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"If you want to check the health of a team, look at how the bench celebrates goals.

The substitutes, the staff ... If you have seen the celebration of our bench, you will understand that ours is a project full of health ».

, elated after the victory against Sweden (1-0), euphoric after the return of honor to the La Cartuja stadium, eager to leave the press conference to hug his wife, he resorted to that metaphor to explain that, finally, he has what i wanted. Has a team. He doesn't want a selection. He wants a team. And it does. And today that the soccer country celebrates the passage to the Qatar World Cup, it leaves another message that does not need much translation: "Some decisions that have been crossed out as controversial were not controversial, because what they wanted was to form a team," he said. Who has not understood it yet, to return to the day that announced the list for the European Championship last summer.

The fact is that this 2021 closes for Spain with a more than worthy European Championship (eliminated in the semifinals unfairly, by penalties and against the champion), a League of Nations to which it attended with a lot of casualties and where it eliminated Italy and he tutored France and a direct qualification for the World Cup. On the day of his presentation, the coach said he wanted to return the team to the pool of candidates to win titles, which he was not then. Beyond the FIFA Ranking (in 2018 Spain was ninth and today it is seventh, little difference) the truth is that the team's performance once again places it as one of the favorites to win the World Cup. This affirmation, forceful, responds only to the facts, and is not incompatible with saying that, prey to its own essence,It is also a candidate to stay at the top of the exchange against three teams of medium hair (the draw for the World Cup, by the way, will be on March 31 of next year, after the play-offs to which teams such as Portugal have been condemned).

AFP

A team.

The whole project revolves around this term.

The union of the dressing room and the closing of the ranks of the Federation after its leader is unquestionable.

Luis Enrique commands a new, fresh project, where even injured players find reparation for their ills.

To cite just this call,

, who has been at Juventus for a horrible month, scored the qualifying goal.

, after almost two months injured and without being in shape, was the author of the previous shot, and players like

or even

seem different when they put on this shirt.

The idea of ​​the game, that immovable 4-3-3, is not negotiated, and with that Spain will go to Qatar to be the protagonist, to have the ball, to defend far from

That he, Unai Simón, continues to put his heart in the mouths of the fans, waiting for the striker to generate the first superiority ... With all that, Spain will go to play the World Cup, and it does not seem small.

«I have 40-50 players, and I am delighted.

I may have a heart attack when they are all healthy and I have to choose, but I prefer it ».

The Asturian coach, it is true, has used a lot of players since he coached Spain (81 in 36 games), but a careful look at the calls reveals that, although meritocracy, that term made fashionable by

and that He seldom applied, it is what presides over technical decisions, there is a group of footballers who form a clear base and who are always on the lists, except for injury.

19 fixed

For example, the three goalkeepers are finally clear, and the starter too. The two right-

are

and

. The two left,

and

. The centrals are

,

,

and

. The two pivots are

and

. And here, yes, some dancing begins, but not so much either.

, Koke,

and

start with all the options, and then there are other names in the bedroom such as

or

. And above, there are also four absolutely fixed:

,

, Dani Olmo and

. That leads to a total of 19 who, if they are not injured or hit a spectacular slump, will be in Qatar, and leaves five or six holes for other realities such as Morata,

,

,

,

... And some more that will come during the next year, because it is not insignificant that, a month before the World Cup, a young player, Gavi type, appears and sneaks into the starting eleven of that appointment. In fact, that is exactly what happened in Pedri's case at the last European Championship.

Luis Enrique did not want to talk about his future beyond Qatar, but until then he will have three windows to work with the team.

You might think that not having the pressure of any championship benefits him, but that is not the coach's idea.

«In the selection there are no friendlies.

Here you come to compete, to try to win and to try to play well.

And whoever gets lost is bad ”, he concluded on Sunday at La Cartuja.

The strength of the group, above all.

They confirm it from within the concentration, and it is done by someone who has been there for many years.

"There was not such a healthy environment in the dressing room since Euro 2008," confirms this source.

All behind the captain Luis Enrique, so uniting inside as a generator of passions found outside.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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• Luis Enrique

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