Spain faces these days three games in order to qualify for the Qatar World Cup 2022. The first of them has already occurred, a tough defeat against Sweden that has greatly complicated the situation of the team of Luis Enrique, who looks askance at the play-off stage.
Despite the fact that the national team arrived as the leader of the group, with the tranquility that this could generate, the bad result harvested in Stockholm has turned on the alarm lights on the template. A person who has almost just arrived at the group and who has not participated in the two previous appointments of the Selection, Eurocup and Olympic Games, it is Pablo Fornals, which coldly analyzes how Luis Enrique’s team is doing and how they have affected the results achieved during the summer.
Pablo Fornals (Castellón de la Plana, February 22, 1996), player of the West Ham and that he is having an excellent season on a personal and collective level, he talks to THE SPANISH about his experience in England, on what it means for him to enter the Spanish team and on the objectives that a team that hopes and trusts to be in the 2022 World Cup in Qatar can set.
Pablo Fornals with the new shirt of the National Team
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Second in the Premier League with West Ham, now Luis Enrique’s call to go to the National Team, how do you value this beginning of the season?
Spectacular. Things are going very well with the club, that’s why I have the opportunity to come here for all that we are achieving with West Ham.
Two goals and one assist in three Premier League games, is it the best moment of your career or at least since you’ve been in England?
I hope it is not and that many equal or better moments come. Yes it is true that I feel very well both physically and mentally and that is reflected in the game and in the numbers.
After this start to the season, what goal do you set for yourself with West Ham?
I think none. Obviously the first thing is to get the necessary points as quickly as possible to save ourselves and from there compete and enjoy like last year, trying to get as far as possible after having saved us. And in Europa League enjoy something so difficult and so beautiful for English teams as it is to get into that Top6-7. Above all compete and enjoy.
What has the Premier League taught you in these years as a footballer and as a person?
I believe that any change enriches you as a player and as a person and in the end because of everything that I have had to live with and because of all the coaches I have had to be with, they have changed Pablo Fornals who was in Spain. Now I am quite different although always trying to have that bit of a Spanish player who likes to have the ball and combine.
Coming to the Selection of a small team has more merit because it is easier for the coach to meet players who play in Europe
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For a player who still does not have consolidated experience in the National Team, does a call continue to live with that illusion of the first time?
Of course and more being in a team like West Ham that until last year we were not used to playing in Europe. Having that opportunity already opens the doors a little more to be here and to more things. For those of us who do not come regularly, it is a joy.
Do you have more merit for a player who does not play in La Liga and who does not play in the Big Six of the Premier League come to the National Team?
I understand that if. It is much easier for the coach or for anyone to meet players who play in Europe and who have many more games per year and of superior rivalry.
Pablo Fornals during a training session with the National Team
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Is it good news that the coach is Luis Enrique because it seems that he shows that open-mindedness for players like Dani Olmo or Robert Sánchez to come?
Totally. Everyone who plays for better teams or who plays in Europe has more access. But we all want to get it right and we have the illusion of that call. Now we know that the coach also sees us and for us it is a greater illusion.
The National Team is immersed in its first games of the new season, are they more difficult to catch the team a little short of physical preparation when they are starting and it equals you more with theoretically inferior teams?
In my case, the enthusiasm and desire are somewhat equated with that lack of preparation that I may still have or with that lack of tactical knowledge of the team. But I think this Selection has a great team. There are players who are resting due to the number of games they have had and those of us who are here do so with the greatest enthusiasm and the desire to compete or win.
What are the first indications that Luis Enrique gives you when a concentration of this type begins with rivals like Sweden, Kosovo and Georgia?
The first thing is to get to know each other and adapt as quickly as possible and understand what it will require of us.
The Eurocup and the Olympics was not a disappointment, it was a huge pleasure to see how they played and how they competed and how they took our country to very high levels “
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Does the team play better in comfortable situations than with the tension that, for example, the group experienced during the Eurocup with many life and death matches and how will it happen now in the group?
The team wants to win any game and nobody thinks about whether we had a certain cushion in the group, we all want to win, attack, score goals and play well. In the end it is what we train for and what they expect of us.
Much of this team was among the best 4 in Europe, but did not reach the final. Another part of this team was at the gates of an Olympic gold, have you noticed that little disappointment in the group coming from outside? Can that be a shock to this World Cup?
Disappointment for nothing. Looking at everything they did in both the Eurocup and the Olympic Games from the outside, I felt a great pleasure to see how they played, how they competed and how they took our country to very high levels.
Pablo Fornals wears the new Spain jersey
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For a soccer person like you, how was the criticism that Luis Enrique’s team received?
I wasn’t there, but I think they shut a lot of people’s mouths at the Euro. The Olympic team also seemed that it was not going to pass the group and in the end ended up with a medal. People will always talk, but the important thing is that the team focuses on doing its thing and that it does well on the field.
Are those two results worthy of this team being given credit and not having those old ghosts reappear?
Totally. From my point of view the truth is yes.
There is more than a year left for the World Cup, can we talk about Spain being among the favorites or that the goal is to win?
I believe that the goal for Spain is always to win and if you don’t win to go as far as possible. It does not matter whether it is a European Championship, a World Cup or an Olympic Games, Spain always tends to have good teams and great coaches, even in the lower ranks, and that is what is requested and what is sought.
For a footballer who plays in the center of the field and who must pick up the legacy of such great players who marked an era in that position and who cemented the successes of the past in those two European Cups and that World Cup in South Africa, is it an added responsibility? ?
Like that midfield that Spain had at that time, I think it will be very difficult to find him with players like Xavi Hernandez, What Xabi Alonso, What Iniesta or like Busquets, who luckily is still with us. In the end, the footballers who are there are the best, according to the national coach, and no two drops of water are the same. Each player has their things, their virtues, their defects, and it is up to everyone to empower them and get the best out of it.
Pablo Fornals trains with Spain
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What has impressed you the most about this National Team or that draws your attention now that you see yourself within the team?
The truth is that everything. For me, I come from a team like West Ham and from a very different football in which we don’t prioritize the ball so much, getting here and seeing how fast they move it, that everyone has the quality and predisposition to move it fast is spectacular. It’s nice just to play a rondo with them.
Is it difficult for you to make that adaptation of that other football or is arriving here more like feeling at home in some way?
A bit of both. The first 20 minutes are always difficult because there we do not prioritize the ball so much, but then it is a great pleasure for me that I like to have the ball and touch it so many times.
Is Pablo Fornals seen in Qatar 2022?
You see Pablo Fornals playing games and games with West Ham, trying to do his best and in the end it is not Pablo Fornals who decides whether or not he will be there, but the predisposition will always be there.
How do you imagine being part of the team in such an important competition, being a starter or even being able to score a goal? Have you come to visualize it or have you had that dream?
The truth is that I haven’t even thought about it, you just put it in my head. Obviously it would be very nice, it would be a dream, but there will be more than a year for that. I have to make my way and I don’t think beyond these three games and this opportunity to be here with these pieces of players.
With the team we have and how everything flows in London with West Ham, in the short term I don’t see myself going back to Spain
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Do you have something in mind for when your debut in an official match arrives? Will you keep that shirt?
I try to save all the shirts, especially the ones that have sentimental value and this of course I’m going to keep it.
Before we talked about seeing each other in Qatar, do you see yourself playing in Spain?
Today, with the equipment we have and how everything flows in London with West Ham, in the short term I don’t see myself coming back. It’s true that football changes from one day to the next and that anything can happen, but now I’m not thinking about it.
In case there was a way out, would it be more feasible to go to a big team in the Premier League?
I don’t think about it. I am focused on West Ham and now on enjoying this week here and what has to come will come, but I don’t think about it.
How have you experienced the recent successes of a club you know well like Villarreal? Have you felt more pride or also a bit of anger for not having lived it from the inside?
No anger, I am happy for my teammates, for the club, for my city because in the end Villarreal being at the top is good for Castellón and I am very happy that a team from the province represents our city.
[Más información – Gerard Moreno, lesionado: España pierde un efectivo para los duelos clave ante Georgia y Kosovo]
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