Spain
- Thread starter Jenks
- Start date
FinBarcelonafan
Well-known member
FinBarcelonafan
Well-known member
Not sure why De Gea was so far from the net. Garbage game from Spain, they created very few real chances.
Sterlingfan2000
Active member
Spain looks like Barcelona without Messi. Lots of Possession but no goal threat
Messi983
Senior Member
Which really says more about how good their previous teams were imo.
What's currently going on with Spain is totally normal. Every NT must go through a rebuilding phase at one time when they have to replace their aging players but overall this NT is still easily a top 10 team in the world.
Their main problem is they haven't produced a true world class striker over the last decade to replace aging/retired from NT Villa and Torres. Midfield is still good but not as dominant anymore they could continue to play with a false 9. Likes of Morata and Paco actually have quite good NT stats but quality wise they're far from prime Villa or Torres and none of them seems to be prioritised by Lucho at the moment. Things could still change but with Rodrigo as their main striker (on paper) Spain won't do much at Euro.
Other position of weakness is a CB. Which will be even more evident in a few years when Ramos will leave and they'll need to find a new leader of the defense and a whole team. This new generation doesn't seem to have any inspiring mentally tough youngsters but someone will need to take things in his hands when needed.
Another, more short-term problem I see is Lucho still trying out so many new players. Euro will be here soon and I think he should select his best XI (with 4-5 subs) and start to play those players (whoever they are in his mind) together so they can gel as a team. In NT football you're working on a limited time and you can't play with almost entirely different lineup in every game. If you look at France or Portugal I'm sure Deschamps and Fernando Santos would easily name 9 or 10 players set in their mind if they would need to play Euro/WC final tomorrow. If you'd ask Lucho the same question his answer would probably be Ramos and 10 others, lol. In his current call up there were 18 (including Gerard Moreno who got injured and left the team in the meantime) out of 23 players with 15 or less caps. All of this 8 months before Euro starts and with probably only 5-6 games still to be played before that.
As said before I understand this as a part of the rebuilding process but OTOH you can't win building a team like this. Maybe for Euro 2024 (if they'll find a striker until then) but not for Euro next year and probably also not for Qatar 2022.
Sure to an extent, but the truth is this current squad is mediocre AF. Basically no world class players. Their biggest star except for Ramos is Thiago who at 29 y/o has 39 caps.
Looking at the current squad there's an age group that's missing, it's the players who came up when Xavi and the guys were the bosses.
Some have full on not been good enough, but others could have contributed with their experience.
De Gea, Carvajal and Thiago are those who are still there. Then you have players like Isco, Koke, Saul who should take a spot in this squad.
Luis Enrique's favourite Alba is still the best Spanish LB and could probably have Azpi as well for some much needed experience.
Asensio could provide some danger in attack too.
But the truth is many of the supposed future starters who were successful with U21 have been disappointing.
I looked through some older squads to see what 'youngsters' were there, they would basically be as much of squad players now as they were then: Nacho, Bartra, Odriozola, Vazquez, Bellerin and Morata.
Joan
Well-known member
Robert Sanchez, Brighton GK.
Your type?
Glad to see Pedri. Hope he gets time on the pitch.
te amo barca
Blaugrana al vent
Porro in the first team? A surprise. Looks like he's been playing well at Sporting. He is also the only right back called up? Weird.
Last edited:
Messi983
Senior Member
Your type?
Glad to see Pedri. Hope he gets time on the pitch.
Haha, no. It's the first time I've heard about him.
Yeah, he's been doing well.
Carvajal and Roberto are injured, don't know why Navas wasn't called up. He's probably just rested since he was dealing with some injuries. Marcos Llorente can potentially play as a RB I think. Well, at least he's very versatile.
Home of Barca Fans
