Why not play both of them? Muto looked good on the right wing vs. Paraguay. Osako looked decent enough up front. I believe we just haven't seen enough evidence from Muto that he can make an impact as a lone striker in this system. As has always been the case with Japan, at present our main attacking threat lies behind our forward/s. So until we have a Japanese Diego Costa we need a striker that can bring our midfielders into the game, particularly if we are starved of possession for long periods. Of course Osako is not an outstanding player by any means but he does a job. Maybe Muto can do the same but it's not as if he is banging the door down. Having said all this, I still believe he should start on the right of midfield instead of Haraguchi.
i appreciate what osako offers but considering this team has conceded two goals every game then i’d rather have muto if we go behind early.
Really don't think that Misao is much worse than either of them actually. Misao is more physical than both of them too imo. I never really liked the idea of Oshima due to him proving that he is poor on the air repeatedly. He never gets the 50/50 balls when he vies for them most of the time I have seen him and he passes sideways too much for my liking. As for Wataru Endo, I have yet to see much of him but when in the few occasions I have seen him, he was just decent only. I think that Misao and Yuya Kubo should be here at least imo. Then again, there are only so many slots available.
i’m no fan of oshima. he looks good in the j league but is just a “chibi” at international level. not particularly fast, not physically imposing or aggressive and injury prone. then again, imho I don’t think misao has done enough to come close to warrant selection in the wc.
There are more than one analysis from Toda, the one in the video is before the Ghana match, and I found another one after the Paraguay match. In the latter he emphasised these key points: 1- Japan has to press their opponents and defend from their opponents back-line (i.e. Japanese attacking players have to press the opponent's players and never give them the freedom to build-up or initiate a counter-attack). He emphasized this point as one of the positives from Paraguay match, as he said that Inui, Kagawa and Okazaki pressed the Paraguayan defenders strictly. Inui's and Kagawa's pressing in particular being the reason of relieving both Shibasaki and Yamaguchi of the pressure the CM/DM players in Japan NT usually face due to the attacking players reliance on them to do the job of obstructing the opponent's counter-attacks. This gave Shibasaki the freedom of picking some of the loose balls ensued from those challenges by Japan's attacking players on Paraguay players, and pass the ball back to the attacking players to create scoring chances. This also helped Yamaguchi to play a better balanced game, and not to leave big gaps between the defence and offence as it was always the case, as he had enough time to think about his next move, with less pressure on him to react to the opponent's counter-attacks. While, Toda noted that after Inui's being subbed out for Usami, Usami did not track back and press the way Inui was doing, which caused the balance of the CM/DM position to suffer. He also praised Okazaki's pressing and his role as a decoy to distract Parguay's defenders, especially in Inui's first goal, when he acted as if he was expecting a pass from Inui and made the defenders track him and left Inui unmarked to shot and score Japan's first goal. My note: this is the thing Okazaki excelled in at Leicester, creating space and distracting opposing defenders to give Vardy and Mahrez freedom to shoot, pass and dribble. 2- He said that Japan has to adopt a 5-back formation, with the 5th defender surging forward when Japan attacks to play as a defensive midfielder, and help the team to build-up from the back not by long passes but by outnumber the opponent's in the midfield, which lead to leave one of Japan's players unmarked in the offensive end. He gave example of this case when Shoji surged forward to the midfield and passed the ball to Kagawa which led to Japan's first goal. He called this tactic as "width and depth", as he also emphasized the importance of a 5-back (or a defensive midfielder playing close to the defence line) in the analysis he provided before the match against Ghana, which is in the video posted by @naopon . My note: as I said in an earlier post, in bothe 2002 and 2010, when Japan progress beyond the group-stage, they committed an extra man in defence. In 2002 Toda himself was this man, with Miyojin and Inamoto as the double CM, while in 2010 it was Yuki Abe, with Hasebe and Endo as the double CM. This is the important notes I've found in Toda's analysis (using Google Translate to translate the articles, and hopefully the translation wasn't misleading).
The one before Ghana's match: https://www.zakzak.co.jp/smp/spo/news/180614/spo1806140002-s1.html The one after Paraguay's match: https://russia2018.yahoo.co.jp/column/detail/201806130001-spnavi/?p=1
Your Japanese must be pretty good, Majster. I'm impressed. I tried learning it (for work purposes), and gave up after two years. Still can't get over that failure.
As for the CM/DM duo, it is most likely to be Shibasaki and Hasebe. While the CB duo likely to be Yoshida and Shoji. No reports from the camp so far about the wingback position.
Speaking of Toda, this is a great video channel for Japanese speakers who want to get into the nitty gritty leading up to the opening match: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7N1aavBc7wAoTsI4eP0BiA/videos The main issues raised: How will Japan effectively press the Colombian back line while engaging in zonal marking on the wings? Okazaki, Kagawa, Inui (and to some degree Muto) have all shown they are capable. Colombia has an extremely strong squad which has matured considerably over the course of the qualification cycle. How does Japan deal with the fluid positional movement of James around the pitch? What is the right combination of attackers to create a mix of vertical, horizontal, and diagonal movement on and off the ball? Likewise, how does Nishino deploy midfielders like Shibasaki and Kagawa who are adept at disrupting defensive structure by playing between the lines and in the half spaces? As evidenced by the penalty won by Embolo in the Switzerland match, the defense has yet to establish comfort with respect to handing off markers and providing support. On this play, Gotoku went in for the challenge instead of trusting his teammates and funneling Embolo inside, where Oshima would have been waiting; Yoshida hesitated to offer support for fear of leaving the center vacant. Toda reiterates in many places that his preferred solution is to compress lateral space by playing with 5 in the back. Who do you partner Yoshida with? Do you go with Makino's athleticism and aggressiveness, or Shoji's caution on both sides of the ball?
Actually I think Makino can be used as a Wingback or even a DM to cover Shibasaki. Like that, Shibasaki can be relieved of some of his defensive duties to move freely so that he can link up the play imo. Makino is good at man-marking, Nishino should find a way to utilize that.
I cant believe how absolutely trash entire South Korean team is. Absolutely trash. What in the world happened
Surprised by the fouling, complaining to referee about fouls and grass rolling of both teams, especially the Swedish side I am more surprised at the fact that Sweden beat Italy in the play-offs, how did Italy lost lol? On the other hand, I think Iran may have the best chances to proceed out of the group-stages among the AFC sides here. Spain might be in a bit of disarray with the firing of their coach, maybe they can take advantage of it. Portugal have Ronaldo but they are not unbeatable as well. Iran may very well draw with both of them.
Guys, this thread is exclusively about Japan vs Colombia match. Please post any general WC discussion here: https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/2018-fifa-world-cup-discussion.2073166/
Okazaki out = bye bye Toda's pressing colombian back line stuff. With Osako: long ball and hope he will win the aerial battle and hold the ball for the former cerezosakans. With Muto: just don't know what he can do. Hope he will try to be a bit okazakesque. Anyway: don't forget that Okazaki injury rumors can be a Nishino mastermind tactic to use him as the secret weapon that none in the whole Colombia nation expect !
Who isn't missing Kiyotake? He should have been the star of this team. Pure genius, I hope he'll get another chance in 2022. Oh, they did deservedly. Or at least they didn't steal anything: Italy had a technical advantage and they didn't exploit it. Sweden found the right episode in Solna and then defend themselves in Milan with a little luck. Also today they won deservedly. They're not extraordinary, but they're solid and Andersson did a miracle bringing them to WC (also exploiting the U-21 generation which won the Euro U-21 championship in 2015).