Show your working to get the credit
Something didn’t quite add up in the morning after Spain’s defeat to Scotland. The excuses that were put together by a taskforce of party spokespeople, sorry players, followed the same line, yet didn’t wash with the press or the public. The world is going through a particularly painful process of learning to filter out disinformation, and Rodri Hernández, Luis de la Fuente and David García did not make it through that screen on Tuesday night. Or as Matt Clark put it, ‘Sorry lads, no one is fooled.’
Those declarations could have been put down to the heat of the moment or frustration. Yet the concerning thing is that 48 hours later, Joselu Mató was still singing from the same hymn sheet. He told Onda Cero and then Cadena SER that things might have gone differently had they only been given a penalty or if one of their chances gone in. De la Fuente has three months to brood on his first experience as Spain manager. Come his next appearance, he will be asked for a response, but also to show a coherent argument behind his hypothesis.
De la Fuente is not Luis Enrique, that much could not be clearer. It has not gone unnoticed that calls from the press to include Iago Aspas, García and Nacho Fernández were all listened to, while Pablo Beltrán Rius felt it was no coincidence that Luis Enrique’s big screen and scaffolding at Las Rozas were both gone.
Even if the Asturian was oft pilloried by the press, he has a CV behind him that he can point to and shrug, ‘well what would you know about winning trebles?’ De la Fuente does have youth titles to his name, but as he is learning, the senior side compete in an entirely different atmosphere both on the pitch and off it.
He might have come into the job with plenty of well-wishing, but the press have no loyalty to him either. Marca and Diario AS took out editorial pieces on what exactly de la Fuente didn’t do, while the usually less irate in tone Relevo highlighted just the ‘seven major mistakes’ that de la Fuente made.
After the match de la Fuente could provide neither rhyme nor reason as to why he had made eight changes to the side that beat Norway. The formation was similar, but the players involved meant that surely he was seeking something vastly different? Joselu for Álvaro Morata, Mikel Oyarzabal for Gavi, Dani Ceballos for Aspas, José Gayá for Alejandro Balde, Yéremy Pino for Dani Olmo - the only thing most of these players have in common is their position.
Returning to the Espanyol hitman, Joselu then declared that Scotland had ‘changed system, we expected them to play with four in defence but they used three central defenders.’ A statement that will perplex even a casual Tartan Army follower.
Within Scotland, the great debate for multiple years was how to fit both Kieran Tierney and Andy Robertson into the same side, with Steve Clarke inventing the three/five at the back formation specifically to deal with that issue. It has been the most defined change he has made to Scotland.
In the last 23 Scotland fixtures over the last two years, Scotland have played a back four on three occasions. Those all occurred over one international break in September, but Clarke reverted to his norm against Cyprus on Saturday previously. The common denonimator, other than time, in the use of the back four? An injury to Robertson.
It’s a pair of pink 90s rave sunglasses shattering your Pablo Picasso. An addition to the picture so absurd it’s hard to focus on anything else. If de la Fuente can be accused of complacency against Scotland, it’s a sentence he should plead guilty to - the alternative is an incompetence that should not be present in elite football management.
While Italy in the Nations League is far from an ideal scenario to return in, Spain’s new coach does have the chance to go away and reassess for a couple of months out of the spotlight.
When he returns, he must prepared with a side that can show coherent concepts on the pitch. After the match, de la Fuente needs sound arguments to back up his decisions. The players need to know the why they were successful or not, chance, grass and gamesmanship notwithstanding, and the work behind the answers must be clear. Otherwise the vultures and the vermin will be out for him, as Luis Enrique would put it.