Spain’s transformation at Euro 2024 — What’s changed?
Spain’s performance at Euro 2020 was bemusing, to say the least. Even in their semi-final defeat to Italy, they were totally in control of the game, spurning countless chances before bowing out on penalties.
Throughout the competition, a fervent desire to pass their opponents to death left them forlorn when they couldn’t then put their adversaries to the sword. Yet exactly 1080 days later, against the side that knocked them out in 2020, La Roja cut a completely different set of figures.
Vertical, in control, objective. Euro 2024 Spain are a contrasting beast to their former selves — here’s how they’re making it happen.
Spain’s tournament opener against Croatia (47%) was the first competitive match in 16 years in which they had less possession than their opponents — the Euro 2008 final where they triumphed over Germany (46%). To play against a nation with inferior players and concede the majority of possession, isn’t very ‘Spain’.
The thing is, Luis de la Fuente’s new ideals within La Roja’s set-up, aren’t very ‘Spain’. It may not be their usual identity, but they’ve added plenty to fix the issues from the previous European Championships and look all the better for it.
Spain now emphasise verticality where appropriate and have developed creative ways to bypass the opposition that differ from their ponderous, laboured passing of old.
In the above frame, we see defender Robin Le Normand looking to pass out from the back, faced with Croatia’s passive mid-block in front of him.
He has his central option to Rodri and left and right avenues to Nacho Fernandez and Dani Carvajal blocked. Spain of old might have rotated positions in this situation, playing short passes and getting deeper with each one — inviting their Balkan opponents onto them.
Instead, Le Normand finds the forward pass into Fabian Ruiz, who creates a slipstream in-between two players in the Croatia front line.
Instead of retaining possession, on the turn, Ruiz spots the third-man run of Nico Williams on the left-hand side and picks him out with a vertical pass. This made for a creative route out of defence, dodging Croatia’s keenness to funnel play down the centre of the field.
In the instance of their opening goal of the tournament, Spain took just three passes to open up Croatia’s defence and thread Morata through — incisive.
Italy and manager Luciano Spalletti had a similar passive structure at times. They defended in a 4–1–4–1 — their assertiveness like Croatia’s.
Spain’s answer to this was to find those slipstreams into the midfield as they did against Croatia. Ruiz and Pedri would occupy those lanes, quickly turning and running towards the defence once found— the back-line exposed once these lines were bypassed.
For teams that wish to press man-for-man, Spain have an answer for that. Italy tried to match them in phases when they built up from goal kicks. They went fairly aggressively in this, pushing Riccardo Calafiori into midfield to mark Pedri — leaving a three-vs-three at the back.
Instead of trying to prise the Italians open by playing short, goalkeeper Unai Simon dumbfounded plenty by knocking the ball long. This was aimed at Morata, who came short, pulling Alessandro Bastoni out of position. The routine left the Italian back-line fragmented and with plenty of space behind the defence for Williams and Lamine Yamal to run diagonally — both have looked electric so far.
Having those two on the wings isn’t very ‘Spain’, both wingers are incredibly direct. Yamal and Williams differ from the usual wide playmaker profiles that the likes of Luis Enrique would pick for the national team. They’re capable of going two ways, towards goal or out towards the touchline — both have been used as ways to directly cut through the opposition.
The Spanish pair are the two highest-volume dribblers at the tournament and have the freedom to take on their defenders at will.
De la Fuente has the know-how to ensure teams suffer when Spain have the ball, irrespective of the pressing structure of the opposition.
That’s not to say they don’t play short, they can still do that well, managing 57% of possession against the Italians in their second game. La Roja completed 496 passes against them but demonstrated the ability to rip through their opponents at the flick of a switch.
The selection of Marc Cucurella as seemingly La Roja’s first-choice left-back was fairly surprising. It’s even more intriguing when discovering that he managed his first Spain call-up in over three years back in March.
Yet who’s been one of the most vital cogs in this Spanish team so far? Cucurella has. He’s offered de la Fuente some exciting underlapping runs to match Williams’ dynamism on the left.
The combinations down both wings have been inventive and well-coached actually. On the left side of the field, Ruiz drifts wide to try and create an overload alongside Yamal and Williams. Symmetrically, Pedri will occupy the wide spaces on the right side to link up with Carvajal and Yamal.
This helps to drag opposition players out of a deeper defensive structure. A lesson in how to free further space in the centre of the field for your other midfielders.
Spain’s capabilities out-of-possession are apparent too, in coaching these de la Fuente has found more ways to suffocate the opposition. Their aggressive structure aims to pin the opposition back from goal kicks. This helps them regain possession as quickly as possible.
When an opposition aims to play from the back, Morata leads the press as the goalkeeper looks up to pick a pass. Once the goalkeeper locks in his choice for which centre-back he goes to, the striker will block the opposite player.
The winger on that side will then aggressively press the full-back, exploiting the little angles of progression they have to work with. Both ‘number eights’ will also block off the midfield options — forcing the opposition to go long where Spain can then work the ball back.
Versatility out-of-possession can also be La Roja’s strength, in the frame above, Ruiz presses the right centre-back and Morata goes straight to the goalkeeper. Italy’s area to play in is significantly reduced to the size of the blue area. The Paris Saint-Germain midfielder wins the ball back in this situation, as Italy are too stubborn to go long.
In their opening game, Rodri was slightly sluggish in stepping up alongside Ruiz, leading them to a slightly fragmented structure. When Croatia went long, as they often did as an alternative to playing through — Spain relied on winning the first ball to avoid exploiting this.
However, in the second game, the Manchester City midfielder was much quicker to step up, reducing the gap between him and the rest of the pressing system.
Ultimately, Spain’s new brand of football has an incredibly high risk/reward element to it — particularly with the margins of international football so fine. Confidence stems from de la Fuente, though, who on the evidence given is a coach capable of adapting to game states and utilising players to fit a system rather than the other way around.
They’ve had the opportunity to test themselves against a solid international side, albeit one in a rebuilding phase and a struggling outfit of Croatia. A contrasting test may well come against Albania on Tuesday, who may not be baited into pressing as easily as their previous two opponents.
The tournament looks bright for Spain should they get through some tricky early knockout round clashes against fellow group stage impressers Germany and Portugal.
