Why isn't Diego Costa scoring goals for Spain?

The ESPN FC crew look at Miroslav Stoch's dramatic late winner as Slovakia claimed a shock 2-1 victory over Spain in their Euro 2016 qualifier.

Atletico Madrid: 27. Chelsea: 9. Spain: 0. Diego Costa can't stop scoring for his clubs and he can't start scoring for his country. Not yet, anyway.

It's been six months since he made his debut for Spain -- 18 months since he made his debut for Brazil -- and he has played six times with la selección , five of them as a starter, but he is yet to get a goal. Last night, Spain lost a qualifier, 2-1 in Slovakia, for the first time in eight years. Again, Costa didn't score. The pressure builds. He has another chance against Luxembourg on Sunday. When the goal arrives -- and it surely has to soon -- it will be a relief. Costa, and Spain, need it.

On Thursday night they needed it, but they didn't get it. Four shots did not yield any reward but it was not really about inaccuracy; this is a deeper question, about the game, about the way he and they play it. Last night, Costa produced arguably his best game for Spain but it was still not his best game; there was still no goal. This was another illustration of the difficulties that face Costa in this team.

"We would like to see Costa do for the national team what he does for his club," said Spain manager Vicente del Bosque. And that is the point: Costa cannot do for Spain what he does for his club. Not exactly. Chelsea and Atletico play in a way that suits Costa perfectly; Spain do not, yet. "The style is different. There is not the same urgency to attack quickly as there is with Chelsea or Atletico," Cesc Fabregas admitted in the build-up to the Slovakia match. "Diego has to be patient."

Diego Costa went scoreless in Spain's shocking defeat to Slovakia. When will he end this drought?

Marca columnist Santiago Segurola noted this week that Spain's strikers must be delighted when they look behind them and see David Silva or Andres Iniesta. He was right of course, but it is one thing for Costa to look behind him and see Silva or Iniesta ... or Koke and Cesc, the men who most assisted him at Chelsea and Atletico respectively. It is another thing for him to look in front of him and see none of the space in which, as one manager put it last season, he is "absolutely lethal.

" There was precious little space in Slovakia.
It is not just about Costa although he is the focus this morning, 446 goalless minutes into his Spain career. Playing up front for Spain is not as easy as it looks. Costa is finding that out in the same way that Alvaro Negredo, Roberto Soldado, Fernando Llorente, Fernando Torres and Michu found that out. The difference is that, this time, others see it too.

There is a willingness to analyse, explain and justify Costa's difficulties that some of his predecessors may feel they were denied. Crucially, there is a willingness to overcome them, too.
"If you ask the strikers who have played for Spain over the past few years they will tell you that it's hard, that the way that Spain plays makes it difficult for them," Juan Mata explained on the eve of the World Cup.

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"I have never played in the No. 9 position but from what [teammates] have told me and from what I see as someone who knows our style, I think it's hard for the strikers. You have to understand our play very well to fit in as a forward, where there is not much space, where the movement is so important. Spain tend to arrive there, rather than being there. And a striker tends to be. That's why Cesc has played [false nine], Silva has played there ..."

Del Bosque admitted on Wednesday night on the eve of this defeat: "the best Spain [under me] has played has been without a centre-forward." Yet he had just declared himself a "believer in the striker ... in someone who plays on the edge of the offside trap, who tries to get behind the defence, who is good in the air, who fights. I believe in that figure." After the game, he praised Costa's "passion," but his position is a different matter.

Costa can't stop scoring for Chelsea, but playing up front for Spain is a different matter entirely.

During Spain's last international break, Costa did not score. Paco Alcacer made his debut and did. Last night Alcacer came on again and scored again, grabbing the equaliser only for Spain to be caught on the counter. His success deepened the sense some had that Costa is a great player but possibly not the right kind of great player. Alcacer is a different type of striker, a player whose game is based on sharp, short movement in tight spaces; more agile, more able, in his own words, "to rob a defender's wallet."

A player, in other words, seemingly more suited to Spain's style? Perhaps. But del Bosque is determined to persevere with Costa.
Ultimately, Spain and del Bosque have invested too much effort to give up; there is too much talent and temperament, too much value in Costa, not to fight to make him a central part of his plans for France 2016. He is just too good not to try. And the very fact that Costa is different is seductive too, even now:

Spain want to increase their weapons, adding greater variety. The question is whether he may be choosing the wrong weapon. Del Bosque he is trying to find the best way of fitting that figure he says he believes in into a team where the fit is not entirely natural. He is trying to make that figure a key figure.

Here, the immovable philosophy meets the irresistible force. Or so it seems; the impression may be false. There is greater flexibility than is often assumed. Much has been made of the fact that Spain's style, the one that took them to three major trophies in a row, is non-negotiable. Andres Iniesta insisted a day ago:

 "The idea is above any player," quickly adding: "I don't mean Costa; I mean that the idea is above any player; Costa, me, anyone." But it is because of Costa that the question is being posed so insistently right now and, in fact, an evolution is under way.

Del Bosque recently said: "[Spain] have to adapt to Costa." That's we adapt to him, not the other way round. As a statement of intent, it was some statement.

"In reality, it is a bit of both," Koke told Onda Cero radio on Tuesday night. Koke understands the process better than most: he straddles the two styles, Atletico's and Spain's. "We are trying to maintain that philosophy but it is true that we have a striker like Diego that means you have to look long sometimes, to find that ball behind the defence which is when he feels most comfortable. He has to come back and play a bit, too. But within that [game based on] touch, we need to look for the space that he takes advantage of so well. Who adapts? We both do."

Costa didn't help Spain at the 2014 World Cup, but patience will be a virtue for Vicente del Bosque and his team.

"I'm not worried; I hope the goals come soon," Iniesta had said. David Villa, the striker who integrated best with the Spanish style (and, not coincidentally, the country's all-time top scorer) was asked too. "It is more complicated [playing for Spain]," he conceded. "It is not the same system but I am convinced that he will get used to it and fit in; the best players always do. With time, he will be successful."

"He hasn't given his best for the national team yet. He has not always been in the best physical condition and that diminished his game a lot," del Bosque admitted. "But he doesn't have to do anything particular to play with us and I am sure that things will go well for him."

They said that before Thursday night's match. They knew the pressure was building. They hoped that the "soon" would be "now," that Slovakia would be the start. It wasn't. Not yet.

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