95	57.6%

Marek Papszun style of play

Papszun has a very clear tactical identity that would appear to fit Sunderland’s squad quite well.

He is known for using a 3-4-3 system which is incredibly solid defensively and has a very intense high press.

The Pole is not a fan of possession-based football, though. His philosophy is to encourage ruthlessness in attack rather than any real patience: in essence, press like nutters and go straight for the throat.

In attack, Papszun loves to bombard the opposition with crosses and flood the box with players. In fact, the 3-4-3 of his pretty much becomes a 3-2-5 when in possession to create overloads in wide areas. The wingers become inside forwards and the wing-backs are given freedom to attack the back post.

However, he is also definitely a coach with a ‘Plan B,’ as explained by Stratos Svarnas, a Greek defender who plays for Raków Częstochowa.

Svarnas stated, “He plays 3-4-3 with two wingers and one striker at the top.” “He adds two forwards and changes the score to 3-5-2 if he is behind in the match.

“In an attempt to thwart us, other teams in Poland copied our 3-4-3 formation. He then used two strikers once more to generate more opportunities.

“In these games, one more center player aids in his 3-5-2, but generally, he preferred 3-4-3.”

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Would he be a good fit for Sunderland?

Theoretically, but it’s hard to say really, isn’t it. Papszun has never coached outside of Poland and although he did that spectacularly, it’s hard to predict how that would translate to English football.

He doesn’t seem to have any problem with playing young players, though, which would obviously be a plus here.

It’s not a matter of faces or age [with him],” Svarnas said. “If a young guy does well and sticks to his way of playing, he will play them. He has no problem with age or giving young players a chance.”

There is also the Brighton endorsement. You have to say the Seagulls are one of the smartest clubs around when it comes to recruitment, so if they were interested it’s always a good sign.

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