The Karol (Świderski) Conundrum

Plus some pregame discussion with Coach Ramírez

My latest article for Queen City Nerve dropped today, and it’s got a big question for the Charlotte FC fan base: Where has Charlotte striker Karol Świderski been?

Other teams know Charlotte has built their offense around the Polish prodigy. He’s suffered 22 fouls, almost twice as many as anyone else on the squad. Only defender Guzmán Corujo and forward Christian Ortiz come close, with 12 and 10 fouls committed against them respectively. The focus from opposing defenders may be why he hasn’t scored a goal since his second against Cincinnati on March 26, seven matches ago.

He seems more frustrated on the pitch as of late. Sometimes it seems like Świderski is playing a different game, making beautiful crosses that his teammates can’t get to in time, or getting just open enough to be a threat, but not getting the ball. The midfield often struggles to get him the ball, and after a couple games where the midfield was playing well, Charlotte has started to rely on blasts from the back line to the front line to get things started — skipping the midfield entirely.

When I asked Coach Ramírez about the pressure Świderski is under, he said “Of course, always the forward and striker have this pressure to score in every single game and create chances. Also he knows that he has that DP [designated player] pressure, that’s normal and a professional soccer player needs to know and needs to live with that pressure … it pushes him to get more chances … but he’s always focusing on helping the team. He’s not selfish. He’s always thinking about winning and what’s best for the team he doesn’t care if he doesn’t score and we win.”

Coach Ramírez at Friday’s pregame (Zoom) press conference.

Coach Ramírez concluded by saying, “[Like] every striker he wants to score and we need to do our job to create and to put him in a good scenario and a good chance for him to score. It’s the job of the rest of the team [to create good chances for him].” Watch his entire answer here.

I’ll see y’all at the Montreal game tomorrow. It’s going to be a tough one, so we could really use another Świderski brace or a couple of Andre Shinyashiki jokers.