Will the exclusion of Sergio Ramos come back to haunt Spain ?
Real Madrid and Spain captain Sergio Ramos has been dropped from the international squad for Euro 2020, in what was a surprise call from the Spanish national team manager, Luis Enrique. The inexperienced Eric Garcia has been called up as his replacement.
Ramos is Spain's most capped player with 180 appearances but has struggled this season with injuries and could only make 21 appearances in all competitions for Real Madrid.
Ramos's absence means that for the first time ever, Spain will go into a major tournament without any Real Madrid players in the squad, with the likes of Asensio and Nacho Fernandez also missing out.
Manchester City defender Aymeric Laporte also made the 24-man squad after his nationality switch from France to Spain was approved by Fifa.
Luis Enrique explained his decision to omit Ramos from the squad stating, "Ramos has not been able to compete since January in the right condition, or even train with the group, hence he could not be included".
Sergio Ramos' exclusion raises eyebrows
While the Madrid defender's season has been riddled with injuries, he still managed to play more club minutes (395) than his counter-part Eric Garcia (360) who was selected ahead of him in the squad.
Ramos' exclusion comes as more of a surprise since Luis Enrique opted to choose only 24 players for the squad instead of the allotted 26, which was increased recently due to the Covid-19 situation.
Although Ramos has not played much this season, he was still the captain of the national team and one of the most experienced players in contention. He has been an integral part of Spain's defense for many years and was a vocal leader on the pitch.
With the exclusion of Ramos, none of the centre-back options selected in the squad, barring Cesar Azpilicueta, have the experience of playing at such a big stage.
The likes of Aymeric Laporte, Diego Llorente, Pau Torres and Eric Garcia are all less than 25 years of age and have not played in any major international tournaments and have less than 10 caps for their country.
All of these players lack the experience that Ramos could have provided, whether on the pitch or from the bench. Even with reduced playing time this season, Ramos has notched up decent defensive numbers as compared to the other five centre backs.
He was second behind Llorente (1.5) for interceptions (1.4) and just trailed him (7.4) in recoveries (5.6). He was third among the group for clearances (2.6) and only trailed Llorente (10.4 and 6.0) and Azpilicueta (9.5 and 5.3) in duels and duels won (7.0 and 4.1). He also topped the chart for contesting more aerial duels per 90 (2.4) than the other five players.
Along with Ramos, the exclusion of Nacho Fernandez and Iago Aspas has also raised many eyebrows. Nacho has been a mainstay in the Madrid side with the absence of Ramos and had played 24 matches in the league. He was expected to be called up to the national side but was excluded from the final list.
Iago Aspas also had a brilliant season with Celta Vigo, notching up 14 goals and 13 assists, but was left out for Wolves's Adama Traore, who has only 2 goals and 2 assists in the entire season.
Luis Enrique will hope that the exclusion of Ramos and Aspas will not hinder his side's chances of progressing further in the tournament, but only time will tell whether it was the right call or not.