Spain: The Open Right Flank and the Joint De la Fuente Still Won't Name

The ball never lies, but people do. In June 2026, in Kazan, I sat in row seventeen with a rain-soaked notebook, writing down something entirely unrelated to the scoreline: Mesut Özil's bewildered face after the final whistle of Germany against South Korea. A reigning world champion collapsed, and the collapse did not come from the front. It came from a joint that had loosened long before and that nobody bothered to replace. Since then, every time I read a squad-prediction piece, I look for that joint before I read a single star's name. Spain is standing at a similar moment, only smaller in scale: one international window, a few open slots, and a right flank without an owner. Context Goal.com, relaying the Catalan sports daily Sport, reports that head coach Luis de la Fuente will spring a few surprises in Spain's squad for the upcoming Nations League window. What matters is that those surprises sit in none of the midfield or attacking lines. They are all in the back line. On the left, Marc Cucurella and Alejandro Grimaldo are described as untouchable. In the heart of defence, the pairing of Pau Cubarsí and Aymeric Laporte is settled. Every remaining uncertainty falls on the right side and on the backup centre-back slots. One sloppy detail deserves calling out: Goal.com calls Spain the reigning world champions. Spain won Euro 2026, not the 2026 World Cup. The piece also mentions four Nations League matches in a single window, when an international window normally holds two. Both details suggest the article was assembled quickly, and any conclusion drawn from it should be read one notch lower in confidence. The real joint Spain's problem sits at right-back. Marcos Llorente has closed his chapter with the national team, leaving a gap with no direct successor. Pedro Porro, the leading remaining option, is a doubt with a muscular issue. Losing the incumbent and the challenger at the same position simultaneously is the kind of deficit any coach must account for when drawing up a back four or a back three. The candidate list shows De la Fuente leaning on versatility rather than specialists. Eric García and Marc Pubill are mentioned as players who can cover the right-back role. Iván Fresneda, a natural right-back at Sporting Lisbon, is only described as being on the verge. Óscar Mingueza and Sevilla's Juan Iglesias also appear among the names being tracked. A centre-back filling in at right-back preserves structure, but the price is attacking width. A centre-back playing on the flank rarely pushes as high as a true full-back's rhythm, rarely receives the ball on the touchline under pressure, and rarely produces what the modern game calls a second threat on the channel. That is a tax paid in dead attacking moves in the opponent's half, and it appears in no statistical table. Distance covered and sprint counts are always paraded as measures of effort. Those numbers tell two entirely different stories: a right-back running eleven kilometres because he is constantly dragged out of position, and a right-back running eleven kilometres to plug gaps for his midfield. The spreadsheet prints out identically. The match does not. From the way De la Fuente names three centre-backs who can cover the flank, I lean toward one hypothesis: he is preparing a back three, or a hybrid structure in which the right-back tucks in as a third centre-back out of possession. This is inference, not information, and I place confidence low. But it explains why a natural right-back like Fresneda sits only on the verge. The right flank is not alone in this story The centre of defence remains stable with Cubarsí and Laporte, but right behind them sits an unproven generation. Dean Huijsen of Real Madrid has made a strong start and is framed as good news for the white club. Kike Salas of Sevilla and Jacobo Ramón of Como are also being watched. A player currently at Como entering the frame shows Spain's scouting department is sweeping Europe rather than staring only at the giants. There is something worth saying about how the market prices young names like Huijsen. Hundred-million-euro deals for players who have not yet played fifty top-flight matches are raw gambling, and an international call-up can lift that valuation another tier without adding a single minute of football. Money runs ahead of form, and form trails the headlines. In goal, Spain has Unai Simón, David Raya and Barcelona's Joan García. The report raises the possibility of Álex Remiro being recalled if Joan García's knee troubles him, and even floats a fourth goalkeeper. Two contingency mechanisms for a position that rarely rotates is a sign the medical staff have raised something serious. The counterintuitive point The story the media is selling is the surprises in the list. The real story is drier: Spain has no starting right-back. People read the headline as Cucurella being safe, and that is correct. But when a position loses both the incumbent and the challenger at the same moment, the team has nobody left to call number one. That is precisely what squad predictions hide behind the word surprise. The other side has a case, and I want it stated. A back three with centre-backs pulling wide is the direction of elite football, where the traditional full-back is gradually being replaced by hybrid players. If De la Fuente genuinely sees that coming, choosing Eric García or Pubill over a pure right-back is a deliberate move, not patchwork. The problem is this: the 2026 World Cup will ask him that question in a knockout round, and by then an experiment is no longer an experiment. Football always gives us two options: fall down or bow your head. What to watch Some goals live not in the net but in memory. In nine years of writing about football, decisions like this have always been more worth tracking than a goal. Who starts at right-back in the next two matches will tell us what De la Fuente is building for two years from now: a genuine full-back, or a centre-back tucking in while the whole channel is left to an inverted midfielder. Hai Phong taught me that football is a poem that has not been finished. Spain's squad list, about to be published, is another such line, and the next line will be written by somebody's right foot.