Chile

About 5 years ago Chile did something that not a lot of teams do. They looked at their squad and instead of looking at the formation they wanted to play and then look at the players they had to fit that formation they put their best 11 players on a piece of paper and came up with a brand new formation. They are not symmetrical they sometimes don’t play that many defenders they know their strength is in the Centre of midfield and playing through Alexis Sanchez. Its this that not only makes Chile hard to play against but also they have started to get recognised for the players they are bringing through. The players im going to talk about in today’s blogs you will have heard of if your into your footballers and maybe one or 2 you may not have heard of.

Chile destroyed England a few months back. The went to Germany a few weeks later and controlled them and lost by a really small margin and the Germans booed their own team. The formation thing is an odd thing but the important thing about the formation is how they get the best out of their best players. Sanchez, Vidal, Medel, Isla and Vargas.

The most important player to Chile is Barcelona’s Alexis Sanchez. I think he is class. He is 25 years old and he is a direct strong winger who plays wide for Barcelona but more central (sort of a free role) for Chile. I love his Directness its fantastic to watch. I think Direct football should be used more often anyway as its very effective. That’s why Bale and Ronaldo are getting so much joy at footballers. They are so direct.  No messing about “im going to score” bang “see I told you” style of players and Sanchez is one of them. I actually think Barcelona is the wrong team for him. I think he would be better in the Premier League. its built for players like Alexis. Manchester United would be an incredible fit. Ive wanted him at United since I first saw him play for Udinese in Italy about 5 year ago. Im actually surprised more wingers are not getting stronger because it seems to be really effective. Ronaldo, Bale and Sanchez are 3 of the best wingers in the world and they are all strong, Quick and athletic. Seems obvious to me.

Im a big fan as well of the 2 lad  that play for Juventus. Isla and Vidal. Isla is a full back but can play defensive midfield as well. think Lahm of Bayern. Very good full back, Wing back or Defensive centre midfield. Vidal is the perfect Centre midfield player. This lad is world class. Good goal scorer, good passer, can tackle and cross ect. I actually think he is the best player in Italy at the moment.

It may surprise you to hear that one of their best players plays for a championship club. He plays for Wigan and his name is Jean Beausejour. This guy confuses me. for Wigan he seems average at best. For Chile he transforms. He seems to pick the right pass a lot more for Chile. Ive seen it before where some players just play better for their country but Beausejour shows a bigger improvement that anybody ive seen in recent time. maybe its just playing against better players, i don’t know.

The group is interesting. If you have read the Spain blog then you will know that I think Spain will top this group. But Chile or Holland will be runner up. The match between Holland and Chile is going to Vital to the progression of them. I do think Chile may do it and qualify. It would be interesting if they Drew because then it would come down to who didn’t lose to Spain or beat Australia by the most amount of goals. I get the feeling that the way the games fall Holland have an advantage by playing Spain first and i think that will be a draw. Meaning if they draw with Chile they will have 5 points (they will beat the Aussies). Chile wont beat Spain and i also think Spain will  win that game so Chile with a draw to Holland would only have 4 points. But Chile beat Holland and they will qualify. This is going to be a really good group

Star player Alexis Sanchez

One to watch: Vidal

Prediction: unfortunately I think they will go out group stage