Forwards are not scoring enough and Luis Enrique’s substitutes do not offer variety, leaving Spain fearing an early exit
“I don’t know what to say, honestly,” Álvaro Morata said, saying quite a lot. He had scored the opening goal he and they had so badly needed, running to the touchline and embracing the manager who had defended him, but ultimately it wasn’t enough. “I don’t care about the goal and wouldn’t if it was two; we drew and that’s all that matters, so I’m not happy,” the striker insisted at the end of Spain’s second draw, this time against Poland. You could see the sadness, hear it too. You could feel it.
The result left Spain third in Group E, “in a fine mess” according to the cover of Marca. But it was more than that, not just numbers. The selección had left to whistles and boos again. When it comes to pressure Morata appears the most permeable of players and had been the easy target, attacked by his own fans; as he spoke, the tension was clear, the vulnerability, that sense of victimism. “People can say what they want, I don’t care,” he said, betraying the opposite. “We’re in a country where opinions come free. All we look at is our play.”
