Spain’s reliance on Premier League flops has sent alarm bells ringing

For anyone surprised by the debut of former Stoke and Newcastle striker Joselu, who made his Spain debut as a substitute last weekend and scored twice at the age of 33, there was another surprise on Tuesday night.

He started and although the rest set the bar very low, he was probably their best player as they lost to Scotland.

It’s been 17 years since Spain lost a qualifier by two clear goals and alarm bells are sounding that an official striker in his fourth decade is currently the best they have to lead them into a new era.

First, a little respect for Joselu. After disappointing spells in England and Germany, he returned home four years ago and for four consecutive seasons he has reached double figures for struggling teams.

He is the best attacking header in LaLiga and his shot off the crossbar at Hampden was the closest Spain had come to a goal.

Premier League flops Joselu (left) and Iago Aspas (right) are Spain’s best up front

Alarm bells are ringing after Spain fell to a stunning defeat at the hands of Scotland on Tuesday.

He is not the problem. The problem is that he’s pretty much all they have and it could be hard to build a new side with such meager resources.

The other three forwards in Luis de la Fuente’s squad for the Norway-Scotland doubleheader were Borja Iglesias, Álvaro Morata and Iago Aspas.

The Betis Borja striker has talent but he never convinced former coach Luis Enrique. Morata is not always the first choice at Atlético Madrid and has trouble playing game after game due to injuries. They are both 30 years old. Aspas is 35 and has never had success outside of Celta Vigo, where he is a club legend.

Ansu Fati was going to be the solution to all this when he broke into the teams of Spain and Barcelona scoring goals and breaking records.

Last season he wore the number 10 shirt vacated by Lionel Messi, but only started three games (scoring four goals) after suffering a meniscus injury in his left knee that required three operations and sidelined him for 10 months. .

Fati has not been called up for this squad because he cannot join the Barcelona team. He has only started nine games this season. The father of the 20-year-old, Bori, was interviewed by Spanish radio Cope on Tuesday night and spoke of wanting to take his son to Sevilla due to lack of minutes.

There is simmering anger that the best young player to emerge from Barcelona’s youth system hastily returned from injury and has since been shelved by a club wondering if he would not be worth more to them sold than saved.

Luis de la Fuente now faces a huge problem building a new team around such meager resources.

Barcelona seem to view the youngster as the most expendable of their young stars and that will only add to the instability of this career slump.

Spain hopes that by the next time it plays international football, this summer in the final four of the League of Nations, it will have found some stability, but it seems unlikely.

At least in other parts of the Spain squad there are young players who would find their place in most of the top international teams. The problem is that De La Fuente has not chosen them so far.

Gabri Veiga is the young sensation of Spanish football. His nine goals in his first full season have all of Europe on alert because his release clause is 35 million pounds (40 million euros), but it was not enough for De La Fuente to include him in his first template.

He was picked for the Under 21s but later withdrew with a hamstring problem.

Gavi and Alejandro Balde were in the squad, but the former was left out of the starting eleven and the latter did not even make it to the bench against Scotland.

And with right-back a problematic position, the new manager also ignored Spain’s best young right-back, Arnau Martinez.

The 19-year-old has been outstanding for Girona, but De La Fuente stuck with Dani Carvajal and gave Tottenham’s Pedro Porro a second cap.

Ansu Fati has not been called up for this Spain team because he cannot enter Barcelona

Gabri Veiga (left), 20, who has nine goals in his first full season, was snubbed by De la Fuente

With Balde, Veiga, Arnau, Gavi and the brilliant but currently injured Pedri, Spain still has half of a very, very good under-21 squad. They also have plenty of options in goal with an excellent Kepa replacing the injured Unai Simon. .

But in a group that could end up being deceptively difficult with strong Scotland, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia-inspired Georgia and Erling Haaland-inspired Norway, Spain won’t get their way and relying on official strikers won’t help their cause.

Luis Enrique was criticized at the World Cup in Qatar for not having a Plan B.

After 180 minutes of football, Spain’s biggest problem with its new manager is that no one is sure what Plan A is. Or who will lead it.