The Spanish striker situation

Looking back over the success of the Spanish national team in recent years, it can be easy to shower plaudits on the Xavi Hernandez – Andres Iniesta partnership in the midfield (and duly deserved, one might add), but in doing so overlook the problems that the side have been facing in front of goal. This issue has come to the fore with Spain losing high profile friendlies to Argentina, Italy, Portugal and England in recent times. And with their star striker David Villa possibly out for the rest of the season and their other renowned forward Fernando Torres in a perennial slump, the Spanish manager Vicente Del Bosque faces a quandary regarding who he will take to Poland and Ukraine for next year’s European Championships.

David Villa has been El Roja’s talisman up front for a long time – irreplaceable, indispensable and an automatic selection. His record of 51 goals in 82 international games just goes on to prove that. He brings his best in the big tournaments, evident from him finishing top scorer in both the Euro 2008 and joint top scorer in the 2010 World Cup. The goals-to-games ratio he has achieved for the national team has not been matched by any player since Alfredo Di Stéfano. Somehow, Villa’s achievements with Spain seemed to be overshadowed fractionally by all those around him.

Villa has arguably been the finest striker in world football over the last five years. In his entire career, at Sporting Gijón, Real Zaragoza and Valencia, he has never scored fewer than 15 league goals. The surprise was not that he ended up at Barcelona for £35m, but that it took so long for him to get there. He has been a success at Barcelona but hasn’t featured as regularly as he, or indeed Spain manager Del Bosque, would have liked. Villa was not in the Barcelona starting XI against Real Madrid last weekend, a worryingly familiar sight.

When he has played this season, he has not looked quite as sharp nor as fluid as before. This season, Villa has scored five in 15 games in the league and three in four in the Champions League. But he has started only half the league games and did so only in the injury-enforced absence of summer signing Alexis Sanchez. Now, with a broken tibia suffered in the Club World Cup that will keep him out for the better part of the next six months, Spain have a situation on their hands. A situation that doesn’t have any clear solution.

El Nino, as Fernando Torres is referred to, was a cult figure at Atletico Madrid. His time at Liverpool, which saw him score 72 goals in 116 games, made his image as a world class striker even brighter. That showed in his displays for Spain at Euro 2008, where he scored the winner in the 1-0 victory over Germany in the final. Torres was quick, strong, impressive in the air, blessed with expert technique and is cool and collected in front of goal.

That image has become a distant memory now. Hampered by injuries and also having to undergo a knee operation in early 2010, Torres has never quite looked the same. He was picked for the World Cup where it was clear he was lacking in fitness. He failed to score throughout the tournament and struggled to make it to the starting line-up. That form continued into his season with Liverpool until his £50m move to Chelsea in January 2011 re-ignited hopes among countless of fans that El Nino would get back to goal-scoring ways. 3 goals in 25 games for the Blues has done nothing to reassure even his ardent supporters.

With Fernando Torres’s goal drought and David Villa’s injury, Del Bosque needs to look at alternatives. Against Scotland, he played David Silva in a false 9 position, fulfilling the role that Messi plays for Barcelona. Alvaro Negredo and Fernando Llorente offer goals. Roberto Soldado did not even get into the squad, despite scoring 42 league goals in the last two and a half seasons, or his 11 goals in 12 European games over the last season and a half.

The obvious choice would be Spain’s number 3 striker over the last few years, Fernando Llorente. He could well be the man to take over the mantle of leading the Spanish front-line. The 6’5” striker who plays for Athletic Bilbao has had a good season so far, netting seven goals in 13 appearances. He provides a superior aerial threat and excellent hold-up skills. He doesn’t fit the Spanish plan perfectly nor is he quick and pacey like Villa can be. And playing alongside the midfield of Xavi, Iniesta and Cesc Fabregas will need a very mobile player and his build is not suited to that sort of game. Unless, of course, their manager finds a way to play him as a target man. El Roja however can make do with a more classic No. 9 striker, and with 7 goals so far for the national team, in 19 caps, he has shown that he can perform on the international scene. Maybe Llorente just needs a bigger club to prove just how good of a striker he is.