Spain coach Vicente del Bosque concedes he is concerned over the potential impact of Catalan independence upon Spanish football and the national team.
Advertisement
“I used to copy him and that was a big help”, he said.
There’s also pressure for Del Bosque to bring in Aritz Aduriz, who has been thriving with Athletic Bilbao.
The first will involve not being wound up by Chelsea’s Diego Costa, the second will be trying to get hold of the ball – Spain will try to dominate possession with their world-class midfielders – and the final one will be trying to beat David de Gea. Equally, if they play well he might be tempted to experiment.
Real Madrid midfielder Isco has pulled out of the Spain squad for the upcoming European champions’ friendlies against England and Belgium to a muscle strain.
“He is a top player and I was pleased to keep him quiet”.
Defenders: Ryan Bertrand (Southampton), Gary Cahill (Chelsea), Nathaniel Clyne (Liverpool), Kieran Gibbs (Arsenal), Phil Jones (Manchester United), Chris Smalling (Manchester United), John Stones (Everton), Kyle Walker (Tottenham).
In an interview ahead of Spain’s meeting with England on Friday in Alicante Del Bosque tells The Independent that the approach to Messi was made when he first came to prominence as a young player at Barcelona – and suggested players switching worldwide teams was a phenomenon no leading football nation could now ignore.
It’s not as if Costa is a non-league footballer either.
“It’ll be an opportunity to learn more about those players we believe in and give them a chance to stake an even greater claim to be in the 23-man squad next year”, said Hodgson.
Rooney also revealed that he had voted for Costa as the player of the year last season because he felt that the Brazilian-born striker was an asset for Chelsea with his goal scoring skills and aggression.
“It’s a question of confidence from the manager towards him”.
However, an underlying reason was because they were anxious about not selling a lot of tickets for the match, something related to their sometimes pedestrian performances of late – even though they have won their last eight competitive games. Choose your best team, get the mentality right and play like you mean to go on.
Advertisement
In each other’s company, they’ve scored five goals between them (three to two in Kane’s favour), with the former assisting Barkley’s strike in October’s 3-0 win over Lithuania.
