Hello, welcome to the preview of Group F in the world cup. Thanks for all the support so far on these previews. I would love to hear peoples thoughts and predictions on the competition. Today we will be looking at group F which contains Germany, Mexico, South Korea and Sweden.

The first thing to look at is the age distribution of all 4 teams. Germany seems to have one of the younger squads in the tournament with a relatively small distribution between youngest and oldest players. Mexico has players from the youngest in their 20’s all the way up to near 40. South Korea and Sweden have the same median ages but South Korea has more players clustered around their median and have the lowest amount of players above 30.

Mexico has what looks to be the most experienced squad with players mostly having around 50 caps but they have some players up to 150 caps. Germany has a lot of players with a relatively low amount of caps but also have the trend we have seen with other squads of having a group of players with a lot of caps. I wonder if these players would be a similar age and therefore could be a golden generation. Sweden possibly has the most inexperienced squads in the group with a lot of players less than 50 caps.

On the face of it, Germany seems to have a small number of attackers in the squad. However, they have more midfielders and a few of them are creative attacking midfielders, therefore, I don’t think they will struggle for goals. South Korea also has the same amount of attackers as Germany but seem have picked more defenders. This could leave them struggling to score goals.

Last but not least we look at each teams chances using the probability of implied odds. No surprise really Germany are big favourites to get out the group. However, the fight for second place looks to be a realistic target for the other three teams. It looks particularly close between Mexico and Sweden. They play each other in the last game of the group stage, therefore, it could be a straight shoot-out for second place. Also, South Korea playing Germany who may have already qualified and therefore may make changes could give them an outside chance if it goes to the last game.

That’s it for today’s look a group F please let me know your thoughts would love to start a good debate on your thoughts. Also, check out the other blogs in the series.