Spain: How they use Andres Iniesta and why this is successful Yesterday, Spain went through to the

Confederation Cup final at the expense of Italy in by far the most tense, eventful and entertaining game of the whole tournament. It most likely was the most entertaining goalless draw I had ever seen while the teams were actively playing through normal and extra time. There are many reasons for their recent success, which includes winning the World Cup, the Euro Cup twice and the Euro U-21 Cup twice; but it is worth noting that neither a commentator nor a pundit can go through the course of a Spain national fixture without mentioning Andres Iniesta, providing he is playing. Thats the level he is at and as he is in his prime, so eager and so humble, he should continue to improve. As Pat Nevin has pointed out, Spain play in a totally unique way that seemingly no other team knows how to deal with, let alone attempt. It requires a lot of quick thinking, creativity, incisiveness and efficiency if it is to succeed. Andres Iniesta is the master of all of this: He leads the Confederations Cup in dribbles and dribbles per game, he has the least turnovers for someone that has played for four games or more as an attacker (this excludes Emanuele Giaccherini), is ranked joint ninth in total key passes and has the second highest passing accuracy of any attacker in the competiton, bar Nigerian forward Nnamdi Oduamadi (92.2% compared to 97.2% respectively). These statistics do not tell you the whole story, as they do not conventionally display how great he is in tight spaces, how quickly he makes decisions and how often these are the right decisions. However, what they do show is how complete and gifted a player he is, and how much of an asset he is to Spain and this competition. For Spain and Barcelona, he continuously dictates the tempo of games, toys with the opposition and is very reactive to the oppositions defence in regards to finding space, running off the ball, speeding up the tempo, who to target and what to do with the ball. He has found great success with this in his normal centre/attacking midfield position and as a left sided forward. His first touch, and how quickly he takes his first touch, can sometimes even make it seem that so many players are marking him so tightly. When a player is on the wrong side of him, is slightly off balance or is slightly not as committed as him, he will always seize this opportunity to grace them out of the game. If not, he will likely do the same, or keep possession and find another area to target. As he moves around so much, in such unorthodox positions, someone has to mark him and players have to watch him; this gives the rest of the team more room to advance. As the team advance, their opponents will likely be physically and mentally very exhausted, and they will be in at least two minds as to organisation to whom to pressurise; from this situation it is all over when you face players as efficient and decisive as these. I stress at least two minds because Barcelona and Spain play in a 4-3-3 formation. Spain do not play in an as quick and intense system as Barcelona do; they do not press as high up, they do not make so many runs off the ball and they are more defensively orientated. Because of this, Iniesta is tasked with recycling possession a bit more than he is for Barcelona. I am not suggesting that he doesnt stamp his usual elusive effect

on games; he just has to pick his movements more carefully and drop deep or track back more often. He is still the engine or the computer in this Spanish side and it goes without me saying that he does a lot of vital work for the team. The Spanish national team are already stronger physically, mentally, technically better are think quicker than almost every other national team, but every team needs a player like Iniesta. As the PFA Chairman Clarke Carlisle said, The average hard-working player will always achieve more than the gifted lazy player. He can also produce that moment of quality when his other teammates are not there, he does not rely on them. After all, we have seen continuously that he can exclusively indulge the eye with remorseless flair such as this and this. We can only now congratulate Andres Iniesta because he is now at the acme of society and relieves himself of this pressure to the public in a very subtle, dignified and absolutely assured manner. We can now only hope, if we are remaining objective, that he stays a one-club man.