5 reasons why Spain failed so badly at this World Cup

The defending champions went out at the group stages after a lacklustre performance against Chile last night.

1. Problems with strikers

VICENTE DEL BOSQUE opted to bring four strikers in the shape of Diego Costa, David Villa, Fernando Torres and Pedro to the World Cup with Manchester City’s Alvaro Negredo and Juventus target man Fernando Llorente the big names to miss out.

Costa, having switched allegiance from his homeland Brazil before making his Spanish debut back in March, was to be the final piece of the jigsaw after bagging 36 goals for Atletico Madrid en route to a La Liga title and Champions League final.

Unfortunately, his ongoing hamstring problems became a major worry going into the tournament and the decision tostart the 25-year-old in the opening two matches proved a spectacular failure. On both occasions, he was withdrawn just after the hour mark and replaced by an out-of-sorts Fernando Torres — who also offered little.

2. The goalkeeper situation

With 156 caps to his name, goalkeeper Iker Casillas is the squad’s most experienced player and in fact Spain’s all-time record caps holder.

However, the 33-year-old was far from his best at club level last season and proved a liability in the loss to the Netherlands by gifting them a couple of goals in what he described himself as “the worst performance of his career”.

Del Bosque showed blind loyalty by choosing to stick with the Real Madrid veteran against Chile despite having options in David de Gea and Pepe Reina. Last night,