Vicente Del Bosque has warned his Spanish players that this evening’s friendly against Ecuador won’t be easy.
La Roja face the South Americans tonight, and the Coach has claimed that this is a chance for the younger players to impress.
“I don’t have the line-up and I won’t have it until just before the game,” he told a Press conference.
“We need to think carefully about it because 17 players are going to play and three won’t get on. I need to really think about the three who won’t play.
“Ecuador are a strong team, technically they’ve got everything. They are a settled team, who dominate in the air. It’s not going to be an easy game.
“If [the younger players] are here it’s because they are good enough to play for the full team. There are great players coming through who we’ll introduce gradually.
“That said, the group who won Euro 2012 still have time left. We’ve got a stable side, with few players over 30. This side has a good future.
“Everyone who is missing had a reason, except for Xavi, who was given a rest. The others either hadn’t trained much or were suffering from injury.
The tactician then commented on the date of the friendly, as well as his reasons behind picking three goalkeepers.
“It’s a sensitive date because the players are arriving with not many miles under their belts, they’ve not trained much and they haven’t had any competitive matches.
“But it’s the last time – this date is going to disappear from FIFA’s calendar and that won’t just affect us but all the national teams who also have players in La Liga.
“We’ve brought the three keepers because I don’t want to break the links between them. During the Confederations Cup the attention was focused on the keeper’s position because of Casillas’ situation and everything worked well.
“They get on well together, they are good team mates and I wanted that to continue. But I’ve also got an eye on the U-21s and De Gea who is a keeper who will define a generation.
“Right now I’ve no reason to change the keepers. Casillas, Valdes and Reina aren’t here because they’ve got good banter, it’s because they’re good keepers.”
