Unai Simón appears to have taken the lead over David De Gea and Kepa Arrizabalaga in the race as the starting goalkeeper for Spain. The Athletic goalkeeper chained against Germany his third consecutive game defending the La Roja frame, thus endorsing the change of gloves decreed by Luis Enrique in the face of the bad moment that both the Manchester United goalkeeper and the Chelsea goalkeeper are going through.
What in the friendly against the Netherlands was perceived as a test or an opportunity for Unai Simón to be rolling towards the future at 23 years old, began to take shape from being something else in last Saturday’s duel against Switzerland played at the St Jakob Park in Basel, where Luis Enrique gave continuity to Murgía’s goalkeeper, despite being already an official appointment. The Asturian coach also maintained his bet for the match against Germany, the highest caliber stake he has had to face as helmsman of the Spanish team and the one that came out the most round. Since March-September 2019, a goalkeeper from the national team did not play three games in a row. Kepa did, who linked four against Malta, the Faroe Islands, Sweden and Romania.
Everything indicates that the coach had been suspecting that movement for a long time. “He knew who the goalkeeper was going to be on the first day, as long as he didn’t see anything strange. I like to see ambition and desire in training, “he revealed on the eve of the clash against the ‘Mannschaft’ at the La Cartuja stadium in Seville. A press conference in which the Gijón coach made it clear that for him there was no closed demarcation, including the goal, as confirmed by his career since he began his career on the benches with the Barça subsidiary. «I do not know what will happen in the future, it will depend on their performance and if they execute what we are asking them. With Pau (López), I have three or four goalkeepers who for me have the level to be starters. Everyone must be prepared to help the team, whether inside or outside, “he stressed.
Placid night
Despite this taste for having many variants, the truth is that when Luis Enrique took the reins of the Spanish team he bet heavily on De Gea. The Manchester United goalkeeper started the first five games as the Asturian’s coach and did not give way to Kepa Arrizabalaga until the friendly against Bosnia-Herzegovina played in November 2018 at the Gran Canaria Stadium that ended with a Spanish victory by 1 -0. De Gea was only a substitute in one of the official matches that Luis Enrique faced in his first stage in office, precisely the clash against Malta qualifying for the Eurocup in which La Roja won with a double by Álvaro Morata and the presence of Robert Moreno on the bench, as the Asturian had to hastily abandon the concentration due to a family problem.
Luis Enrique defended De Gea through thick and thin, despite the fact that several errors by the Madrid goalkeeper generated a heated debate about the advisability of keeping him under sticks. But that faith of the coach that led him to play 75% of the games in his first stage as coach seems to have been cracked in the second, in which De Gea has formed only in 50% of the games (four out of eight) and He has only participated in two of the last six.
«There are many factors that we value with the goalkeeper. He has to generate superiority from behind, dominate the aerial game and give us coverage on the defensive line. Unai has a very high value in all factors. Just like Kepa and De Gea. It is a matter of picking and choosing the one who is the best, ”Luis Enrique insisted on Monday. The future, as he recalled, is open, but Unai Simón, who had a placid night against the Teutonic team since La Roja barely allowed any approximations based on the visitors, is stepping harder and harder.
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