Vicente Del Bosque Faces Tough Decisions as Spain Enter Period of Transition

Spain is in transition, and there’s nothing wrong with that. The only trouble is that I’m not convinced that coach Vicente del Bosque knows what form that transition should take.

To be fair to del Bosque, he has—kind of—been here before, having changed around 50 per cent of his squad between the 2008 European final in Vienna and the 2012 version in Kiev.

But then, it was just the names that changed while the idea remained the same and revolved around a certain Xavi Hernandez, and Xavi, as we all know, is no longer there.

Now what you have is a more confused situation that combines players who still want to pass the ball around and keep possession—with the new kids on the block who look more at running into space, running off the ball and countering.

The problem is exacerbated by the fact that even if del Bosque was clear in his own mind what his new philosophy should be, it’s unlikely that he will ever have enough time with the players to allow him to prepare a team that will run with it.

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Actually it is a problem not dissimilar to the one that Barcelona are experiencing at the moment. The bottom line is when you have a collection of players who have been coached in a particular style—and what’s more, coached in it extremely well—the only way to change the system is to change the players.

Del Bosque is in danger of falling between two stools by compromising, although the long qualifying period will at least give him ample opportunity to decide who he believes is capable of bearing the pressure of history and expectation that these days fall on the shoulders of any Spanish player selected to pull on the red shirt.

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So who have we got then? In comes Celta Vigo’s Nolito, or to give him his full title Manuel Agudo Duran and Napoli’s Jose Callejon, both strikers who have been converted into wingers, as well as out-and-out Juventus striker Alvaro Morata.

All are players who look for and work in spaces, and who always work well both with and without the ball.

Malaga’s Ignacio Camacho comes in, probably to compete with the likes of Bruno for a place as a defensive midfielder after Busquets and Iturraspe.

Selections such as these add grist to the mill to those who would have you believe that it is now very easy to get into the Spanish side, and that as a result, the value of the shirt has been cheapened.

I believe that to be a statement as unfair as it is untrue and a perfect illustration of the dilemma that faced the Spanish coach when he chose his squad for the World Cup: Damned if he did make changes, damned if he didn’t.

Del Bosque made his choices, and while he probably got it wrong, he can at least say that he got it wrong for all the right reasons.

This time around, del Bosque is well aware that he will never know who is worthy of the shirt unless he tries them, and the fact of the matter is if he looking to play a quick, transitional, countering type of game, he’s going to need new people.

With that comes the inescapable eventuality that he is going to have to bite his lip and set about clearing out many of the tried and trusted.

Just like Luis Enrique at Barcelona, he is going to have to be brave, positive and define exactly what he wants. Failing that, he’s going to have to hope that on any given day, at any given moment, he will have certain individuals in his side who can get him out of jail.

First up is a European qualifier against Belarus on Saturday and a friendly against Germany the following Tuesday. With Busquets struggling with a groin problem, and both Cesc Fabregas and Diego Costa out, it will be interesting to see his starting line-up.