For anybody stunned by the debut of former Stoke and Newcastle striker Joselu, who made his Spain debut as an alternative final weekend and scored twice on the age of 33, there was one other shock on Tuesday night time.
He began and though the remainder set the bar very low, he was in all probability their greatest participant as they misplaced to Scotland.
It has been 17 years since Spain misplaced a qualifier by two clear targets and alarm bells are sounding that an official striker in his fourth decade is at present the perfect they’ve to guide them into a brand new period.
First, a bit respect for Joselu. After disappointing spells in England and Germany, he returned dwelling 4 years in the past and for 4 consecutive seasons he has reached double figures for struggling groups.
He’s the perfect attacking header in LaLiga and his shot off the crossbar at Hampden was the closest Spain had come to a purpose.
Premier League flops Joselu (left) and Iago Aspas (proper) are Spain’s greatest up entrance
Alarm bells are ringing after Spain fell to a surprising defeat by the hands of Scotland on Tuesday.
He’s not the issue. The issue is that he is just about all they’ve and it may very well be exhausting to construct a brand new facet with such meager assets.
The opposite three forwards in Luis de la Fuente’s squad for the Norway-Scotland doubleheader have been Borja Iglesias, Álvaro Morata and Iago Aspas.
The Betis Borja striker has expertise however he by no means satisfied former coach Luis Enrique. Morata just isn’t all the time the primary selection at Atlético Madrid and has bother taking part in recreation after recreation on account of accidents. They’re each 30 years outdated. Aspas is 35 and has by no means had success exterior of Celta Vigo, the place he’s a membership legend.
Ansu Fati was going to be the answer to all this when he broke into the groups of Spain and Barcelona scoring targets and breaking data.
Final season he wore the quantity 10 shirt vacated by Lionel Messi, however solely began three video games (scoring 4 targets) after struggling a meniscus harm in his left knee that required three operations and sidelined him for 10 months. .
Fati has not been known as up for this squad as a result of he can’t be a part of the Barcelona group. He has solely began 9 video games this season. The daddy of the 20-year-old, Bori, was interviewed by Spanish radio Cope on Tuesday night time and spoke of eager to take his son to Sevilla on account of lack of minutes.
There may be simmering anger that the perfect younger participant to emerge from Barcelona’s youth system unexpectedly returned from harm and has since been shelved by a membership questioning if he wouldn’t be price extra to them bought than saved.
Luis de la Fuente now faces an enormous drawback constructing a brand new group round such meager assets.
Barcelona appear to view the teenager as essentially the most expendable of their younger stars and that may solely add to the instability of this profession stoop.
Spain hopes that by the following time it performs worldwide soccer, this summer time within the last 4 of the League of Nations, it’s going to have discovered some stability, however it appears unlikely.
A minimum of in different elements of the Spain squad there are younger gamers who would discover their place in a lot of the prime worldwide groups. The issue is that De La Fuente has not chosen them to date.
Gabri Veiga is the younger sensation of Spanish soccer. His 9 targets in his first full season have all of Europe on alert as a result of his launch clause is 35 million kilos (40 million euros), however it was not sufficient for De La Fuente to incorporate him in his first template.
He was picked for the Beneath 21s however later withdrew with a hamstring drawback.
Gavi and Alejandro Balde have been within the squad, however the former was neglected of the beginning eleven and the latter didn’t even make it to the bench towards Scotland.
And with right-back a problematic place, the brand new supervisor additionally ignored Spain’s greatest younger right-back, Arnau Martinez.
The 19-year-old has been excellent for Girona, however De La Fuente caught with Dani Carvajal and gave Tottenham’s Pedro Porro a second cap.
Ansu Fati has not been known as up for this Spain group as a result of he can’t enter Barcelona
Gabri Veiga (left), 20, who has 9 targets in his first full season, was snubbed by De la Fuente
With Balde, Veiga, Arnau, Gavi and the sensible however at present injured Pedri, Spain nonetheless has half of a really, superb under-21 squad. Additionally they have loads of choices in purpose with a superb Kepa changing the injured Unai Simon. .
However in a gaggle that would find yourself being deceptively troublesome with sturdy Scotland, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia-inspired Georgia and Erling Haaland-inspired Norway, Spain will not get their method and counting on official strikers will not assist their trigger.
Luis Enrique was criticized on the World Cup in Qatar for not having a Plan B.
After 180 minutes of soccer, Spain’s greatest drawback with its new supervisor is that nobody is bound what Plan A is. Or who will lead it.