Radioestadio Noche<\/a> on Onda Cero, where journalist Santiago Segurola highlighted two names. Speaking about Alejandro Balde, he said that \u201cI think Balde is not liked by De la Fuente.\u201d Meanwhile he said that \u201cfor me Dani Olmo is a lock for this team\u201d and adding that Spain cannot afford to exclude him when he is fully fit.<\/p>\nSegurola went further, voicing optimism about Spain\u2019s overall prospects next summer. \u201cSpain has the team to win the World Cup, just like Argentina, Brazil or Germany. A lot can happen in a World Cup,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The young left-back has seven caps for Spain, not a bad return perhaps, but not a lot for a player who starts for Barcelona.<\/p>\n
The conversation around Balde is also mirrored at club level, which could put him as a further doubt for the World Cup. Barcelona has shown signs of defensive vulnerability this season, and while the problems extend beyond individual names, there is internal concern about the form of both starting full-backs. After a good campaign last year, Balde has struggled to regain rhythm following a muscular injury in September that cost him five matches. In his 11 appearances so far, he has delivered two assists and won the penalty that Robert Lewandowski failed to convert in Sevilla, but has not reached the explosiveness that made him such a key part of Bar\u00e7a\u2019s system.<\/p>\n
Jules Kound\u00e9, his counterpart on the right, is also navigating a more difficult year despite his secure status with coach Hansi Flick and a contract renewal through 2030. Last season\u2019s high point, scoring the Copa del Rey winning goal against Real Madrid, feels distant as he works to rediscover consistency. Internally, the French international is viewed as less confident in both phases of play, though he remains a guaranteed starter and has contributed a goal against Real Sociedad and an assist versus Newcastle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Spain\u2019s dominant win in Tbilisi, a 4-0 performance that all but confirmed the national team\u2019s ticket to the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":387131,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[5828,221,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-387130","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-barcelona-internationals","9":"tag-soccer","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115569697926822687","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=387130"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387130\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/387131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=387130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=387130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=387130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}