Luis Enrique admits he would have left out one Spain player for World Cup in hindsight

Former Spain manager Luis Enrique did not have a farewell press conference following the end of his reign at La Roja, and on Monday night, he gave his first public appearance on a Twitch stream with Ibai Llanos.

‘Lucho’ was on typical form, prepared to be jovial and honest with Ibai, assessing Spain’s performance at the World Cup and speaking about his future. He also highlighted one player that he saw a lot of himself in.

Llanos asked Luis Enrique if would have made any changes, or done anything differently with his World Cup squad.

“I’ll be honest with you. I would make one change. I’m not going to make it public, but I would take one out and bring another.”

“My personal feeling is that there is one other player I would have liked to have taken, and another that, it isn’t that he behaved badly, but I did not see what I expected.”

Anything beyond this point is speculation, however there is one player that seems to stand out more than others. After the squad was selected, Luis Enrique admitted that there was one player that he had doubts about selecting until the last minute, eventually choosing Barcelona’s Ansu Fati over Real Betis’ Borja Iglesias.

The Barcelona youngster has undeniable talent, but doubts about his recovery and fitness linger. Fati has completed 90 minutes just once this season at club level and for Spain, Ansu saw just 44 minutes. His impact was barely felt when he did get on.

Equally, Eric Garcia, Hugo Guillamon and Yeremy Pino all failed to make the pitch at the World Cup, of the outfield players. Pablo Sarabia was the only other player to play less than Ansu, but Luis Enrique would go on to declare that not giving him more minutes was his biggest regret.

Tags 2022 World Cup Ansu Fati Barcelona Luis Enrique Spain La Roja
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