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Fabregas epitomises survival of the player

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Euro 2008 demonstrated that fitness and organisation are no longer enough, says Jonathan Wilson.

For a long time Spain's underachievement made them the great enigmas of European football. And now, having finally won their first tournament in 44 years by lifting the European Championship in the summer, they remain weirdly difficult to read - largely because the formation with which they ended up winning the Euros came about by default rather than design.

Anecdotal evidence suggested their strength was the strike partnership of Fernando Torres, who scored twice in the tournament, and David Villa, who got four, but the statistics tell a slightly more complex story. The paradox of Spain's success was that they ended up playing better when an injury to the tournament's top scorer, David Villa, forced them to switch from 4-4-2 to 4-1-4-1 during the semi-final.

Before then they had swept to a flattering 4-1 win over Russia in their opening game, then stuttered through games against Sweden and Greece before a penalty shoot-out victory against Italy in the quarter-final. The semi-final against Russia was an even game until Villa was injured after 34 minutes and replaced by Cesc Fabregas. The shape shifted to 4-1-4-1, and Spain hit three in the second half.

In the 374 minutes Torres spent on the pitch during the tournament, Spain scored six goals; in the 338 Fabregas played they scored eight.

Two players blending well, in other words, is not necessarily enough; there must be a coherent system behind them. There is still, bewilderingly, a habit among pundits of complaining when sides play with only "one up" as being overly defensive. Not if it allows you to play a profusion of gifted attacking midfielders it isn't.

The victory of 4-5-1 over 4-4-2 now looks decisive - it is surely significant that both finalists began the tournament with two strikers and then switched to fielding only one up front - while Euro 2008 also saw a swing back towards technique from physique. Those two themes of tactical development meet in Fabregas.

The increasing focus on the physical development of players in recent years has been widely decried as a bad thing, as something that would inhibit skill. It may turn out that the truth is just the reverse.

Perhaps there can no longer, at the top level, be portly maestros like Jan Molby and John Robertson, or hard-drinking mavericks like George Best and Ariel Ortega, but there is nothing that says that skilled players cannot be fit, and if teams are meticulously prepared, then there is little chance of a lesser team outmuscling a skilful side. Fitness and organisation in themselves are no longer enough to win a tournament.

Germany may be at the muscular end of the spectrum, but that attacking midfield trident of Lukas Podolski, Michael Ballack and, particularly, Bastian Schweinsteiger, had flair and skill.

Arsene Wenger has spoken often of his joy that Fabregas can still thrive in the modern game. "In a period when football goes more towards athletes, he is a player," he said. "If you have the quality you don't need to run 100m in 10s. Intelligence helps a lot, and it's good to see to see in the modern game that players of average size in a normal body can still succeed."

Yet what is more remarkable is that at the start of the tournament, Fabregas was kept out of the Spain side by three midfielders of a similar lack of stature: Andres Iniesta, Xavi Hernandez and David Silva.

The question now is what Spain [1.41 to top Group 4] will do now that Vicente del Bosque has succeeded Luis Aragones as coach. At Real Madrid he was a great advocate of 4-2-3-1, and there was some evidence in his first game, a 3-0 friendly victory over Denmark, that he might go to something similar, as he gave a prominent role to Xabi Alonso. If he does, though, that would presumably mean deploying Villa not as he was used in the Euros, but deep off Torres, which then gives him some difficult decisions to make in terms of the other creative midfielders he selects, having to perm two from Fabregas, Silva, Iniesta and Xavi, with David Capel and Bojan Krkic waiting in reserve.

In that regard, Del Bosque may be grateful that Torres and Silva will miss Saturday's World Cup qualifier against Bosnia [[26.0] to top the group] through injury. Sooner or later, though, he is going to have to grapple with Luis Aragones's confused legacy.