Spain’s stylistic identity shows England what they lack under Gareth Southgate

In April of last year, a week-long stay in Mallorca presented the opportunity to take in some of the Mallorca Cup, a youth football tournament involving elite academy sides.

On two artificial pitches in a northern corner of the island, teams of various age groups from dozens of Spanish clubs, including Barcelona, Real Madrid and Sevilla, competed in knockout ties, cheered on by friends and family who had travelled with them.

The standard was high, bewilderingly so in some cases, and offered a window into the level of talent being produced in the country. What really stuck in the memory, though, was the style in which they played. It is hard to recall an instance of a goalkeeper going long.

The experience came to mind while watching Spain’s senior side, made up of players who once competed in similar tournaments (not long ago at all in the case of the 17-year-old Lamine Yamal), dismantle England in Sunday’s European Championship final.

The scoreline did not reflect the one-sidedness of the contest. And while wingers Lamine Yamal and Nico Williams have given Spain a thrilling new dimension, this display bore old hallmarks. With 65 per cent of the possession, they passed England into submission.

It is the Spanish way. Or at least it has been since the national federation overhauled the country’s youth development programme in the 1990s as part of a plan to nurture the highly-technical, possession-based playing style that has come to identify them.

The changes were crystallised during the period of extraordinary success that straddled the subsequent decades, as Spain, without a major international trophy since 1964, won back-to-back European Championships in 2008 and 2012 either side of lifting the World Cup.

“We have moved on from the time when nobody knew what the characteristics of Spanish football were,” said the federation’s former technical director Fernando Hierro at the time. Now, those characteristics are deeply embedded at every level of the game.

Of course, there are differing interpretations at different clubs and in different regions. The Basque Country, for example, home to Athletic Club Bilbao, Real Sociedad and Alaves, is known for placing greater emphasis on duels and physicality.

But the core principles – centred around short passing and possession – are ubiquitous, encouraged, even at amateur level, by the popularity of futsal, a small-sided football variant, played with a smaller, heavier ball, which hones close control and technique.

Speaking to Aston Villa’s Spanish centre-back Pau Torres last season offered an insight into the work done at ground level. Asked about his seemingly innate composure and quality on the ball, he shrugged: “It is what I was asked to do as a young player in Villarreal’s academy.”

This uniformity, in terms of the way in which Spanish clubs ask their young players to play, is immensely beneficial to the national team and helps to explain the cohesion demonstrated by Luis De la Fuente’s side during their triumphant Euro 2024 campaign.

Spain resembled a club side at the tournament and yet their squad was eclectic, comprised of 26 players from 17 different clubs. The starting line-up used by De la Fuente in the final had only played together once before, in a 3-3 friendly draw with Brazil in March.

Changes to personnel did not interrupt their rhythm.

In their final group game, a 1-0 win over Albania, De la Fuente made 10 changes to his team without affecting the way in which they played, or the level of their performance. Pedri and Rodri, injured in the quarter-final and final respectively, were seamlessly replaced.

Driven by Pep Guardiola’s success at Manchester City, this Spanish style of play has taken hold in England’s domestic game too. There is outstanding work being done at academy level, reflected by the level of quality now available to the national side.

But, despite a string of trophy-winning tournament successes at youth level, England are still playing catch-up with Spain when it comes to fostering a new identity of their own.

This is not to say that effort has been lacking.

Ten years ago, following the opening of the FA’s St George’s Park headquarters, Southgate, U21 boss at the time, sat alongside former director of elite development Dan Ashworth and head of player and coach development Matt Crocker to outline England’s ‘DNA’.

The five-point plan included a section called ‘how we play’, which makes for interesting reading in light of England’s Euro 2024 campaign, and the final in particular.

“England teams aim to intelligently dominate possession,” it states. “England teams aim to regain possession intelligently and as early and as efficiently as possible,” reads another line.

Southgate has done excellent work in many areas, particularly with regards to the culture and mentality around the team. But their issues around style of play were painfully highlighted by Spain – and indeed throughout the tournament.

Southgate’s England, despite featuring players used to playing attack-minded, possession-based football at club level, remain reactive rather than proactive, more likely, certainly against top teams, to be dominated than dominate, as against Spain.

Indeed, while Spain ranked top among the 24 teams at the tournament for high turnovers per game and third for passes allowed per defensive action, England ranked 11th and 16th respectively, speaking to a level of passiveness out of possession which jars with their stated DNA.

Reaching a second consecutive European Championship final is of course an achievement in itself, especially given the fallow years endured under Southgate’s predecessors.

But Spain, decades ahead in terms of establishing a stylistic identity, and with a seemingly endless stockpile of players who have spent their entire footballing existences living and breathing it, show the ground England still have to make up.