The Spanish team is stuck against ultra-defensive rivals and suffers from troubling rear imbalances that condemn it in close matches
The Spanish team traveled from Prague to Geneva with a long list of tasks to solve. Luis Enrique’s side saved a last minute draw against the Czech Republic in a game in which the Asturian coach’s block had recurring flaws that he failed to overcome. Above the result, which leaves it with all options open within this League of Nations, two points behind the Central European team and Portugal, co-leaders of the group after the Portuguese thrashed Switzerland (4-0) with a double from Cristiano Ronaldo , was the most disturbing aspect of the match played at the Sinobo stadium that it fueled the doubt that La Roja has conveyed against ultra-defensive rivals capable of dealing with very little damage.
The national team reached the break of the clash at the Slavia stadium in Prague with 73% possession, which barely translated into three shots, although only one of them was on target, marking the goal of a Gavi who again delivered an extraordinary performance. showed ability to pull the cart at age 17. In the second half, he increased his number of shots to a total of twelve, four times that of the Czechs, kept his percentage in terms of ball control and tripled the number of attacks of his opponent in the calculation of the dueling. But three fleeting raids by the Central Europeans were enough to sign the tables. Two ended up at the bottom of Unai Simón’s goal. The other was lost to Kutcha who overshot the goal when he was hand-in-hand with the Athletic goalkeeper.
“We found a skewed game from the start. The first game resulted in a corner and the first part was a constant struggle to overcome their front line of pressure. It wasn’t something that would surprise us, as we knew how complicated it is to play these kinds of games outdoors. The result is what it is, I don’t think we deserved to lose. We threw and a few sticks, but we didn’t generate the usual ones,” admitted Luis Enrique, alluding to the Czechs’ so reclusive attitude and aggressiveness as determinants of their students’ traffic congestion.
It is true that in today’s football there are almost no small opponents and it must be remembered that precisely one of the goals with which the League of Nations was born was to challenge teams of similar size. But it is no less the case that Spain has serious problems deciphering the conundrum of the opponents defending with the low bloc. Combines with fluidity, but passes little through toxic areas. They lack numbers that can filter passes like Iniesta or David Silva used to do. Pedri is the closest to that profile that Luis Enrique has, but the Canary has not visited this window due to an injury and La Roja regrets his absence.
One way to get rid of this type of opponent is to hit from outside the area. And that’s where Asensio can come in handy for the Spanish team. The entry of the Real Madrid footballer improved the tone of Luis Enrique’s troops as it gave them a threat they hadn’t faced until then. The Balearic’s first shot went into the woodwork and he also assisted Iñigo Martínez in the goal that sealed the final draw. “He did a good job,” Luis Enrique agrees about one of the footballers who plays the most during these appointments in June in view of the World Cup in Qatar.
However, it was the mismatches in defense that condemned Spain in Prague. And that’s where the focus should be. Luis Enrique has shown his chest of La Roja’s good defensive work in the last week, but that equipment failed against the Czech Republic. In the locals’ first goal, it was Carvajal who was portrayed by throwing the line incorrectly and disrupting offside. In the second goal Eric García was revealed, who hadn’t closed well in the action that Kutcha squandered shortly before.
The presence of the Barça central defender in the national team is one of Luis Enrique’s most questionable decisions. He lacks strength and physique to endure the melee with the attackers, and has some concentration errors, but the coach does not get out of the car. Of course he can’t be blamed for what happened in the Sinobo stadium because, as the Spaniard recalls, defending is everyone’s responsibility, but it doesn’t radiate the reliability of Albiol or Nacho, two faster defenders that Luis Enrique has sidelined because they keep his commandments less.
Source: La Verdad
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