Analysis: How Luis de la Fuente can solve Spain’s Gavi puzzle at the World Cup | OneFootball

Barcelona midfield star Gavi’s World Cup has become one of those strange tournament stories where absence begins to speak louder than presence.

He started Spain’s opening match against Cape Verde as one of Luis de la Fuente’s main bets, used in a left-sided inside-forward role with a clear brief: provide depth, energy and inside dominance to create lanes for Marc Cucurella.

It sounded logical. Gavi has always been a player whose game without the ball is as important as with the ball, and someone who can turn midfield control into something more with an edge.

The experiment did not fully land. Spain drew 0-0, the team lacked wing threat, and Gavi finished as the second-least involved player in the side after Mikel Oyarzabal, with only 42 touches.

Since then, he has not played a single minute against Saudi Arabia or Uruguay.

Now, before the Round-of-32 clash against Austria, De la Fuente has a decision to make: leave Gavi as a bench option or try him out in a role in which he actually thrives.

Gavi is not a touchline facilitator

The Cape Verde match showed the danger of using Gavi in a role that asks him to hold width indirectly. He can help a full-back. He can drag markers, open inside lanes and press around the ball.

Gavi cut a frustrated figure against Cape Verde. (Photo by Florencia Tan Jun/Getty Images)

However, he is not a natural wide creator, nor is he the kind of midfielder who will stand outside the block and feed the flank rhythmically.

If Spain need wing play, Gavi is not the solution by himself.

That is why his 42 touches were telling. He completed 93 percent of his passes, so the problem was not technical security. The problem was involvement.

Spain placed him in a zone where he was asked to influence the game without giving him enough access to the ball or enough natural runners around him.

Use him as a pressing midfielder, not a positional interior

The best version of Gavi is not the calmest version. It is the most disruptive one.

De la Fuente should use him in matches where Spain need to raise the temperature, especially against opponents who build through midfield and can be forced into hurried decisions.

Austria could be exactly that kind of game. They are organised, aggressive and intense; Spain may need more than control. They may need counter-pressure.

That is where Gavi makes sense. His value is in the second ball, the duel after the pass, the foul won in the opponent’s half, the recovery that keeps Spain attacking before the opposition can breathe.

The fact he made more than 30 progressive runs in 74 minutes against Cape Verde shows the instinct is still there. He kept offering depth. He kept trying to stretch the structure from midfield. Unfortunately for him, his La Roja teammates did not use his runs.

Gavi’s role in the opening game was far from ideal. (Photo by Mattia Ozbot/Getty Images)

Instead of placing him wide-left and asking him to serve Cucurella, De la Fuente could use him as the highest interior in a more central role, close to Pedri, Lamine Yamal and Oyarzabal.

There, Gavi can crash into the box, press the pivot and create chaos around Spain’s most technical players.

Make Gavi the game-changer, not the compromise

The key may be accepting that Gavi does not have to start.

Spain’s midfield has different profiles. Fabian Ruiz gives passing rhythm. Dani Olmo offers imagination between the lines. Mikel Merino brings height, timing and penalty-box arrival.

Gavi gives something else: unmatched intensity. That may be more useful from the bench than from minute one. If Spain are leading, the La Masia graduate can help protect territory through pressure.

If Spain are level, he can inject running and aggression into a match that has gone stale. If the team are chasing, he can turn the final 25 minutes into a fight for every loose ball.

That is the role De la Fuente should consider now. The absences of Nico Williams and Yeremy Pino for the foreseeable future effectively open the door for De la Fuente to get creative and for Gavi to become pivotal.

Spain do not need to force him into the team just because he is Gavi. That said, there are certain game states that the 21-year-old handles better than most in the squad.

The key for La Roja is choosing when to unleash the Barcelona gem, and it remains to be seen whether he has a prominent role to play for his team as they look to progress to the latter stages of the tournament.