What could have happened if they took a few more chances? Spain might have ended up winning the Championship. Very few pundits could have thought of that before the start of the tournament.
Such was the story of Spain at the Euro 2020. Missed spot-kicks and clear cut chances, defensive mix-ups could sum up Spain's Euro campaign. While Spain must rue their missed chances, very few could dispute that their campaign was quite a success.
Spain's young squad has set the bar too high for their competitors. With the greatest show on earth around the corner, Spain must feel blessed to have a young squad that is destined only to improve.
Spain is responsible for creating more chances than any other team in the Euros. From Spain's perspective, only a few more precise finishing touches would do enough, certainly pointing at the lack of finishing prowess.
Alvaro Morata suffered from self-doubt and Gerard Moreno might think he could offer more. However, when his chances came, he couldn't capitalise either. His miss against Poland saw Spain finishing behind Sweden in group E. Spain tried Oyarzabal at front as well, but it was a futile experiment.
Since there are not many resources at their disposal, Enrique must figure out the right tactics to bring the best out of them. A glimpse of what we witnessed in the semi-final against Italy is when Alvaro Morata and Dani Olmo showed some signs of understanding they needed.
Moreno on the other hand was not the proper no 9 who would suit Enrique's system. Perhaps, Iago Aspas was denied a place in the squad on the same ground.
Luis Enrique might just stick to Alvaro Morata in the World Cup due to a lack of resources. Hence, he has a monumental task in his hands to help reduce Morata's self-doubt and improve his imposition on the field.
Spain's Midfield seems to be one of the most complete and disciplined in the world. Before their game against Italy, everyone was sceptical about how they would fare against the technicality of Italian midfield. Thanks to Busquets and Pedri duo, Spain dominated the whole game and created more goal-scoring chances compared to Italy.
Of course, the midfield will not concern Enrique much. However, the defence still remains unstable. Aymeric Laporte has performed excellently. His leadership instinct and aerial presence helped Spain a lot in the absence of Sergio Ramos.
But, the manager couldn't settle on his defensive partner. Both Pau Torres and Eric Garcia failed to impress. Now, Spain is likely to follow how Sergio Ramos expresses himself in Paris. Otherwise, the likes of Nacho and Llorente can be integrated.
Enrique made the machine out of a squad that was one of the youngest in the tournament. Pedri, especially, was a running machine, carrying the ball forward and laying the foundation of Spain attacks with incisive passes. The kid looked like the traditional Spain midfielder with a gifted ability to hold the ball and make things happen, just like Iniesta or Xavi.
As his boss reiterated, "Has anybody seen an 18 years old kid play a senior international tournament like Pedri? Not even Andres Iniesta was capable of doing that. What Pedri did just defies the logic."
Luis Enrique deserves some credit for fitting Pedri Gonzalez into the team, disregarding dissenting voices. He was right, at least in this case. The former Barcelona manager had a concrete plan before coming to the Euros.
Throughout the journey, he gathered criticisms for his selections, especially for not including any of the Real Madrid Players. But he ended up keeping all of them quiet. Because what he has achieved with this team is beyond expectations.
Since taking Spain's managerial job in 2018, Enrique has experimented with 60 different players. He wanted to play a different brand of game. Perhaps, a departure from trademark Spanish tiki-taka that Spain's golden generation boasted of.
He wanted his players to commit themselves on and off the ball, continue running and take risks when it's worth it. Therefore, he wanted a confident and commanding and cohesive unit, one of the reasons behind leaving out some of the deserving players. He admitted prior to the Euros that he didn't pick 24 best players but 24 players who apparently best fit his model.
Luis Enrique might not change his plans for the world cup next year. But, his team was average in the penalty shootouts. Once saved by the heroics of Unai Simon despite missing two penalties against Switzerland, Spain's lack of experience and leadership got exposed against a much more experienced Italy.
As the game has evolved and teams now prefer to be highly conservative in Knockout games, it's much more likely that we will get to see more of the penalty shootouts in next year's world cup. Therefore, Enrique must integrate some old faces into the team.
Tofael Mahmud studies Economics at the University of Dhaka
