Luis Enrique: “They have to vomit, their heads have to explode”

The Spanish Football Federation presented this Monday Group Strength, a documentary that shows how the National Team lived the last European Championship. The event was attended by the internationals summoned for the matches against Greece and Sweden and with the presence of President Luis Rubiales, who described the production as “a documentary without filters.”

The documentary shows a very talkative and joking Luis Enrique, who is even seen singing on a couple of occasions, but also vehement when he gives directions to his players in the locker room, for example, in the run-up to the debut against Sweden: “They have to vomit, their heads have to explode.”

The documentary also shows how Eriksen’s fading impacted the group.. The Spanish internationals are very affected, to the point that Luis Enrique allowed the players that day to miss training if they were very touched by the harsh images of the Danish player.

In the first part of the documentary, which will be broadcast by Amazon Prime Video, you can see the difficult beginnings that the National Team had in the Eurocup, such as the criticism of Morata after the first game or the positives of Busquets and Diego Llorente. “No team in this European has overcome so many difficulties, we just need an unexpected pregnancy”. The ‘sticks’ to Morata caused Luis Enrique to gather the internationals and value the Juventus striker. “Do you think we depend on Morata to score? No, we depend on Morata to pressure and defend. Morata has 19 (up to that point). Do you know how many forwards have more goals than Morata in the National Team? Only Harry Kane”. Luis Enrique would do the same with Unai Simón at half-time against Croatia. “I have seen failures like this one by Unai many times. We all have mistakes, this one we have already overcome. Now we are going to go out there and we are going to win this game. I assure you”.

Apparently in the documentary, the only player who particularly worried the coach during the European Championship was Modric. “Today Modric does not play the game, it is for Pedri. At most he will give two touches of the ball. He is the only player I do not want him to play”, He told Pedri in the run-up to the round of 16 match.

Luis Enrique surrenders to his players before starting a training session to prepare for the match against Switzerland: “I have two pieces of news: a good one and a bad one. The bad news is that Switzerland is a team that does everything well. The good news is that it is a fucking show to see how you play football ”. In another part of the documentary, the coach goes even further in his praise for his team and does not hesitate to tell them that “There is no team better than us.” The preparation of the penalties against Switzerland is also shown in great detail and immediately afterwards the excitement of the semifinal pass is perfectly captured. The party that took place in the dressing room is one of the strongest moments of the documentary.

How Eric García prepares the games, Pedri’s visit to the hairdresser, the console games between Koke and Marcos Llorente, the table tennis games or the darts… they are also part of the second part of the documentary. Another of the moments with a great emotional charge is already shown at the end, in the national team’s dressing room after losing to Italy in the semifinals. There the coach’s leader facet comes out again, trying to lift the spirits of his players. “Head up, proud of the game and of everything you have done. I don’t want to see a single tear ”, Luis Enrique asks the team, while the rest of the staff dedicates a loud ovation to the footballers.