A disappointing 1-1 draw away to Bosnia in their opening World Cup qualifier demonstrated that Spain continue to suffer from the same problems that resulted in an early exit at Euro 2004, Spanish media said on Thursday.
"The national side shows no sign of improvement," commented sports daily Marca.
"It is remains a team without personality, without creativity and without a leader."
"Experienced players appear to lack the ability to impose themselves on a team like Bosnia that was both technically and physically inferior."
Spain were outplayed by Bosnia in the first half and were fortunate not to have fallen behind before the break after midfielder
Elvir Baljic missed two clear-cut chances to put the home side ahead.
The visitors grabbed the lead against the run of play with a fine individual strike from Vicente midway through the second half but Bosnia hit back eight minutes later when Elvir Bolic dinked the ball home after Spain lost possession in midfield.
It was a disappointing first competitive outing for new coach Luis Aragones, who took over the national side when his predecessor Inaki Saez resigned after Euro 2004.
"The new Spain of Aragones has the same problems as the old side under Saez," said Spanish daily El Mundo.
"The team gets bogged down up front and seems incapable of finishing off the opposition."
Aragones, who admitted earlier this week that the team were in worse shape than he had expected before taking up the post, said that the players appeared to lack the necessary competitive edge.
"We started nervously and made life difficult for ourselves," he said.
"We were the better side once we moved the ball around, but we have to learn how to compete. We cannot afford to let opponents score after losing the ball in midfield."
But he added that Bosnia would be certain to pose serious problems for the other teams in the group.
"Bosnia are not the easy opponents that many people think," he said.
"They made life difficult for us with the way they pressured us in midfield and teams that come here are going to have a tough time."