Luis Enrique was removed from the project – Newspaper Kommersant No. 229 (7430) dated 09.12.

Defeat in the 1/8 finals of the World Cup in Qatar from the Moroccans cost Luis Enrique the post of head coach of the Spanish national team. Instead, Luis de la Fuente, who successfully coached the Spanish youth team, will try to return the titles to her, who at least will not have to get acquainted with many players, since he has already worked with them in the youth team.

Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) announced that the head coach of the national team, Luis Enrique, was dismissed. The purpose of this decision is the desire to “develop the successes achieved in recent years” and “start a new project” associated with the Spanish team.

In fact, Luis Enrique, in fact, implemented a rather ambitious project himself. He led the Spanish national team in 2018 after a very unsuccessful World Cup in Russia for her. The Spanish national team at this tournament was supposed to be coached by Julen Lopetegui, but on the eve of the opening of the championship, he left the post due to a conflict with the RFEF, which was outraged by the fact that Lopetegui had agreed to leave immediately after graduation to Real Madrid before the championship. Instead, the Spaniards in Russia supervised Fernando Hierro’s assistant. With him, the Spaniards, who were considered one of the favorites, flew out already in the 1/8 finals, losing in a penalty shootout to the Russian team. However, that misfire seemed to be the result not so much of a coaching leapfrog as of stylistic conservatism: a game based on a leisurely shuffling, at the junction of the year before last and the last decade, brought the Spanish national team two golds of the European Championships – 2008 and 2012 – and the gold of the 2010 World Cup, but at the end eventually lost its effectiveness.

Luis Enrique really produced something of a revolution. Having sharply rejuvenated the team, he instilled in it a different, more trendy manner, in which possession of the ball is not as important as the emphasis on forward movement and active pressing.

The new Spanish football caused rave reviews from experts, but did not bring the results that were expected from the Spaniards. Luis Enrique was summed up by two penalty shootouts. Last year, his team lost to the Italians in the semi-finals of the European Championship, and in Qatar at the same stage at which they lost in Russia to the Moroccans after a 0-0 draw in regular and extra time. But much more important for RFEF, it is possible, was the fact that in the match with the Moroccan team, the Spaniards, forgetting about adjustments, played about the same as four years ago in Russia, that is, endlessly passing the ball to each other far from the goal and extremely rarely approaching them.

Luis Enrique’s replacement is nine years older than the sacked coach: Luis de la Fuente is 61 years old. But at the same time, he has a modest coaching biography compared to his predecessor, who managed, say, to work hard at Barcelona. In the “club” part of her, her peak was short-lived periods when de la Fuente was trusted by Athletic and Alaves.

However, it is clear why RFEF made a choice in his favor. The fact is that for almost ten years, Luis de la Fuente led the youth and youth teams of the country – and led very well, especially if you take recent years. In 2019, the Spanish “youth team” under his leadership won the gold of the European Championship, and in 2021 – the silver of the Olympics. At the same time, she constantly supplied excellent personnel for the national team.

The undoubted advantage of the candidacy of Luis de la Fuente is that at least he will not have to get acquainted with many of her players. Unai Simon, Dani Olmo, Marco Asensio, Pedri, Carlos Soler, Pau Torres went through his youth team. In addition, interesting players played significant roles in it, whom Luis Enrique, when forming an application for the World Cup, ignored, but who may well be useful to de la Funte in his “project”, for example, flank defender Mark playing now for Chelsea Cucurella.

Alexey Dospekhov