Enrique shrugs off 10 minutes of poor display against Japan
Spain boss Luis Enrique thinks that they shouldn’t focus too much on the negative aspects of their performance against Japan as they prepare to face Morocco
Spain came out swinging when World Cup started as they beat Costa Rica 7-0 but by the third game they hadn’t managed to secure qualification as they went behind against
Japan. However, they finally managed to qualify despite their defeats to Blue Samurais but Enrique believes it is wrong to focus on their 10 minutes of bad performance ahead of their last-16 match.
When asked about their poor display and whether they would be able to recover from it, Enrique said:
"We are talking about 270 minutes if I'm not wrong, plus added time [in the group stage].
"Out of 300 minutes in total, you focus on 10 minutes that you didn't like. As far as we progress, you will see more of these minutes.
"We are footballers and the opponents also play. There are things to be improved, and I'm sure we will be bitten by Morocco in some moments of the game.
"We can't take blows? What about them? Did Germany take it well when we scored? We are in a competition where the score dictates the risk you are willing to take. Other teams pull back but we keep attacking and of course we need to improve that."
There were some who suggested that his team’s lack of experience might be a problem for them when they are under pressure. But Enrique replied:
"It's such a cliche, we have to try and get rid of this idea.
"I don't believe they lacked experience. Experience in what? Being builders, carpenters? When you lose, people talk about issues and if you win, they don't.
"I don't share this analysis. This team will be recognised by the way we play, analyse our matches, our philosophy but not these sorts of issues.
"Mistakes happen, we are talking about a very complex, unfair sport, 11 players on a huge field, it's impossible to control all the aspects.
"At the end of the day the ones making the decisions are the players, I want them to implement my idea and I want them to buy the whole package when they lose, it's not fair to only buy it when we win."
Enrique held his ground on his positive outlook when he was reminded of
Spain’s poor record in recent World Cups with them only qualifying past the last-16 stage once in the past 4 World Cups, as he said:
"This is not our usual trend, to look at everything from a negative perspective.
"I am not concerned about those results. I want to control the things I can control as a coach. I want my team to play in a certain way, I want my players to forget about the result.
"Football is not fair but if you have more merit you usually win the game. I am convinced we will have more merit than Morocco. Our objective was to play seven games, so we want to play seven games."
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