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    Any shock in Luis Enrique's departure from Spain? | ESPN FC
    World Cup 2026

    Any shock in Luis Enrique's departure from Spain? | ESPN FC



    The ESPN FC crew reacts to Luis Enrique leaving his role as the manager of the Spanish National Team.

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    View 32 Comments

    32 Comments

    1. DDeglane16 on

      My Spain would’ve been: Simon; Carvajal, Torres, Laporte, Alba; Llorente, Rodri, Pedri; Asensio, Morata, Fati

      Can’t blame Enrique for Spain’s overall talent decline since the golden generation, but you certainly can blame him for thinking the early 2010s system of false nine, overload with creative midfielders, and little to no dynamic verticality was going to work in a major international tournament again.

    2. Robert on

      Can’t believe Stevie said he didn’t have the right tools. Enrique played Rodri at CB and Busquets at CDM….who in their right mind does that? He picks llorente at RB instead of Carvajal – a guy who’s a natural RB with great defense and who has proven at Real Madrid that he is a threat going forward. He leaves Gerard Moreno out the squad a proper #9 and takes Pablo Sarabia to be another forward instead….this man is too busy trying to be revolutionary that he makes decisions that leave you wondering what he’s thinking. SACK DESERVED

    5. VINNY on

      Let’s be real Spain is not an elite team. Only Spain fans consider this an upset. The rest of the world of like oh they lost oh well next game.

    10. CYPHER MOTE on

      The first penalty taker should ALWAYS be the guy who has scored the most goals – typically the striker. Experience is needed and a striker knows the 1000 ways to score. Lucho got lucky in 2015 with the team (and Madrid's collapse gave his talented team confidence)… but he has no record before or after 2015. Please, please let him coach an EPL team so we can put this discussion to rest. An average coach with an over inflated ego. This tournament has laid it bare. Over 1k passes and one shot on goal? Letting players pick the penalty takers in a WC decider (while going to the bench)? Come on…

    11. raiden sergi on

      As an Spaniard, the great problem of Luis Enrique is the obssesion with midfielders this time the youngest talents and not ones with experience. He didnt call the forwards and wingers with dribbling skills and with goal. Even he put a midfielder as a right back. Rodri that is defensive midfielder put as centre-back because dont trust the centre-backs that he sent.

    14. lonelyboy1977 on

      If Luis Enrique was the manager of the Women's national team he'd be allowed to be an abject failure at three international tournaments in a row, and still keep his job going into a fourth tournament, even if that means most of the squad refuse to keep playing for Spain as a consequence. 🙄

    15. George Tolofari on

      Dude needs to take a break and get right. You can see it when you look at him he has a lot on his shoulders. I hope he takes time of to recalibrate because he’s a top coach when he’s all there

    16. Roger Milla on

      If Lucho goes to Atleti with the tools they have and their (much bigger) budget nowadays – people won't know what hit 'em. Atleti has everything to regularly and seriously challenge for La Liga and make deep CL runs in Europe if they weren't being held back/plateauing under Simeone's cowardly 10 defenders setup.

      If he could make Celta Vigo as competitive as he did, Atleti will be a menace under him.

    17. Tharcisse on

      If Luis Enrique didn't have the options in attack, it's because of the squad he picked. First of all, I don't know how Balde made the squad ahead of Cucurella and many other full backs. Secondly, Carvajal and Azpi were sat on the bench watching a midfielder play horrendously in RB. And thirdly, the only real striker he brought was Morata. One of the big advantages of Spain when we won everything 10 years ago was that we brought the BEST players, which meant we could switch up by throwing on Jesus Navas for David Silva for instance. If we're low on strikers, why not bring guys like Borja Iglesias or Raúl de Tomas? They may not be world class, but they'd certainly make Morocco's team. Luis Enrique is so impractical. Look at Portugal's Gonçalo Ramos… a striker only has 1 job. People forget we used to have Fernando Llorente on the bench.

    24. ColeTrain on

      Luis is a classic Spanish manager, over time they try to be smarter than the really are and try players and formations to show it. Thinking because they are who they are that they can take any player in any formation and make it work. Luis enrique, Lopetegui, guardiola, unai emery, Ernesto valverde etc etc

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