MOSCOW -- Remember this? "We're not going to change our style." That's Vicente del Bosque back in 2010.
Or this? "We have won two European Championships and the World Cup with this style. I don't think there's any need to change." No? That one was David Silva in September 2014.
OK, so how about this, then? "Spain's style is non-negotiable. It's not a good idea to change." You must remember that one, right? It was only 10 days ago, after all. And it was Isco who said it. So that's that, right? No, not exactly.
Much has been said about Spain's style over the years, and perhaps one thing has been said more than anything else: that it is Spain's style. Always and forever. It's not for debate and certainly not for changing. Not just an idea, an identity. When they won the Euros in 2012 to complete a run of three consecutive tournament victories -- completed without a single goal conceded in the knock-out rounds -- pretty much everyone agreed that their style had not only lead to success but also would do so again. That, in fact, there was something even deeper than success: This was being. It was their history and their future too.
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Two years later, in 2014, the sports daily AS prepared for the World Cup by saying that "Spain's style is non-negotiable." Two games later, they were out, but even then no one really said that the problem was the style. No one really suggested that they had to change. They didn't even suggest that they had to change that much after Euro 2016, when Spain were knocked out by Italy.
When Julen Lopetegui took over, he said -- sacrilege! -- that the style was not non-negotiable, but that didn't mean getting rid of it, either; it meant adding nuance. It might not have been entirely accurate, as there were some significant shifts, but he was largely treated as the coach who had recovered Spain's identity, not gotten rid of it.
And that was the way it was supposed to be. No one would ever say that Spain's identity should change.
Until now.
"You'd think we had been knocked out. We got through in first place," Marco Asensio insisted a couple days ago. He is right, and Spain have found themselves on what is theoretically the easier half of the draw. Russia, Croatia or England could be in their path to the final. The trouble is that while they might not be the strongest sides at the tournament (though maybe Croatia could make a claim to that) nor are Spain. That first-place finish convinces pretty much no one.
Against Iran, Spain were on edge and almost caught at the end. Against Morocco, they trailed until the 93rd minute, when Iago Aspas scored a wonderful equaliser. At the same time, Iran scored against Portugal. Momentarily, it had seemed there was a risk they might not get through at all. Then, it seemed that they would but in second place, and then suddenly, through no "fault" of their own, they were top of Group B, handed a place they had done little to grab for themselves. The end of the game had seen VAR, across two cities almost 2,000 km apart, usher them through.
Actually, that interpretation isn't entirely fair. As Sergio Ramos put it: "VAR didn't save us. It just told the truth." And it is worth a quick defence of Iago Aspas here. All the talk of video replays meant that few talked about what that video actually saw: the Celta striker scoring a wonderful goal. They didn't talk much about 25 exceptional first-half minutes, either, but then that was natural because what came next was so bad and because bad has become worryingly common at this tournament. Spain have let in five goals already, and it could have been more.
"Spain got through without knowing how," as Eduardo Castelao put it in El Mundo. "They will never do more to get knocked out: They sought failure feverishly and still managed to stumble across success." He called this "the worst Spain in a long, long time," saying they had "no magic, no soul, no speed, nothing." In El Pais, Ramon Besa said: "They get worse with every game."
These are fine, rational judges, not sensationalist rabble-rousers. Afterward, Fernando Hierro said that this was "not the path" they had to follow. Sergio Ramos said they had "not played well at all."
A few days earlier, Jordi Alba had asked journalists to wait a bit before "killing" them, but no one fancies waiting very much longer. After all, it's win or "die" now.
This weekend in the last 16, Spain play Russia, and there need to be changes. All of which is normal, but what is so striking is just how sweeping are the changes being demanded. To take but one example: on a radio debate the night of the game, eight people were asked what they would do. Every single one of them said they would make changes, with the most conservative of them wanting to drop only two players. Most were talking about a change at every point of the pitch: defence, midfield and the attack. In goal too, in many cases.
It's not just about personnel, either. It is which personnel and what that means. Others have pointed to the age: Spain fielded the oldest team in their history. Physically, they have looked off the pace too, with something seeming sluggish about their movements. But this was more about style, about a complete change.
The focus was not just on players who have under-performed, though there was plenty of that. It was curious that among the many players whom the various pundits have said should be axed, no one mentioned Ramos, who might just have been their worst player against Morocco. Instead, Silva and Andres Iniesta have the most fingers pointing at them; on one level, it's a little baffling when you consider it was he who, alongside Isco, led Spain during the minutes they played well. In part (and while cause and consequence can often be confused) maybe that's because this is deeper than dropping people because they represent a way of playing. This is about changing a style.
For the first time since 2008, it is Spain's model that has come into focus. The identity. The one that they said would never change even in defeat because the commitment was so steadfast. Because beyond triumph and despair, those two imposters, there was something else.
Perhaps that has been lost already -- "no identity" was next on Castealo's list of criticisms -- but it is striking to see so many suggest that the solution is for Spain to no longer play as Spain have. This is the time for Hierro to intervene, is the cry. Rarely can doing so have been so difficult for a manager: Hierro, their accidental manager, has been in the job only two weeks and three games. He inherited a side that played a certain way and one they'd worked on for two years, his job more focused on the pastoral than the play.
Hierro has made small tweaks already -- and that free kick against Portugal was his -- but starting again and doing something completely different is far from easy. Nor, in truth, does anyone know for sure what his footballing principles are. At Real Oviedo, the one place he has been a manager, there was not any broad idea that was recognisably his. He doesn't lack for suggestions, albeit few of them agree, from adding pace to the midfield to introducing wingers, from sticking two men up front to adding an extra man in the middle. There have been calls for a 4-4-2 formation and lots of players to be left out, namely David De Gea, Dani Carvajal, Thiago, Silva and Isco. Not, for the most part, Costa, the player who was always the most difficult fit with their style but who has scored three times.
Whatever happens, there is not much time, though it is precisely because the World Cup is short and it's now on a knife edge that some want these changes made quickly. There might not be time, but nor is there time to waste. There could be just one game left, which has fed a compelling argument: Look, we're not going to turn our backs on our identity on the long term, but this is an emergency, and we have to do something. And so they talk about changing shape, changing formation, changing players ... changing everything. Reports suggested that Hierro, who has admitted his concern at the number of goals being conceded, was even thinking of playing Nacho in central midfield.
Spain have to do something, but surprisingly, few people have suggested that what they have to do is be Spain, which is what, for so long, they used to say. It might still be what they actually do when they arrive in Moscow tomorrow.
It has been only 10 days since Isco said, "Spain's style is non-negotiable. It's not a good idea to change." Back then, most probably broadly agreed with him, but a lot has happened since then, and their numbers are dwindling. The question is whether Fernando Hierro is among them, and if not, whether he feels that he has the full authority to bring changes.
Asked after the Morocco game if Spain needed more muscle, Hierro smiled and almost laughed at the very idea. "Muscle?" he said. "That's not really our thing."
It wasn't, no. But it could be.