Call-up for Lithuania and Scotland… with a Xavi-shaped surprise!

September 30th, 2010 | by: Ade C. |

Vicente del Bosque, our Wise Walrus, has spoken again. For the Euro 2012 qualifying matches against Lithuania (October 8th, Salamanca) and Scotland (October 12th, Glasgow), he has once again gone with his tried-and-true(?) method of calling up the same old team that’s given him, and us, so many sucesses, and sneaking a youngster in the list, just in case. With a few exceptions.

I wonder how long I can keep calling up the same people without everyone noticing...

After the jump, see the unsurprising list, and the surprises (clue: they’re called Cazorla and Monreal. And um, they’re *not* called Xavi Hernández):

Goalkeepers: Iker Casillas (Real Madrid), Víctor Valdés (FC Barcelona), Pepe Reina (Liverpool)
Defenders: Álvaro Arbeloa (Real Madrid), Sergio Ramos (Real Madrid), Carles Puyol (FC Barcelona), Gerard Piqué (FC Barcelona), Carlos Marchena (Villarreal), Joan Capdevila (Villarreal), Ignacio Monreal (Osasuna).
Midfielders: Xabi Alonso (Real Madrid), Sergio Busquets (FC Barcelona), Santi Cazorla (Villarreal), Andrés Iniesta (FC Barcelona)
Forwards: Pedro Rodríguez (FC Barcelona), Jesús Navas (Sevilla FC), David Villa (FC Barcelona), David Silva (Manchester City), Fernando Llorente (Athletic de Bilbao), and Fernando Torres (Liverpool).

What do you see here? I see a dearth of midfielders, and that’s even counting Silva as a midfielder and not a forward. And Our Wise Walrus must have seen it too, because even though Busquets offered to play for the U-21 as they face crucial matches for their qualification for the Euros, he still got called up. The absences of Xavi (~~um… some people suggest tendinitis as the cause, but I swear he seemed fine last night when he played the whole 90 minutes against Rubin Kazan for Barcelona~~ Update on his situation below!) and Cesc (recuperating from an injury) leave us with just Del Bosque’s preferred double-pivot, and Iniesta/Cazorla to be creative. Which is good. Very good. But is it enough? I’m thinking not…

What do you think?

Update: FC Barcelona has released the following statement about Xavi:

“For several weeks, the player has been suffering bilateral aquiline tendinopathy, which has reached an acute stage. The player, the manager Pep Guardiola, the FC Barcelona Medical Services and national manager Vicente del Bosque have decided that the best decision would be for him not to play with the Spanish national team in the games against Lithuania and Scotland in order for him to remain in Barcelona and do recovery work.”

So there’s that. No more conspiracy theories!

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ROD

boring! I can't believe he didn't pick Pablo Hernandez over navas he is in much better form than navas. S
Casillas
Ramos-Pique-Puyol-Capdevilla
Busquets-Alonso
Iniesta-Silva-Villa
Torres
ROD

When is the right time going to happen when he picks at least 3 or 4 new players to the squad?
http://spain.worldcupblog.org/ Ade C.

To be honest, ROD, I think that an epidemic of injuries, the return of the Black Death or everyone getting fed up and retiring from international duty are, if that, some of the things that'll get Our Wise Walrus to really shake things up… I'm starting to get antsy thinking of all those young players not getting call-ups!
ROD

its very frustrating but I guess he's looking short term even though he can ask for a contract extension and he would get it right now I just don't want a lippi situation to happen that's all
James

After the embarassing defeat to Argentina, I think Spain need a good game.
http://spain.worldcupblog.org/ Ade C.

Indeed, and they need to have a good game without Xavi. Remember that the first part of the Argentina debacle was Xavi-less… and though I don't think Lithuania can impersonate Argentina, maybe they can pull a Switzerland instead?
Ryan

Puyol wasn't there either against Argentina, right? As seen by Barca's games, the Hercules loss being most recent, Puyol makes a huge difference in the back line.

It would be nice if del Bosque did call up Pablo Hernandez, but it doesn't seem like Spain needs to do a full-out reshuffling of their team a'la France or Italy. Youth like Canales and Thiago will eventually be put in (wouldn't it be great if they could pull of those kinds of free kicks against adult teams a few years from now? ), but they still are competing in the youth tournies.
http://spain.worldcupblog.org/ Ade C.

Yep, Puyol wasn't there either and man, the back line wasn't the same without him! At least he's going to be there for these two matches…

Oh, I'm not asking for a full re-shuffling of the cards! We've seen what happens when the team is disrupted more than a little (Argentina happens). But I do think it's way past the time to bring in young players. And I don't mean Canales and Thiago, who are happy enough in the U-21; I mean Pablo Hernández, Pedro León, Esteban Granero, Amorebieta, Capel… older guys who don't have youth tournaments to distract them and who've proved themselves with their clubs already. It worked for Busquets and Piqué, why not for them?
http://spain.worldcupblog.org/ Ade C.

Well, damn… Torres walked off, injured, after 10 mins of this weekend's Liverpool match. Looks like a groin injury, so it might be a good chance for Llorente to play for La Roja. After all, it isn't as if El Niño had been setting the world on fire lately, poor guy…
http://spain.worldcupblog.org/ Ade C.

Double damn! Pedrito is also injured, a muscle tear in the last minutes of the Barcelona game, will be out for two weeks. Luckily we have so many strikers, right?
ROD

Pedro and Torres out? Come in Pablo Hernandez and Soldado.
Those are pretty good replacements. With torres out hopefully del bosque doesn't go for a striker less like he did in the first half against Argentina
ROD

yes