Weekly English Premier League Opinion - World Cup Edition
For a change of pace, while the EPL is in their off-season and we have the World Cup to look forward to and enjoy, the Weekly EPL Opinion blog, will become the "World Cup Edition". Jonny Carter will continue to give his opinions on the teams, players and tactics, but will do so almost daily and on the World Cup games. To start with Jonny makes some pre-World Cup predictions. Check it out and let's hear what you think.
Once the World Cup starts, look for these posts almost daily.
The Premier League season is over, the Champions League final is done; time to get into World Cup mode. All those annoying international breaks that interrupted the regular league season was all for this, the World Cup 2018 hosted in Russia. 32 countries playing a month-long soccer bonanza of competition that realistically only 4 ½ teams have a genuine chance of winning. With a jampacked schedule of multiple games a day for a good couple of weeks it’s an opportunity to view some players and some teams that you just might not have seen before; I love it.
So who is going to win it all, and why?
I think most are in agreement that there are a few salient candidates for World Cup final victory that are very predictable; but even out of this rather small field of potential winners, picking the top team is a lottery.
Brazil will definitely be a team that can triumph. The squad has great depth with genuine cover in almost every single position on the field, not least at goalkeeper where they are super strong. I like the balance between their pragmatic midfield workers and the creativity up top. And they seem to have a calm and settled runup to the tournament under the guidance of a calming and settling coach, maybe that wasn’t the case with all the helter-skelter of host country last time around. Brazil’s success often comes down to flair players, and this current crop of Brazilians have that in abundance, especially if Neymar can find some humility and lead by example rather than amuse himself with juvenile antics. The only worry for me with Brazil is in the center of defense, I’m not convinced about the defensive group enough to mark them as outright favorites. I also think their success will hinge on who plays as the central striker. They will certainly be worth watching though.
Current World Cup holders Germany have an outstanding squad of experienced ‘been-there-before’ veterans combined with youthful quality. What they also have is speed; genuine raw pace. Though the last-minute omission of Leroy Sané is a little bit puzzling; he did decline in form towards the end of a grueling Premier League season, but that speed would have been a real weapon. As with most genuine World Cup final contenders the squad is well-balanced from back to front and importantly, on the bench, they have options. There is genuine proven world class quality across the team, especially in a stacked midfield. Some of these players just won’t get to play that much but they would be superheroes with another country. And the youth of Kimmich, Werner & Goretska represents a bright future. The only major concern is perhaps the lack of a recognized #9 central striker, perhaps they can make up for that with excellent defending and midfield experience, or maybe I can get proven wrong by that referenced youthfulness maturing throughout the tournament.
Rejuvenated Spain look like a world class football team once more. Perhaps they don’t carry the opulence of their trophy laden glory days, but they are a solid team with a genuine attacking threat from some tricky attacking midfield alternatives. The possession-based football still remains, they have a goal scoring threat and they have multiple match winners, not least in the keeper de Gea. The veteran status of some of their stalwarts could be argued as vital tournament experience or equally argued as an ageing defensive group well past their best. Whichever way you view it, I think Spain will be real contenders come kick off.
The team that I’m most excited to watch is France. They are my tip for the title and I think it will be an experience watching them win it. The squad is the deepest out of all the countries participating, the guys they left at home would make up a pretty decent squad. With pace, guile and variation in attack, and solid everywhere else, they look the most balanced 23-man squad out there. But this is not the first time that France have squandered such talent with confusing team selections; fielding the correct XI is really their biggest problem. I’m not the biggest fan of Deschamps, but with this amount of available talent surely he can’t mess it up, again.
Just a little bit outside of tournament favorites are Argentina. Seemingly unable to get all of their talents to cooperate together into one coherent team, you can never quite right them off when you have Messi on your side. They have an abundance of attacking talent, but the team gets weaker the further back you go, not least with an alarming lack of international football experience in goal. If they can find a formula to somehow have Messi compliment the other talent in the team then they must be regarded with trophy winning potential.
England will be worth watching. For the first time in a long time there seems little hype about the potential of England, I think everybody can see what they are. They have a squad of bang average Premier League players under the guidance of a bang average manager. And perhaps it suits them. Without all the razzmatazz of the ‘golden generation’ moniker to weigh them down the team looks to have a degree of humility about it, an unassuming demeanor that appears different from most pre-tournament nonsense that follows the England national football team. And if their one genuine superstar, Harry Kane, can shine, then I think England can do well. I don’t think they will win it all, but I think they will have a respectable showing.
The best of the rest offers up little hope to most participating countries. Some teams might have a talismanic figure that can carry the fight, but without the supporting cast that the tournament favorites have its tough to see a success coming from outside the list.
Can Lewandowski carry Poland to a final, probably not. Or can the likes of Christian Eriksen with Denmark, Mo Salah with Egypt or James Rodríguez with Columbia drive a team to World Cup success, I don’t think so. Are we likely to see an African nation or an Asiannation succeed this time around, not based on my research. What about host country Russia…no? I’ve seen a lot of Mexico through their qualifying campaign, and they always come with a special heritage for football, but I don’t have any confidence that this generation are genuine contenders for this World Cup tournament.
But perhaps Belgium could. When you look at their squad, well most of it anyway, you see some stellar names, proven world class talent. Players that are lighting up Premier League football in particular. Maybe, just maybe, they can finally get a gifted group of players organized enough to be the ones to upset the predictable order.
It all starts on the 14th June 2018. Let me know if you think I'm right or not and who you think has a good chance to win.
