Spanish selection: Self-criticism as therapy of a Spain of ‘Superliga”

Swiss is the next stop for the Spanish team. Luis Enrique’s team has a date in Geneva on Thursday in which it needs victory after starting this Nations League with two draws. The good news is that the goal of Iigo Martinez in Prague avoids a gap with Portugal and the Czech Republic. The bad comes from the sensations that Spain left to the East of Prague.

This Spain of Luis Enrique He showed again that he prefers to measure himself against the high nobility before the middle or lower class. “We knew that we couldn’t play against Spain the way we like, that we had to defend more and better,” he explained after the game. Jaroslav Silhavy, Czech coach. That way of playing block to Spain, something that is not the first time that happens.

With Luis Enrique On the bench, the national team has always been a powerful team against the best in the world. Even in defeat, he offered a dominant, aggressive face. Against England, in Villamarn’s 2-3 draw in October 2018, he turned around after the 0-3 break at half-time to score points in 45 minutes so as not to lose. With France, in the final of the League of Nations, he amazed by his way of treating the world champion. The two times he has played with Italy he has been better, like in the three against Portugal the victory by merits made was closer than the tie. The 6-0 to Germany is the jewel in the crown, and in Amsterdam he forced the Netherlands to raise an overwhelming Spanish start.

But when the rival is a team that takes two or three steps back and feels comfortable dominated, the stage darkens for the Spanish team. prague is not an exception. That style of match, in which a wall is raised against the selection in which they do not find a way to hurt, is repeated. Sweden, Croatia, Switzerland, Ukraine, Poland or the Czech Republic are clear examples of teams that play one thing and change it radically when the rival is Spain. “Against Switzerland, they did 30 high-pressure actions,” noted Luis Enrique after 2-2 in Prague.

Far from complaining about anything, the coach applauded the Czech team: “They have done very well, I don’t remember a team defending us so aggressively.”

Switzerland should risk

Luis Enrique knows that he must find solutions to something that is already the norm. In each outing from Spain, harsh games have been found, loaded with difficulties that have cost the world to respond to. It doesn’t just happen with second-tier teams, as is the case with the Czech. It also happens against teams from the third rung. With the exception of 1-4 at home to the Faroe Islands, Spain has had to sweat a lot to win in Romania, Kosovo, Georgia or Greece. up in front of malt cost break the match.

Equality in national team matches is a reality that affects everyone. It is not a mantra that is repeated, it is something that is seen in each window. Now it’s up to Spain play against a Switzerland that with zero points should go out and attack. But it is strange that a party similar to that of Prague is not drawn in Geneva. First, because the Swiss are specialists in that way of moving. The three games they have played against Luis Enrique’s Spain have been identical: narrow, hard-fought, short on the scoreboard (1-0 for Spain in Valdebebas and double 1-1).

In these three days GenevaLuis Enrique must turn around the way in which his team is capable of unblocking those types of games in which the rival makes the withdrawal and long balls his way of life during the 90 minutes.

It is not an easy task, especially when it is the rival who strikes first, as happened in prague. Espaa handles himself better in direct hits, but is worn down to show his weaknesses when the rival boxer starts to dance to protect in search of only two or three fatal exits. But the great boxer, the one who is capable of putting on the world champion belt, is the one who knows how to knock out any rival.

Bugs and fixes

the of prague It wasn’t the first game that this team came out crooked and tangled. But he is the one who put the level of self-criticism at a higher point. Each representative of the team that spoke in the stadium of the Slavian he did it to make clear the discontent that there was in the Spanish booth for how the duel turned out before the Czech Republic.

Louis was the first. Enrique. “From the first play we have been uncomfortable. We have lacked fluidity, depth, tilt… A bit of everything. We have many things to improve, me the first”.

The selector’s message was later picked up by the savior of a point that could be vital, Iigo Martinez: “We’re screwed, we haven’t lived up to the match”. His header is added to the agonizing goals that have gotten Spain out of trouble: those of Elm in Tbilisi and the friendly against Albania, bruise with Sweden to go to the World Cup, Gay in Germany or Gerard Moreno in Basel.

Kokethe team’s third captain, also used his thoughts for the next few hours: “We didn’t get the game we expected. Now it’s time to analyze the things we didn’t do well to improve them,” he explained to TVE at the end of the game.

group meal

After a few hours of the game at Sinobo Stadium, the players themselves were the first to understand that they had moved away from what they had been doing and that they hardly found moments in which they felt that the game was turning around them. The self-criticism before the press continued hours later among the soccer players.

In a concentration marked by the height of the season and the accumulation of matches, it was planned that the day after he would relax before flying in the afternoon (7:30 p.m.) from Prague to Geneva. Contrary to what happened in Seville, where the team stayed at the hotel the day after the game against Portugal, the team did take advantage of this Monday to go out to eat in the Czech capital.

With the night already installed in Genevathe team arrived at their hotel (Mandarin) and from Tuesday he begins to work for the match against Switzerland. I will do it on the premises of the Servette.