Official: https://www.rcdeportivo.es/noticia/gaku-shibasaki-nuevo-jugador-del-depor-2019-2020 4 years contract.
Instead of scoring against Barcelona ! In all honesty he made the right move, nobody knows what happened in Getafe.
Getafe's football didn't suit his style of play at all. What they need are fighters, not skillful players like him. He was extremely stupid to throw away the chance to play for Benfica after the WC. Benfica prefers to play technically-oriented football, they are at least on par with mid-table La Liga teams and can play CL every year. He got what he deserved by making a foolish decision. Japan's captain plays in the Segunda? What a joke.
Unfortunately, in the current state of football, being the captain of the JNT does not guarantee a regular spot on a first div team in Europe.
Joining a team such as Deportivo La Coruña or Malaga in the Spanish second division might be a better option than joining a first division club such as Leganes. Malaga and Deportivo were solid La Liga teams, with Deportivo winning the league in the 1999/2000 season, and Malaga finished the league in the 4th place and qualifying to the UEFA champions league quarterfinals few years ago. They are clubs with history and are viewed among the favourites (or even the two favourites) to promote to the first division. They almost got promoted this season unless for some bad run of results which saw them drop to the play-off spots, in which Mallorca won the final play-off against Deportivo. If they have a great plan to secure automatic promotion and build a strong team for the future by attracting quality players such as Shibasaki and Okazaki, so why not be an integral part of this project? It is better than joining a relegation-threatened first division club like Leganes -which if relegated- there is no guarantee they will bounce back in one year or two. I can compare Deportivo and Malaga to Kashiwa Reysol, historical first division team who unfortunately found themselves in the second division. While teams like Leganes, Girona and Huesca are similar to the likes of Matsumoto Yamaga, Montedio Yamagata and Tomushima Vortis, who can found themselves -once in a while- in the first division but they would hardly survive after their first or second year in the top flight.
His team is having an 11 matches winless streak. Since winning their first match of the season, they drew in 5 matches and lost in 6, which makes them languishing in the last place of the Spanish second division. They are 4 points away from getting out of the relegation zone. Today, they lost their home game against fellow relegation-threatened Malaga 0-2, who were also in a 10 matches winless streak since winning their first match of the season. Shibasaki started in 9 matches (and only played full 90 minutes in 3 matches, with 2 of them being the first 2 matches of the season), and he has been subbed out frequently, sometimes even before or around the 60 minutes mark (he was subbed out in 6 of the 9 matches he played in). He did not score any goal yet, unlike both of his countrymen Okazaki and Kagawa, and he had only one assist in the second match of the season. Deportivo La Coruña is really in a down-spiral, from narrowly missing on promotion to the Spanish first division La Liga last season to facing the threat or relegation this season. I couldn't imagine a worst scenario for Shibasaki; from playing in a team which was fighting for European places and only lost a Champions League spot in the last match-day of the La Liga, to playing for a relegation threatened team in the second division. On the contrary, both Kagawa and Okazaki are gradually adapting to their new environments in Spain, scoring goals and recording assists, and their teams are both in the promotion spots, with one or both of them might lead their teams to promotion to the Spanish first division La Liga. All of this, while both Kagawa and Okazaki are over 30, already past their primes, and this is their first experience in Spanish football. Unlike Shibasaki who already spent 2.5 years in Spain and is still 27 years-old.
Gaku Shibasaki is starting on the bench for the 3rd match in a row, and 4th match in the last 6 matches. His team is in last place of the Spanish second division. Con @Luckia_es coñecemos a aliñación d #osnosos para o #DéporElche das 12:00 h. en #ABANCARIAZOR ⚔️ #QuenTeñaHonraQueMeSiga 🔥 pic.twitter.com/WthAfBQRdC— RC Deportivo (@RCDeportivo) November 10, 2019 He only played in 2 matches of the last 5 matches (the ones in which he was in the starting line-up), this means he didn’t play a single minute in the last 2 matches.
... and he was an unused sub for the 3rd match in a row, while his team lost 1-3 at home to stay dead-last of the league standings.
5th consecutive bench-start for Shibasaki. He didn’t play in the last 5 matches, last time he played was on 20/October. Deportivo la Coruña is dead last of the second division, they are six points adrift from safety. Shibasaki cannot get playing minutes for the team ranked 42nd in the Spanish league system, yet Moriyasu keeps calling him up and starting him instead of trying alternatives.
To be honest, there aren't much options who are as good as Shibasaki even now in his role. Japan may lack a true creative CM who can dictate the pace and tempo of the game like what Shibasaki was able to do at the 2018 WC.