Spain manager Luis Enrique has offered a cryptic response when explaining his decision to continually leave Thiago Alcantara out of his starting XI at Euro 2020.
The Liverpool midfielder has been restricted to just three substitute appearances at the European Championships so far, and wasn’t introduced to the action until deep into extra-time in the Spanish’s quarter-final victory over Switzerland on penalties.
With Spain facing Italy in the semi-finals at Wembley on Tuesday night, the 30-year-old’s role in the squad is unlikely to change at the business end of the tournament despite finishing the season strongly at Anfield.
And while Enrique was full of praise for Thiago, he was evasive when explaining his decision to only utilise the midfielder as a squad player throughout the tournament.
“Thiago is a very good player,” he told reporters. “You know and everybody knows about his quality but we are a strong team and I try to give them minutes.
“He's helping the squad a lot because he's an experienced player and we are very happy to have him in the squad.
“After that, I have to decide and my decision speaks much better than me.”
