Lucho, be prepared
To the amusement of many Luis Enrique haters, Spain is officially out of the World Cup after falling to a rock solid Moroccan side that cancelled out Spain’s attack.
Morocco proved once again that sitting back tends to work pretty well against Spain’s style of play. Lucho found no answers to split their defence open, despite a slight improvement after bringing in Nico Williams and Álvaro Morata.
Then came the penalty shoot-out which proved that no matter how much you practice at home, you’ll never be able to recreate the feeling of pressure you experience at a World Cup.
In the press conference after the match Lucho said that he needed some time to think about his future before making a final decision, hinting he’d be happy to continue but that he wants whatever is best for the national team.
Meanwhile, part of the Spanish press (mainly from Madrid) will make the most of this failure to influence Luis Rubiales and have the RFEF (Spanish FA) find a replacement.
In fact, the day before the match against Morocco there was already a destabilising article insinuating he could easily be replaced soon. The content of the article wasn’t berating but the headline “The countdown for Luis Enrique has already been activated”, which is what most people read, wasn’t precisely encouraging before a crucial game.
Those who were extremely critical toward Lucho’s squad selections, his streaming sessions and his straightforward replies at the press conferences, will now have enough ammunition to get back at him. They’ll be sure to remind us how they were right to question his decisions. Because let’s not forget that there have been a lot of Spanish football fans, some surely influenced by the press, that have cheered against Spain just because they disliked Lucho and his decision-making.
Although the truth is Luis Enrique has to take certain blame for Spain’s elimination from the World Cup. It comes with the job. Furthermore, during the match against Morocco he was incapable of changing the teams dynamic and providing the right solutions to defeat his opponent.
He was also the one who picked the penalty shooters which ultimately missed. Although, to be fair, Pablo Sarabia had scored 16 out of 16 pens in his career, Carlos Soler tends to be a reliable shooter for Valencia and Sergio Busquets was probably the more experienced player to show up for the team. They seemed like the right choices, but unfortunately it just wasn’t meant to be.
But criticism is a big part of being Spain’s manager and Lucho will have to get ready to deal with all the blowback that’s surely coming his way.