Well, there's not much talent in CB positions in the age between 20 and 24. And Halil won't be starting those guys just for the sake of them being fairly young and *might* be better in the future. That's why the pair of CB for the WC will be Makino - Yoshida for sure. Of course Makino can be in shambles by that time but if won't happen he'll start. Any of those young guys are better than Makino now? Surely not.
He should be ok as long as he will keep his concentration at 100% all the time during games. He's pretty good with one to one defending and it works good for him. His positioning might be worse but at least he doesn't miskick the ball from time to time like Maya does... Sometimes he makes bad decissions when the players forwad are beaten and dispersed throught the defence line. That's what's most frustrating with him and probably that's what is pointed out his bad sides most often. Not perfect but surely he isn't below the average of the current team.
Thanks. Thats what I've seen too, and that is probably why he never succeeded overseas. If he is in good form and 100 % I'm not that worried, cause as you say there is not any other options anyways.
So my country isn't going to Russia 2018. Nor are the other two with whom I have family ties. Will adopt one from each Confed among those who haven't won WC previously. Backing JPN from Asia (used to live there), NGA from Africa (long story). Open to suggestions elsewhere— Gabriele Marcotti (@Marcotti) November 16, 2017
I still believe Halil still should've given an opportunity to Ueda (at the very least) in the absolutely meaningless friendlies against the might of Haiti and Bulgaria. Because of his unwillingness to gamble on a few promising players in the Kirin Cup we find ourselves in a situation where there is not much depth to the JNT. You can only learn so much about a player on the training pitch.
I hope you’re right about Vahid preparing the team mentally, just like he coaxed great performances out of Algeria. As I’ve said before, for me WC 2014 was a massive collective mental meltdown, just like Yu Darvish at the World Series.
Thats what Im talking about, if some players not even gets the chance in friendlies against "weaker" teams, there isn't really much chance for them to ever play.
GK: Higashiguchi, Nakamura, Gonda DF: Nishi, Hatsuse, Kurumaya, Shuto Yamamoto, Miura, Ueda, Shoji, Taniguchi MF: Kento Misao, Konno, Ideguchi, Takahagi, Oshima, Kiyotake FW: Junya Ito, Yu Kobayashi, Kurata, Hiroyuki Abe, Sugimoto, Kanazaki
Well, It seems that Vahid is mostly considering players from this season's and last season's top 4 teams only. I'm happy with this squad in general with the exception of Takahagi. There are some of few names I wished to see in this squad, for example: 1- Shota Kobayashi instead of Yamamoto. 2- Gakuto Matsuda instead of Takahagi. Both Vegalta players has been playing great since moving to Vegalta during the summer, and without their contributions we could have seen Vegalta struggling among the relegation-threatened teams. 3- I preferred to see Yamanaka instead of Hastuse, but the latter was Gamba's brightest spot in their catastrophic second-half of the season. So no big complaining here + he is the first and only player from the Tokyo Olympic generation to be considered for the senior NT so far, which is good.
I also like this squad. Sure it can always be different but happy to see Kiyotake back. Great player. Same with Abe and Kanazaki.
I haven't closely followed Notsuda's career until this season but I remember he was hyped up as the next "big thing" at Sanfrecce with Asano. While Asano's now playing in Germany the former's been loaned out to three clubs now. He's been playing great football, unlucky to miss out IMO but with Vahid at the helm there was zero chance. Other names I wanted to see were Yuta Nakayama, Yutaka Yoshida and Hayao Kawabe. So many players from Gamba considering they've been playing like turds last few months.
Don't really like the choices of Hatsuse, Miura, Takahagi and Kurata. No Nara, Nakayama and Nakatani and Yuma Suzuki.
Yuma Suzuki has barely played 50 minutes of football in the last two months, he's out of favour and he should move elsewhere since Kawasaki is the guaranteed starting striker at Kashima. I hope Nakayama converts to midfield next season which is his preferred position.
Every single team has a shot, it will be a fierce battle. We dodged a bullet at the end, thanks Korea Republic.