What kind of footballers have countries struggled to produce in recent years?

#3 Spain - Strikers

David Villa and Fernando Torres were key to Spain’s success between 2008 and 2012

When Spain arrived in Euro 2008, they had a fantastic squad on paper. Perennial underachievers on the international arena at the time, La Furia Roja were led by Fernando Torres and David Villa up front – 55 goals between them for Valencia and Liverpool that season. They did not disappoint. Villa would finish as top scorer while Torres scored the all-important goal in a 1-0 win over Germany in the final.

But as teams gradually switched formations from 4-4-2 to the norm that was a 4-3-3 or a 4-2-3-1, a lot of shuffling saw only one of the two strikers starting up front, Villa usually deployed on the left during the 2010 World Cup.

By Euro 2012, Spain had completely moved away from direct football to tiki-taka. Villa’s broken leg saw him miss out while Torres was sidelined in favour of the infamous ‘4-6-0 formation’ which had six midfielders with Cesc Fabregas deployed up front.

Ever since, neither Villa nor Torres were able to get back into the starting lineup. When the 2014 World Cup squad was announced, Brazil-born Diego Costa was the man picked to lead the line. But Costa was never a good fit and the defending champions were thrashed 5-1 by Netherlands before losing 0-2 to Chile.

Torres and Villa scored in the final game – a dead rubber – Villa’s last for Spain. In truth, the football was free-flowing in that game, like the Spain of old, even though it was an inferior opponent.

Costa has so far scored only one goal for Spain – against lowly Luxembourg. Alvaro Morata shows promise on the club level but is untested in internationals while Paco Alcacer and Nolito are barely given a chance.

Will there be another Torres or Villa? Or even a Raul? It is highly doubtful.