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Spain’s previous two World Cup campaigns were contrasting in nature. They won the World Cup in 2010 and four years later, they had a disastrous defence of their title by being knocked out in the Group stage.
Many key players from those squads including Xavi, Xabi Alonso, Iker Casillas, David Villa and Fernando Torres have retired from international football or the sport as a whole while several others are no longer in the national team picture. However, the likes of Gerard Pique and Sergio Ramos continue to be a mainstay of the La Furia Roja.
Spain’s depth in quality is incredible! For example, there are five Spaniards in the Chelsea squad and yet, only one of them will travel with the Spain team to Russia for the World Cup!
In this scenario, we picked out a Spain XI, that will not be travelling to Russia for the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
Goalkeeper: Sergio Rico
Sevilla’s Sergio Rico was Spain’s third-choice goalkeeper for Euro 2016 behind Iker Casillas and David De Gea.
The 24-year-old has been Sevilla’s first choice goalkeeper for four seasons now and has played close to 150 games for the club already.
However, despite the retirement of Iker Casillas, there is no place for Rico in the World Cup squad as Julen Lopetegui has gone with the veteran Pepe Reina and the 23-year-old Kepa Arrizabalaga of Athletic Bilbao as backup keepers to David De Gea.
Reina has been picked after helping Napoli mount an unlikely title race and his experience could also be a factor behind his selection. Kepa, on the other hand, could be the future #1 for Spain although there are plenty of years left in De Gea’s career.
Fullbacks: Hector Bellerin and Marcos Alonso
It is no secret that Spain’s first choice fullbacks are Dani Carvajal and Jordi Alba, so the only question was which players will travel to Russia as the backup brigade and the honour went to Álvaro Odriozola of Real Sociedad and Nacho Monreal of Arsenal.
While one of Arsenal’s Spanish fullbacks, Nacho Monreal, made the cut, the other, Hector Bellerin, has been left out. The former La Masia player made 47 appearances for the Gunners this season, which is the most he has made for the Gunners in a single season but his erratic form has drawn criticism at times.
The left-back position in this left out XI also goes to a Premier League full-back from another London giant - Marcos Alonso.
Alonso was called up to the Spain squad in March for the very first time and made his debut during the same international break against Argentina in a 6-1 friendly. Interestingly, Nacho Monreal was left out from that squad and yet, the Arsenal man has earned his place in the World Cup squad after a terrific season for Arsenal while Alonso misses out despite being named in the PFA Team of the Year.
Centre-backs: Marc Bartra and Inigo Martinez
The central defence is one area of the pitch Spain could have trouble in the coming years because Sergio Ramos and Gerard Pique are on the wrong side of the 30s and there are no other Spanish defenders who can match their level at the moment.
Unsurprisingly, Ramos and Pique are part of the travelling squad along with Nacho Fernandez and Cesar Azpilicueta.
This is one area of the pitch where Lopetegui didn’t have a lot of options to choose from and the only two notable exclusions are that of Marc Bartra and Inigo Martinez.
Bartra completed a move to Real Betis in January 2018 and played a big role as the club finished 6th and qualified for next season's Europa League. However, his late push for a World Cup berth wasn’t successful.
Inigo Martinez, on the other hand, hasn’t been able to build on his 4 caps for Spain since 2016. He was linked with a move to Barcelona last summer, but instead, he moved to Athletic Bilbao in January as a replacement for the outgoing Aymeric Laporte.
Martinez is a top defender, but the fact that he hasn’t played for Spain since 2016 indicates that he doesn’t feature in Lopetegui’s plans yet.
Midfielders: Javi Martinez, Cesc Fabregas and Luis Alberto
This is one area of the pitch where Spain have a plethora of options. The midfielders Lopetegui has picked for the World Cup are Andres Iniesta, Koke, Isco, Thiago Alcantara, Saul Niguez, David Silva and Sergio Busquets.
To be fair, all of the abovementioned players have earned their place in the squad not just based on their form in the recent domestic season, but also based on their performance for the national team.
The quality of Spain’s midfield is highlighted by the fact that Atletico Madrid captain, Gabi, has never been capped at the senior level and also, despite stating that, we have not been able to include him in this XI!
Javi Martinez of Bayern Munich is one of the biggest names missing in midfield. His inclusion makes more sense because of his versatility and experience at the highest level. However, believe it or not, he hasn’t played for Spain since 2014!
Martinez is a World Cup and Euro winning player although he had a squad role at both tournaments. He thrived in the defensive midfield role under Jupp Heynckes during Bayern Munich’s treble-winning season. He played predominantly as a centre-back under Pep Guardiola and Carlo Ancelotti but returned to his midfield role this season after Heynckes took over.
Cesc Fabregas is another World Cup and Euro winning midfielder who has been left out of the World Cup squad. Fabregas, unlike Martinez, has won the Euro in 2008 and 2012 and played a crucial role during their period of domination.
The Chelsea man, like many of his club mates, has had an on and off season despite winning the FA Cup.
Fabregas has 110 caps for Spain, which puts him eight in the all-time appearance list for Spain. Aged 31, he has more time to climb up that list, but unfortunately, he will not be doing so in Russia during the FIFA World Cup.
Completing the midfield is a player who in stark contrast to Fabregas has only one senior cap to his name - Luis Alberto.
For many years Luis Alberto was remembered as a Liverpool flop who spent one season at the club as a peripheral figure. He moved to Lazio last season and endured a disappointing first season. However, this season, he stepped up massively and enjoyed a dream season.
He scored 11 goals and assisted 14 more in the Serie A for a Lazio team that ended the season as the top scoring side in the division! His 14 assists are the highest in the division and also the third highest in Europe’s top 5 leagues behind Kevin de Bruyne and Leroy Sane.
In all competitions, Alberto had 12 goals and 19 assists to his name which is a spectacular return for a midfielder.
Forwards: Jose Callejon, Alvaro Morata and Pedro Rodriguez
The three forwards in this list have previously played for either Real Madrid or Barcelona after graduating from their academy but it would be fair to say that Diego Costa, Iago Aspas, Rodrigo Moreno and Lucas Vazquez have rightfully earned their place.
Jose Callejon has been one of the first names on Napoli’s team sheet since he arrived in 2013 and it is evident from the fact that, he has played 188 out a maximum possible 190 league games for the Serie A side in five seasons!
In all competitions, he has played 257 games for the club predominantly as a right-sided winger and has an incredible return of 75 goals and 50 assists. He had a return of exactly 10 goals and 10 assists this season in the Serie A.
Despite his consistency at club level, Callejon has only been capped by Spain five times and hence it comes as no surprise that he has been left out of the squad.
Like Callejon, Morata is another Castilla product in this XI.
Morata has 13 goals in 23 games for Span of which he scored 12 in 17 games across 2016 and 2017. This suggests that he was clearly in the manager’s plans for the FIFA World Cup but a poor season with Chelsea has ended with him losing his World Cup spot to Valencia’s versatile Rodrigo Moreno who scored 19 goals this season.
Moreno’s tally of 19 goals in 44 games is four more than Morata’s return of 15 goals despite the latter playing four games more.
Completing the XI, is another Chelsea forward, Pedro Rodriguez who is also a World Cup and Euro winner. The former Barcelona man has 67 caps for Spain and he has 17 goals in those games.
Pedro has struggled since his move to Chelsea although he had a good season in 2016-17 when Chelsea won the league title. This season, he has been vastly utilized as a squad member as he has made only 17 starts in the league for a Chelsea side that had its fair share of goalscoring issues.
The 30-year-old’s gradual dip in form in recent years and the emergence of young talent like Marco Asensio in recent years means that he is unlikely to feature for Spain in the near future.
