Makino is pretty good imo, I think he should replace Shoji and partner Yoshida for Russia. Yamaguchi did not play that well imo, his decision-making is a bit poor today and I feel he tends to pick the wrong passes easily when pressed.
Makino is a pleasure in disguise in the last matches. He was always been prone to defensive errors and not so good as a CB, but after his latest performances he all but secured his spot in the WC starting line-up.
We played with wingers (Haraguchi and Asano) that are only good at defending, this forces our full-backs to go more to the attack. If we had wingers that are good at attacking, like Nakajima, Saito, Junya ito, etc the full-backs could concentrate more at defending. In this case, either Muto or Okazaki could play as the striker in a fixed position near the penalty area, instead of leaving it too much like Osako needs to do. Than If Vahid wants to play with Haraguchi and Asano, he should use more attack-minded full-backs. Examples of this could be Sekine, Ritsu Doan (He used to play as a left-back in the past). But it's still way better to simply play with wingers that are good at attacking while using Sakai and Nagatomo.
Hmm, I wonder how many times both fans on this forum and football analysts in Japan have said that line before... Great work flying over Shinzo Koroki for absolutely nothing.
I think it's obvious that we won't see the intricacies like the goal to the Netherlands and so on. However, trying to see the glass half full, it seems we gained a bit extra defensive stability. With a bit of luck it could still be enough to at least have a better group stage.
We'll be more solid, but way less spectacular. I honestly prefer the flashy version. But, who knows... still I hope the next manager won't be so blind and critical towards J. League. This feeling is unbearable. J. League is the most organized league in Asia, still it gets critics by a guy who always watched matches between Tokyo, Osaka, Saitama and sometimes Ibaraki.
Not like Zac was any better in this aspect. With the emergence of Shoji, I had hoped I wouldn't have to see Makino (and Morishege) starting again. However, he always finds a way to bounce back.. helped by lack of options/development in defenders in general.
Everything is better than WC 14, well maybe not WC 06. WC 10 was the right time for Japan, they really had the chance, if they can come close to that.
I remember the WC and the Confederations Cup more easily than the results of these friendlies unfortunately. That said, I believe the team that's currently set up is too defensive, and that all the energy spent chasing around is missing when we get the ball back. The balance is yet to be found.
Creative midfielders and awesome free kick takers. Isn't that the image of japanese soccer?. I wonder if it died with Endo.. I'm afraid it did.
Well, there were disappointing games from Zac's team as well. Remember the game against Belarussia? That was a disaster. Few more games as well.
You're preaching to someone who's already convinced. But once in a while you can read stuff like "best asian team ever" after friendly games so it's good to set the record straight.
I still don't understand the hype of the 2014 WC cycle team? They were not world beaters at any rate. Yet, they have their ups and downs, there were some remarkable displays and results like winning against Argentina, France (although we were completely outclassed), and Belgium, while drawing against Netherlands and having a great game against Italy in the Confederations Cup in which we lost despite being the better team. But, we also had bad games and displays in that WC cycle, especially in 2013/2014, in addition to an expected loss against Brazil and unlucky defeat against Mexico, we lost at home 2-4 against Uruguay, we also lost against Bulgaria at home, Serbia and BELARUS away!! Then we wrap up 2013 with the two great displays against Netherlands and Belgium, in which our players were exceptionally great., which might gave us and (Zac and the players) a false-assurance. In 2014 we barely defeated Cyprus by 1-0, and struggled against Zambia and Costa Rica in our last two warm-ups. In Asia WCQ we lost away against Jordan and North Korea, and we lost AT HOME against Uzbekistan. Apart from some wins here and there in WCQ, our friendly results and displays were not so assuring (apart from the wins against Argentina -when we still got the 2010 WC momentum-, and the games against S. Korea, France, Netherlands and Belgium). Winning against Latvia, Canada, Iceland (they were not that great then and did not bring all of their starters to Japan), Guatemala, New Zealand, Azerbaijan and etc by 1-2 goals margin is not assuring at all. I have hope in this team and Vahid, he is trying hard to fix the problems he is facing and deliver good results at the WC. It is obvious that there are some improvements made. So let's not hype the 2014 team and whip this team.
They were good. They won an Asian Cup, they were fun to watch, they defeated Belgium, Argentina, France away... but they didn't deliver in the end. This team is totally different. But maybe they'll go further than 2014.
I'm optimistic after the matches. I saw a clear evolution from a game to another, the defense is really solid, the players just need to have better attention, because if they had, we wouldn't have suffered any goal against Belgium at their home. For the WC, Vahid will have further 3 weeks before the tournament to prepare the team mentally, phisically and tactically, and he can call better wingers, which will improve the attack. So for the WC, the JNT will be a much better team than the current team that faced the strong Belgium at their home and almost drew. You guys will see.
Yes, but what stands after that? The renovation hasn't been there, Halilhodzic didn't add so much fresh blood to this team. He just swung the waves of time. And then - after 2018 WC, with AC coming - you'll have to add several new faces.
That's cuz Shoji aren't really that good either imo. Other than Yoshida, all the other CBs aren't that good. Maybe if more CBs like Nakatani, Ueda and Nakayama, etc. move overseas, they might develop become more well-rounded like Yoshida through the higher level of competition and intensity overseas but it is tough to say as well. After all, Nakazawa and Tulio didn't played overseas and they were the most solid CB duo to ever play for the JNT imo.