After having a sensational season, Lamine Yamal was not able to conclude the term on a high note. The 17-year-old had a quiet performance by his standards against Portugal in the Nations League final. However, the real story of this performance might not have been the teenager’s ability; it was how Spain’s setup completely failed him. Let’s discuss why blaming only Yamal misses the bigger tactical disaster.
Oscar Mingueza’s Defensive Disaster Left Lamine Stranded
Yamal has always thrived on Barcelona and Spain’s flank with the help of his partner full-back. On Sunday, former Barcelona player Mingueza started at right-back and put on a nightmare performance. The player offered nothing in attack, except for one overlapping run throughout the game. He was also poor defensively, getting constantly caught out of position.
Instead of subbing Mingueza, De La Fuente made Lamine track back to cover the flank. And the result was Nuno Mendes’ electric pace catching both players slacking to score a banger first goal for Portugal. Statistics tell the story: Yamal (4) had more tackles than Mingueza (2), who also achieved this as an attacker. Mingueza starting in the final just did not complement Yamal, it devalued the teenager’s performance.
De La Fuente Sacrificed Spain’s Golden Boy in the Final
I think another big reason for Yamal’s underperformance was De La Fuente’s stubbornness. Portugal clearly targeted Mingueza’s side more. Nuno Mendes and Rafael Leao overloaded the flank and dominated the Spanish players. De La Fuente, rather than adjusting through a defensive specialist, kept shouting Lamine to help defensively.
This was a huge blunder, as the kid could not handle Leao and Mendes, compounded by Mingueza’s poor defensive display. Spain’s most dangerous attacker was not used according to his traits, and it’s also one of the big reasons La Roja lost the final.
The Triple Marking Scheme on Yamal
If we focus on the highlights, we can see every time Yamal touched the ball, Portugese players swarmed him with 2-3 players. They knew Mingueza would not provide Yamal a passing outlet or options and hence Yamal used to get dispossessed. By the 60th minute, Yamal was visibly exhausted.
The same Yamal who destroyed Nuno Mendes against PSG last year could not handle him due to this tiredness. The exhaustion caused by tracking back, consistent dribbling burden, and isolation was the real crime on Yamal. In my humble opinion, Yamal did not underperform by any means; the system failed him completely.
English 
Spanish 
German 
Czech