For all that Spain's former glory years at the top of world football are associated with their brilliant attacking play, those triumphs were also built upon a rock solid defence.
In Vicente del Bosque's crowning moment at the 2010 World Cup, he was able to field a back line that knew each other inside out. Joan Capdevila, Gerard Pique, Carlos Puyol and Sergio Ramos were as competent a combination as any national team's at the time, their communication fine-tuned through shared international and club duty. Two years later at Euro 2012 the theme continued. A club partnership between Alvaro Arbeloa and Ramos was exploited, while Jordi Alba was given regular game time in qualifiers and friendlies in order to build up an unspoken understanding with his international defensive partners before the tournament.
Trying to mount another such unit is proving to be a much tougher task for the Del Bosque. La Roja have used no less than five different combinations at the back in their eight Euro 2016 qualifiers to date, the regular switching forced by injuries. A fresh wave of physical issues going into forthcoming fixtures with Luxembourg and Ukraine means that the Spain coach is guaranteed to use a sixth combination this weekend.
The initial idea would likely have been to repeat a four of Ramos and Pique in the middle with Juanfran and Alba on either side; that quartet the only one to feature more than once over the course of the qualifiers so far. If not, a straightforward alternative would have been replacing Juanfran with Carvajal, another previously used combination and one that takes advantage of two club partnerships. Both are high quality options, and both were possible with the names in the original squad for the next two games, but with Carvajal and Ramos forced to withdraw due to physical issues, it's back to the drawing board, yet again.
To make matters more difficult, Del Bosque can't even get a break with his supporting cast. One of the noteworthy features of the initial list for Friday and Monday was the inclusion of Inigo Martinez for the first time in almost two years. How did the Basque respond to his accolade? By producing a horrible performance for Real Sociedad on Saturday, his errors facilitating two of Malaga's goals in a 3-1 win for the Andalusians. The defender was so poor he felt the need to take to Twitter and apologise.
The 24-year-old's reaction to being called up was cause for concern, but he had at least one thing working in his favour: he was playing regularly for his club. The same cannot be said about the majority of the other central defenders of his generation, another headache for Del Bosque. Marc Bartra was Martinez's partner at the back in Spain's 2013 Under-21 European Championship win, and along with the Basque, looked the central defender of that age group most likely to make the cut at the highest level. Yet after more than three seasons as a member of FC Barcelona's first team squad, he has yet to establish himself as a regular for his club. An unused substitute in seven of Barca's 12 fixtures in all competitions in 2015-16, Bartra has played 90 minutes only three times. Talent is not lacking, but without regular action it is impossible to know how much he could be relied upon at a major tournament.
The same is the case for Martinez and Bartra's former under-21 teammate, Nacho Fernandez, who was drafted into the Spain seniors after Ramos withdrew on Monday. A discretely effective and potentially very good young player from what he has shown with the Real Madrid first team, it is nonetheless difficult to make too many fixed conclusions given the scarcity of his playing time at the Bernabeu. Like Bartra, the bench has been Nacho's territory for most of the season so far: three appearances, only two of them for 90 minutes, are the sum of his 2015-16 for Madrid.
With the established veterans dropping like flies and the younger generation of defenders yet to consolidate itself at senior level, Del Bosque is left clutching at straws in order to make up the numbers this week. The desperation of the situation was summed up by the choice of Athletic Club's Xabier Etxeita to replace Martinez in the squad. Etxeita admitted he wassurprised by his call-up, and he isn't the only one. Etxeita is an honest enough professional, but has a tendency to misjudge challenges, and with limited technical ability, the 28-year-old isn't going to get much better. The former Elche man would be nowhere near a Spain squad in normal circumstances, but positions need to be filled. The other alternatives that were being considered, Victor Ruiz and Alvaro Dominguez, would have brought their own caveats in turn.
Etxeita may yet silence doubters, but the harsh reality is that he is unlikely to be part of the group which travels to France next year if Spain qualify. Nor are many of the other defenders that have been used over the course of this campaign, and that's a problem for Del Bosque. In the short term, even a patchwork defence will almost certainly be enough to earn the solitary point Spain need from their final two qualifiers to book a place at Euro 2016. In the long term, however, a lack of regularity at the back could be the Achilles heel opponents exploit at the tournament. Even if the best of the crop can stay fit for the summer, it will be equally important for them to chalk up some minutes together and develop the relationship necessary to compete for the trophy. The time left in which to do that is running out.
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