The world upside down for Spain's forwards: "I'm not worried at all."

The national team woke up (late) yesterday in Sofia. They went to train for a short while at midday at the same stadium where Thursday's match was played, and at six in the evening local time (five in Spain) they took the plane to Konya, a city in central Turkey with a population of just over two million and, they say, a football-loving following, very intense. Konya also boasts of being the spiritual capital of the country, perhaps the purest bastion of Islam. Traveling not far from each other on that plane were Álvaro Morata and Mikel Oyarzabal , who, while it remains to be seen whether Lamine's back problems worsen or not, are the ones who will be in the spotlight the day after the comfortable victory in Bulgaria, the day before playing for a good part of their ticket to the World Cup in Turkey.

"If they call you, you have to come here even if it's just to carry the gear." That's the line from Morata, the captain and the only center forward who fits the old definition of a center forward. The owner of 37 goals for the national team (in 86 matches), he's been trying for almost a year to score number 38, which would put him level with Fernando Torres as the third-highest scorer in history.

However, his contract fluctuations have led to his gradual decline since the European Championship. He was a starter until the first leg of the Nations League quarterfinals last March. But since then (the return leg against the Netherlands at Mestalla), the semifinal against France, and the final against Portugal, he has barely played 10 minutes.

Great average

The national team coach says he's not at all worried about his captain's situation, currently at Como under Cesc Fàbregas , and waiting to see how the season unfolds with the World Cup in mind. "I'm not worried at all. We have very good forwards, each with their own characteristics. It's not that we don't have pure forwards, it's that we have many and very varied ones," Luis de la Fuente struggled to explain in the improvised press room at Sofia's Levski Stadium in the early hours of Friday morning.

He says this, in part, and in large part in fact, because of Mikel Oyarzabal's current form. Having endured a difficult start to the season with his team (Real Madrid have taken two of their nine points in the league this season), where he scored on Matchday 2 with Espanyol, the national team has become his playground. And especially so since the arrival of De la Fuente, with whom he has scored 11 of his 17 goals for Spain (46 appearances). Of course, he's the top scorer since the Riojan took over (following the World Cup in Qatar).

In Sofia, he needed just six minutes to score what was his fourth goal in the last four matches (he also provided two assists in the Nations League semi-final against France). In the mixed zone after the match, he also displayed one of the characteristics that makes him indispensable to this team. "Of course I'm happy about the goal. We played well in the first half, but what happened in the second half can't happen again. We have to play better." It's called competitiveness, or competitive character, whatever you want to call it.

"We always play with a striker"

So the number 9 is now Oyarzabal's number, and Morata, who was his number for a long time, must wait, just like Ferran Torres , another player who warmed up against Bulgaria and didn't get any playing time despite his good start to life with Barça. Neither Samu Aghehowa nor Ayoze Pérez , other candidates to be on a hypothetical shortlist for next summer's tournament, are here, but for the moment no one seems to be too worried as long as Oyarzabal remains on this path. He, for his part, has the World Cup on his mind after missing the one in Qatar, for which he was a regular, due to the serious knee injury he suffered that year (2022).

"You know, I don't like the expression 'false striker'. We always play with a center forward. It's another matter whether he has these or those characteristics, but we always play with a striker," De la Fuente insists.