Spain boss Luis Enrique has explained his reasoning behind the omission of Manchester United goalkeeper David de Gea.
Speaking in a press conference following the squad’s announcement, the former Barcelona manager revealed that De Gea was not in the squad because he didn’t suit their style of play.
Many modern goalkeepers are required to be able to play with the ball at their feet and be comfortable playing the ball under pressure. De Gea has never been strong with this aspect, and thus is why the Spaniard is not in the 23-man squad.
Enrique has called up Unai Simon and Brighton goalkeeper Robert Sanchez, while he has also handed a first senior call-up to Brentford stopper, David Raya.
De Gea is statistically one of the stand out shot stoppers in the Premier League, with a post-shot expected goals minus goals value of 10.6, meaning De Gea has prevented 10.6 more goals than the average goalkeeper would have been expected to concede this season.
For reference, Raya only has a value of 1.3 in this metric, while Sanchez has a value of 0.7.
However, other metrics also show a lack of willingness to leave his box from De Gea, and his static positioning in relation to his preference to rely on his reflexes rather than sweeping ability have been a massive cause of debate among sections the United fandom.