Spain national team manager, Vicente del Bosque, is ready to make some changes in the starting XI heading into their next match on Wednesday against Chile. The Chilean national team showed up to their matchup with Australia in wild fashion, scoring two goals in the first 15 minutes of play. Alexis Sanchez was too fast and good on the ball for the Australian defense, but many players on Spain’s team already know that.
Jordi Alba, a teammate of Sanchez at Barcelona FC, will be the likely option at left-back with the role of covering Sanchez. Alba knows his style of play and should be better able to cover Sanchez than Robben who made the Spanish defense look like a high school team.
Spain aren’t out by any means and know they have to go into their matchup with Chile determined and ready to win. Del Bosque is eager to get going and get Spain back to their winning ways
“It was a hard defeat,” Del Bosque told reporters after the match, “but step by step we are accepting that it isn’t a crucial loss. We hope to move on for the next match with all respect to Chile, who also want to qualify for the next stage. Of course there will be some changes, but I don’t want to make any rash decisions, I have until Wednesday to decide who will be dropped. There’s no need to single anybody out, we have 23 players available and we’ll find the best possible solution.”
A big controversial issue since Saturday’s game is if Casillas’ poor performance would result in him being benched ahead of their next game, however, the manager is standing by his captain.
“Iker showed proof of his captaincy with the national team yesterday,” Del Bosque said. “When I arrived in the dressing room he was talking to all the team – who were in a solemn silence – and he blames himself but at the same time he knows that all of us are guilty.“
“Iker knows there’s a lot of people in Spain behind us, he acted as a captain, he gave a positive and useful speech,” he added
Casillas is coming off a wild season in which he barely played. On the contrary David de Gea, keeper for Manchester United, was the first team option for the entire season, winning player of the season for his club.
Perhaps, Spain should just revert to their usual false-9 formation and drop Diego Costa, whose brightest moment came in the 26th minute when he won a penalty for Spain. Other than that, he was hardly useful. He showed signs of hesitation as he approached the Dutch net and seemed to be seriously affected by the boos from the Brazilian crowd.
Del Bosque, however, thought otherwise about his striker.
“I don’t think Diego Costa was affected by the atmosphere in the stands,” he said. “Spain are with him and he’s motivated for being here.
We’ll see Wednesday if he sticks with Costa in the starting lineup and play a 4-5-1 formation. While probably detrimental to the team, if Costa can somehow find his scoring touch, he’ll be a very deadly force to deal with.
