Llorente, Negredo, Navas, Carvajal, Moreno & Iturraspe ALL excluded from the Spanish World Cup squad!
Granted Spain have an outrageous embarrassment of riches with regards to the players at their disposal. Inevitably players are always going to feel disappointed when they're not picked for the tournament that is the pinnacle of World Football and arguably something EVERY player aspires to be involved in at some point during their short career.
What absolutely baffles me about the exclusion of Negredo, who's had a superb season for Manchester City and also Llorente at Juve (to a slightly lesser degree), is that Fernando Torres has gotten in ahead of them, which I find absolutely bizarre!
Jesús Navas can consider himself unlucky not to be Brazil-bound this summer too. He's a great option to give Spain pace & width & has been used to devastating effect off f the bench for the Spaniards in the past.
I predict Spain will do well this summer in Brazil, & the exclusion of those mentioned above only serves to highlight the sheer amount of quality Spanish footballers plying their trade right now.
Still, the inclusion of Torres at the expense of Negredo has left me absolutely dumbfounded!
Moist
Negredo out, Torres in! Come again?
posted on 31/5/14
Negredo was very average for City this season, bar a spell around the end of 2013.
The last 5 months of the season were pretty much nothing.
No surprise he has been dropped at all.
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I've been really impressed. Granted he had a few purple patches, followed by less imposing performances, but the physicality and goal threat he offers is always there.
To drop him and include Torres is utterly bonkers.
posted on 31/5/14
Torres has always been the 'donkey work' striker for Spain, not the main striker. He's basically their Heskey and always has been.
Even if he's off form in front of goal, he still probably does the support work better than the others in the running.
posted on 31/5/14
I agree with the decision not to take Navas because NONE of the midfielders in the squad are anything other than brilliant or deserved to be dropped.
I agree with the OP about Torres though. Spain/Del Bosque just seem to always wanna pcik him regardless. Credit goes to David Villa - at the beginning of the season, i don't think it was likely he'd have made this World Cup, but his and Atletico Madrid's surprising achievements this season have powered him.
Llorente for Torrees would be the only change i'd make in midfield/attack.
In defence, its quite unheard of that a player could be playing every game for Real Madrid, in a season where they win the Champions League, and yet not even be in the Spain squad - Unlucky Carvajal! I also liked Moreno too, he was excellent in the Europa League Final
but in all my years i've NEVER known an international team to have the embarrasment of riches, in every department, that Spain do in this era...
posted on 31/5/14
D. Lopez
Carvajal-Bartra-Inigo-Moreno
Iturraspe
Thiago-Herrera
Navas-Llorente-Deulofeu
Not a bad side who won't even be going would probably be about 4th favourites in their own right
posted on 31/5/14
Gabi isn't going either, after the superb and influential season he's had at Atletico.
posted on 31/5/14
I wonder what "flumoxed " is in Spanish !
posted on 31/5/14
Gabi was in the La Liga team of the years wasn't he?
posted on 31/5/14
Where's Soldado?
Nagredo has been rubbish this calendar year. Torres also has but at least he has the big game experience.
posted on 31/5/14
Llorente is the only one who should be upset, outperformed all the other strikers apart from Costa
posted on 31/5/14
Gabi was in the La Liga team of the years wasn't he?
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Yeah, Atletico had 7 players in that 'team of the season'. Incredible stuff.