Nine hundred and sixty-seven successful passes, and a single shot on target in a hundred and twenty minutes for zero goals: this is the terrible acknowledgment of failure of a scheme seen and again reviewed on Tuesday for Spain, which ended up causing his loss twelve years after hoisting him to the top of the world.

"My players have perfectly represented my idea of ​​football," hammered Luis Enrique at the final whistle, clinging to a game plan that an entire country now deplores.

"Spain succumbs, with a lot of possession for nothing," headlined the Spanish generalist daily El Pais on Wednesday.

“The Spain of neither-nor: neither spark, nor ideas, nor goal”, abounded on its front page its competitor ABC.

"Sometimes frustrating"

This Spanish style of play, praised by the greatest coaches in the world and carried by Xavi, Iniesta and the former stars of La Roja twelve years ago in South Africa, was still praised by the Moroccan coach Walid Regragui the eve of the meeting.

Spanish players Alvaro Morata (center) and Nico Williams fail to score against Morocco, in Al-Rayyan, December 6, 2022 © KARIM JAAFAR / AFP

"This team has been playing the same way for 15-20 years, with high possession, + tiki-taka +, with always talented players in midfield. They want the ball, they don't let it go. opponent, and their behavior never changes on a pitch. If you change their shirts, you will still know that it is Spain who are playing. I really like this culture", complimented Regragui before the match, referring however " a possession that hurts the opponent, but also hurts the public", who quickly get tired of this sterile possession.

But this pattern of play, which allowed the Spaniards to score seven goals against a modest Costa Rican selection at the start, then deprived La Roja of verticality against Germany (1-1) to end up losing momentum significantly against Japan (2-1 defeat) then Morocco.

"We tried to tire them, to move them to try to find a space. We succeeded a few times, but we missed that pinch of luck in the last pass or the last shot", lamented the captain Sergio Busquets, sole survivor of the 2010 world champion team on the pitch on Tuesday.

Spanish striker Ferran Torres looks for the opening in vain in the defense of Morocco at the Education City stadium, December 6, 2022 © MANAN VATSYAYANA / AFP

"We expected to find eleven guys holed up behind, like almost every game. It's complicated, sometimes frustrating," even scolded La Roja central defender Rodri on the Spanish channel TVE after the game.

"When you work every day with a precise idea, that you carry it out well and that it does not work... We cannot speak of disappointment", tempered Marcos Llorente.

Luis Enrique, on the way out?

On average during the World Cup-2022, Spain totaled 955 passes per game... but since their coronation in 2010, the Spaniards have won only three matches in three editions of the World Cup, against Australia (3 -0 in 2014), Iran (1-0 in 2018) and Costa Rica (7-0 in 2022).

Coach Luis Enrique after the loss of Spain, eliminated by Morocco in Al-Rayyan, west of Doha, December 6, 2022 © KARIM JAAFAR / AFP

Is it time for coach Luis Enrique, who returned to the helm in 2019, to leave the reins of La Roja?

"If there is someone responsible, it's me," assumed the technician on Tuesday in the passageways of the Education City Stadium, ensuring that "from next week, quietly, when the president (Luis Rubiales, editor's note) will consider it appropriate, we will discuss the future".

According to the press, the name of his successor is already beginning to circulate in the corridors of the Spanish federation: Marcelino, ex-coach of Sevilla, Villarreal, Valencia and Athletic Bilbao with a less radical profile, no longer has a job and patiently waits his turn.

© 2022 AFP