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

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

Michael Graham | Feb 20, 2024

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

Sunderland are back in familiar territory: Needing a new head coach and being linked with a whole array of strange foreign names. The most prominent in the early running is Marek Papszun, so just who is he?

Well, the short answer to that is he’s an extremely successful Polish coach whom at the age of 49, is currently out of work after leading Raków Częstochowa from the third tier of Polish football to the league title in seven years.

Since he has been linked with the Sunderland job, let’s see what else we can uncover, shall we?

'I just want the opportunity to manage Sunderland,' says former midfielder

Marek Papszun playing career

A bit like fellow supposed leading candidate for the Sunderland job Will Still, Papszun didn’t actually have a playing career.

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 — IMAGO / Newspix

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.

Rakow Czestochowa stats — Total Football Analysis

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.

“He plays 3-4-3 with two wingers and one striker at the top,” Svarnas said. “If he is behind in the score, he puts on two strikers, turns it into 3-5-2.

“Other teams in Poland did the same thing as us, copying 3-4-3 to try and stop us. When this happens, he played two strikers again to create more chances.

“One more player in the centre also helps in his 3-5-2 in these games, but in general he preferred 3-4-3.”

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.