Spain coach Luis de la Fuente has come in for some significant criticism already following defeat to Scotland, depsite it being just his second game in charge of the national team.
As Cadena SER point out, his predecessor Luis Enrique never lost a match by more than one goal in his 44 matches in charge, but it has taken de la Fuente just two games.
While they, like most outlets, acknowledged that it was too early to make a definitive judgement on de la Fuente’s Spain, they did criticise the ‘zero personality’ of the Spanish side. Miguel Martin Talavera would go on to say that while Vicente del Bosque knew how to build on Luis Aragones’ work before him, de la Fuente was trying to differentiate himself from Luis Enrique too much.
Meanwhile Relevo, which tends to cut a slightly more measured tone, released an article highlighting 7 major mistakes made by de la Fuente. Jose Luis Guerrero also pointed out that there was too much desire to separate himself from Luis Enrique, no reaction to the first setback, and making 8 changes to the side that beat Norway, without that being a perfect performance either.
Guerrero went on to highlight the defensive fragility, the lack of self-criticism and the desire to give everyone minutes, which was a priority of his during his time in the Spanish youth categories. ‘Maybe he didn’t understand the enormity of the media reaction to the defeat’, the article continued, before also comparing the criticism that Luis Enrique received for picking his favoured players, while de la Fuente also used the likes of Dani Ceballos and Mikel Oyarzabal, trusted favourites of his with the under-21 side.
Things are not set to get easier for de la Fuente, with the Nations League semi-final ahead against Italy in June. Should that go poorly, he will find himself under heavy pressure early on in his Spain cycle with the senior side.
