Spain World Cup 2022 squad guide: Pass masters still lacking that finishing touch

Luis Enrique’s team will be comfortable on the ball, will dominate possession, and should create plenty of chances — whether they take many of them is a different matter…

The manager

Very few managers have overperformed the way Luis Enrique has with Spain and still been under quite so much media scrutiny.

Spain have been one of the final four teams standing in the last three tournaments they’ve competed in – two Nations Leagues and Euro 2020. And yet there are still plenty of Luis Enrique haters out there.

Not that the Spain manager cares too much: his only obsession is to win, and if that requires him acting as a lightning rod for criticism, so be it. If anything, he prefers it that way.

“I don’t read nor listen to anything discussed in the media,” he stated to the assembled press ahead of last October’s Nations League semi-final win over new European champions Italy. “I’m not even interested, because I know way more about football than you. As I don’t read anything, my squad list is the same every time: the 23 footballers best-equipped to win the next game.”

The thing about Luis Enrique is that he’s normally right.

He was questioned over the selection of Alvaro Morata as his preferred striker at Euro 2020; Morata ended up as Spain’s top scorer in the competition, hitting three goals on their run to the semi-finals. The media complained about Luis Enrique trusting Pedri Gonzalez as a starter at the same tournament; the 19-year-old was named its best young player by UEFA.

More recently, no one understood why Pablo Gavi was selected for that Nations League semi-final against Italy; Spain won, and Gavi was named man of the match.

He may not have the sensitive touch some players and journalists would appreciate, but he is the absolute leader of the Spain set-up and his stern mentorship has had a crucial impact in the dressing room. He has assembled a team in the truest sense of the word by letting his players know their manager will defend them against anything.

Luis Enrique has a close relationship with his players (Photo: Getty)

The household name you haven’t heard of yet

Gavi is the latest off Spain’s production line of attacking midfielders and offers the side an other-worldly ability to keep the ball and break the lines.

The 18-year-old will be hoping to fill in the footsteps of his Barcelona team-mate Pedri Gonzalez and establish himself as a mainstay on the international stage in what is his first senior tournament.

Not that Gavi is an unknown as he heads to Qatar. In recent months he won the Kopa Trophy, for the best player in football aged under 21, and the 2022 Golden Boy, for the best youngster playing in Europe, surpassing the likes of Jude Bellingham and Jamal Musiala.

Before that, Gavi had become Spain’s youngest-ever goalscorer at 17 years and 304 days old when he netted in a 2-2 draw with the Czech Republic. He broke the record his Barcelona team-mate Ansu Fati had set the previous year by exactly a week.

There is a sense there is a lot more to come.

“I have the feeling that Gavi is still an unknown footballer in Spain,” Luis Enrique said in June. “Gavi is not just a player who runs, fights and provides the team with an elite off-the-ball performance. On the ball, he’s such a special player. A classic attacking midfielder who knows where to get the ball between the lines, shape his body in the right manner and get assists and goals. His physical condition is also outstanding. At 18, he’s a unique footballer.”

Expect Gavi to be a starter at the World Cup alongside Pedri and Sergio Busquets. And expect to enjoy watching him.

Strengths

Spain haven’t strayed from their tried and tested possession-driven approach under Luis Enrique. The 52-year-old has made sure the control of the ball is deemed paramount.

In the 2022-23 Nations League’s group stage, Spain were the team with the most passes attempted (4,498), most passes successfully completed (4,025) and highest pass accuracy (90.2 per cent). In second place, a long way behind, were Belgium with 3,506 completed passes across their six matches.

In past years, that kind of control of the ball hasn’t always translated to good attacking play, but this version of Spain are getting better at working the ball forward with purpose. Only France (263) registered more attacks than their 259 out of the 16 teams in the League A of the Nations League.

In the last two years, Spain have faced European forces such as France, the Netherlands, Italy, Portugal and Germany, and they have often left the field having created more than their opponents.

This Spain may not be unstoppable like the 2008-12 vintage that won two Euros and a World Cup, but they have a different edge.

Weaknesses

Spain may be good at keeping the ball and moving it up the pitch, but the problems begin when they get to the penalty area.

Despite those impressive possession and passing stats, Spain were 38th in the Nations League when it came to actually mustering a shot at goal – 57 in total, 23 on target, across six matches.

Alvaro Morata will again be their first-choice striker, despite having scored just two club goals since early September. The other forwards in the squad haven’t fared any better, with Ferran Torres having scored just two La Liga goals for Barcelona this season, Leipzig’s Dani Olmo only returning from injury in the past month, and Pablo Sarabia barely playing at Paris Saint-Germain.

There will be problems in the back line too, where Aymeric Laporte will be joined by either Eric Garcia or Pau Torres, both of whom are yet to look assured at international level.

Alvaro Morata will be under pressure to find the net in Qatar (Photo: Getty)

Local knowledge

Expect some weird and interesting coaching methods.

Luis Enrique has not been afraid to experiment on the approach to his job, to the extent that as soon as he assumed his role as the national team manager, he demanded to build a scaffold next to Spain’s training pitch at Las Rozas, Spain’s FA headquarters. From there, he oversees every training session from a higher and more suitable angle for tactical analysis.

Last September, the manager brought his game to the next level. While following training sessions from his scaffold, he also opted to try out a new walkie-talkie system.

Spain’s coaching staff attached a walkie-talkie to each player’s heart rate tracker. The result was Luis Enrique being able to communicate directly with each individual player, correct their movements in-game and give new instructions. It is still to be confirmed which of these tools he will be using in Qatar.

The most recent tweak on his managerial approach has not been on the pitch – it will actually take place in front of a computer. After the first pre-tournament training session with the team, Luis Enrique revealed on Twitter that he would become a streamer during the World Cup. Yes, you read that correctly. A streamer.

“My intention is to stream while we are in Qatar,” the Spain coach said. “I think I’ll start the very first day we get to Doha. It might be a crazy idea but I feel it can be very exciting. We want to create a straight and close bond with all football fans interested in the team.

“Our stories will be told from my point of view, and from my staff’s angle too. It will show a more natural side of the team, spontaneous and interesting.”

The news caused quite a splash in the Spanish press, who once again had been caught out by a surprise move by the national team manager. It’s definitely going to be worth tuning in.

Expectations back home

There will be parts of the Spanish media that will consider anything short of winning the World Cup a failure – an opinion influenced by Luis Enrique’s spikiness towards the press-pack. One thing everyone will agree on is that they simply must do better than 2018, when they were knocked out in the last 16 and, of course, 2014, when the defending world champions didn’t get past the group stage.

The media have given up in their attempts to influence Luis Enrique’s selections, but they won’t hesitate to stick the knife in if the team don’t reach the quarter-finals.

Don’t expect riots in the streets, though.

There is an acceptance that this is a period of transition for Spain and there are likely to be far greater successes to come in future tournaments.

(Main graphic — photo: Getty Images/design: Sam Richardson)