Luis Enrique reveals there is ONE Spain flop he wishes he'd left at home for the World Cup

Former Spain boss Luis Enrique wishes he'd left one of his World Cup stars at home after his side's early exit from the tournament.

After winning their opening game 7-0 against Costa Rica, Spain failed to win any of their next three games in Qatar, and were dumped out by Morocco on penalties at the last-16 stage. Enrique's contract was not renewed after the tournament, and he has since been replaced by Luis de la Fuente.

Enrique went on Ibai Llanos' Twitch Stream on Monday night, and revealed that he should have not picked one squad member after they failed to live up to his expectations.

'One player, but I won’t say the name. One player didn’t end up being what I thought and I would have changed him for another player,' Enrique said.

Spain were accused of being one-dimensional in their final two matches against Japan and Morocco as they dominated possession but failed to do much with it.

When asked if he'd have done things differently if he had his time again, Enrique admitted that he should have played Pablo Sarabia more, having not used the PSG winger at all until the final five minutes of Spain's last-16 tie.

'I think Pablo Sarabia deserved more than the five minutes I gave him. Right now I would have even made him the starter. I'm not one of those who beats himself up, surely we would have lost the same, but in terms of justice he deserved it.'

Spain's exit came at exactly the same stage as four years ago in Russia, but Enrique feels the national team can have a bright future, and has picked out Pedri as the player that surprised him the most, even comparing the midfielder to World Cup winner Andres Iniesta.

'The one who surprised me the most is Pedri. He’s like Harry Potter… He does magic. He’s insane, I don’t know how to explain it. He surprised me but at the same time he didn’t,' Enrique continued.

'Watching him play even in difficult moments, the closest player I’ve seen like him is Iniesta but he doesn’t need comparisons.'

The World Cup has now reached the semi-final stage, with Argentina facing Croatia on Tuesday before France play Morocco on Wednesday.

Enrique, who managed Lionel Messi at Barcelona between 2014 and 2017, wants the Argentine playmaker to go on to lift international football's biggest prize to cap off his remarkable career.

'I want Messi to win the World Cup, because of what Messi means to football,' he added.