Spain’s iron manager to bring in a style all of his own
Luis Enrique signals end of the tiki-taka years and plays down talk of power struggle with his captain
Luis Enrique is the man tasked with rebuilding the national team of what was, for a time, the greatest football nation on earth, and if a general attitude of intensity bordering on contempt is what is required then perhaps Spain will be just fine come Euro 2020.
The new Spain manager was at Wembley yesterday evening for what could best be described as a cursory performance in the auditorium ahead of facing England – the kind of man who gave every impression he had somewhere much more important to be. That is his usual setting when it comes to the Spanish media, who had lots of questions about his relationship with Sergio Ramos, about the new rules around the camp and whether David de Gea will play in goal.
He was reluctant to answer any in depth, his no-nonsense style clearly meant to reflect the way in which he intends to manage. An extreme sports enthusiast, an iron man nonetheless, who takes training sessions from an elevated pitchside platform, often from behind a pair of sunglasses, Enrique is the iron manager who has been appointed in the hope that he can knock Spain into shape. It is a team where Ramos is still regarded as the boss and as they begin their time together as player and coach, both of them were keeping a respectful distance.
“Obviously he [Ramos] is the captain because he’s the most capped player in the team,” Enrique said. “He has a great personality and presence on the pitch. You have all seen him competing. He’s a fantastic player and a great leader on and off the pitch. I am delighted to have him and I hope he stays with us for many years.”
Ramos, who put in an appearance before training, said that he had generally “got on with strong characters” throughout his career. As for the suggestion that one of Enrique’s primary tasks was to cut back the influence of one Sergio Ramos, the Real Madrid captain dismissed it all with a shrug and a smile.
“That’s something the press said because maybe both have strong characters,” he said, “but we share the same objectives.
“I have been here many years [in the Spain team] but I feel young and eager. I want to win with this team and I want to be picked in the team with every coach I have played under.” Five in all for the 32-year-old, who was picked first under Luis Aragones in 2005 as an 18-year-old and has barely missed a game since as he has gone on to rack up 156 caps. There are clear pinch points with Enrique, a former Real Madrid player despised by the club for signing for Barcelona
‘My players have surprised me by having the best attitude since I have been their coach’
whom he also managed to a treble in 2015.
For now, however, there has just been obedient acceptance of the new Enrique rules which include a ban on mobile phones, Playstations and Ludo – a big favourite in Spain – posing the question: what exactly are these players going to do with their time? As one who likes to punish himself physically with his own training it seems that Enrique is keen for his players to share the experience and after the previous two regimes that is evidently the medicine that the Spanish football federation (RFEF) think best.
It certainly has the potential to be explosive. There are suggestions that De Gea could be dropped and replaced by Kepa Arrizabalaga and that more generally the tiki-taka years are well and truly over. Enrique said that in general terms his team would play “attacking football, keeping the ball, playing a high pressing game and dominating the match”. Which is what Gareth Southgate would like his team to do as well, and England may find their capacity to do so limited by Spain.
“We are trying to do things differently,” Enrique said. “We have been a reference in world football for a decade and everyone knows how Spain plays. So we will evolve our model and see if we can be efficient [at a new game].”
There will be no more Andres Iniesta or Gerard Pique, who are the two big names to have retired, and Jordi Alba, never a favourite of Enrique at Barcelona, has been left out. Diego Costa is missing the game for personal reasons. Even so, there is still a deep pool of talent at the disposal of the new Spain manager.
Enrique will always have his three years at Barcelona which yielded one Champions League, two league titles and three Copa del Rey. It was an unquestionable success with a team of extraordinary talents hitting their career peaks. He enjoyed relative success at Celta Vigo and is regarded to have failed at Roma. Whether his disciplinarian approach will work with a national team remains to be seen and he is working for a nation accustomed to very high standards.
The shame of Julen Lopetegui’s secret pre-world Cup Real Madrid appointment, followed by the caretaker Fernando Hierro, who generally appeared as if he was doing the job at gunpoint, has been replaced by a man who seems certain about everything. “I have no doubts about my first XI,” Enrique said. “My players have surprised me by having the best attitude and behaviour since I have been their coach.”
He said his new rules were “nothing out of the ordinary, just the same rules I have had since I was a youth team player”.
He was effusive about the experience of playing at Wembley in his first game, comparing the “adrenalin” to that of riding Catalonia’s famous Dragon Khan roller coaster, the biggest in the region. He may find out that a Saturday evening September Nations League game is not quite the white-knuckle ride he envisaged, but then this is a man who seems to make every experience as intense as he possibly can.