Wow, the weakest team in decade? No way. When did you guys start to follow the Japan NT? Please calm down. We are always crap in the group stage of the Asian Cup with the exception of the 2015 edition. Remember we have to play 7 games to win the title. Oman's manager said we stopped trying hard in the second half.
Having said that, I'm disappointed at Moriyasu's lack of tactical flexibility. Kitagawa can't play the target man role anywhere near as effectively as Osako. He was invisible yesterday.
I stated before the Oman match that it was rather strange that Kitagawa was in the starting line up. And unfortunatley I was right. Kitagawa is simply not good enough for this level. The main problem with this squad is the lack of depth as Moriyasu called up several players who are young but who have not yet reached international level. If the team misses 2 or 3 key players because of injuries then Japan is in a huge trouble.
I don't think it's about ages, it's about quality. Other teams even have younger age averages than Japan, but their football is still better than expected. Actually Japan has ideal age distributions. They have experiences in Yoshida, Nagatomo...; next generations in Doan, Tomiyasu...; players who are supposed to at their peaks: Haraguchi, Minamino, Muto... If anything, Haraguchi, Minamino, Muto, Shibasaki should step up. They are around 25, they are supposed to be the backbones for jnt from now. If they can not even do that in Asia cup, it's a huge disappointment
This. In 2011, Japan almost lost to Jordan and beat Syria thanks to a questionable penalty in the group stage. Title contenders step up their game when it matters. On the bright side, Tomiyasu is a tremendous talent. Probably one of the best young centre-backs in the world. He's playing like a 30-year-old veteran at just 20. Japan suddenly started to produce good centre-backs. And Endo was surprsngly good yesterday.
I agree. Once again its time to question Moriyasus selection of players. Why was Kitagawa choosen over players like Kubo, Okazaki and other strikers that have been tested? Then their is a couple players that should have been here, but the competition is really tough. Lets see how it goes, Moriyasu is far from convincing me he is the one.
This team is full of injuries. Guys like Suzuki (2018 ACL MVP), Kobayashi (2017 J1 MVP), and even Asano are ahead of Kitagawa but they are all injured now. Especially Suzuki could have been a rising star at this tournament. With all due respect, Kitagawa is C-team material at best. By the way, Muto's NT record is depressing for a player who has scored 21 goals in 72 Bundesliga/EPL games. 2 goals in 25 games. Last time he scored for Japan was 4 years ago in a friendly against Iran.
iniuries have destroyed this team. this was a really good opportunity for the following guys to announce themselves on the international stage: suzuki, misao and morita. even asano (and ideguchi). as for muto, he was trying hard against oman and looked so much more hungry than kitagawa. muto needs few consecutive games and i have faith he will score goals. he’s had a very stop start jnt career with injuries etc. moriyasu is clueless. typical japanese manager tactically naive, inflexible with absolutely no idea how to change a game with substitutions.
Australia came second of Group B, which means if Japan finish second they will meet Australia in the last 16. If Japan win against Uzbekistan and finish first then they will face either Saudi Arabia or Qatar, A draw or loss against Uzbekistan will see Japan finish second.
I'm not impressed with Australia in this tournament. They have some sparks in their attack, but overall are too inconsistent. Saudi Arabia or Qatar displayed some quality attacks but against weak opponents. And since when Japan needs to pick who to avoid between Australia, Qatar or Saudi Arabia?
My view stays the same: it doesn't matter which branch jnt is in next matches. If they want to be champion, they still have to beat Korea or Iran. For testing new players, now is the chance. Yoshida, Tomiyasu and Gonda still have to play to gain some understandings. The connection between Yoshida and Gonda is weak, some back passes from Yoshida in previous matches were on the verse of OG (are they secretly hate each other?) Maybe Shibasaki should play too, he needs to gain match fitness and confidence. (Well with this formation, things may turn ugly again Uzbekistan. I don't know, let the players prove it)
Complete rotation against Uzbekistan! ウズベキスタンとの試合に臨む日本代表のスタメンが発表!🇯🇵Jリーグ所属選手も多数先発です!#AsianCup2019 #アジアカップ#王座奪還 #SAMURAIBLUE #daihyo#Jリーグ pic.twitter.com/57hvApQPCB— Jリーグ(日本プロサッカーリーグ) (@J_League) January 17, 2019 Starting line-up: Schmidt. Muroya - Miura - Makino - Sasaki. Aoyama - Shiotani. J. Ito - Kitagawa - Inui. Muto. I'm not sure which one of Muto or Kitagawa will play top or under top. Let's hope it will turn on well for Japan.
hahaha ********ing sanfrecce. ********ing awful. j3 could beat these guys. serious question: do they even wanna be there?
moriyasu wants to finish second. if he wanted fresh players for the next round maybe he should’ve used more than one substitute against turkemenistan.