Well i think because he's so sure about no one can replace Osako as a target man up front, he seems didn't care about the result, only want to know who between these two deserves a ticket to Russia.
Kubo should have scored a header from Nakajima's free-kick rebound in the last minute imo. The team could do with Muto with his movement in the box. Hasebe seems to slowing down, Vahid can try Misao more as he is similar to Hasebe's style imo. Kagawa should be brought back. Honda is too slow imo.
I like Misao. But even Busquets will struggle to sort-out the possession of this team because of an appaling structure. Watching 4 players stand in a 3x3m space and linear to each other is indeed really an awful sight.
Misao is useful as I think he can play the holding MF role in place of Hasebe if Hasebe cannot continue for the full 90 mins. We all saw what happened when Endo replaced Hasebe in the match against Ivory Coast. A MF who can withstand pressing and deal with physicality to press the ball under pressure well is necessary. As for the formation, I think Vahid is still trying to see what is the best formation to play in the WC and choose among the choices on who to bring to Russia. Okada lost all quite a lot of friendlies before 2010 WC and he did decently there. Zaccheroni did well in the friendlies prior to the 2014 WC and we all also saw what happened in the end.
Also imo, Kagawa should play as a secondary striker/second attacking midfielder, not as the main attacking midfielder, the main attacking midfielder has to be Morioka. And Usami also plays better as a secondary striker/second attacking midfielder, not as a winger. Anyway, what's the ideal formation for the WC to you guys?
I wonder how Japan's development will be in the future. It seems like they are not producing the players they once were with Honda, Okazaki and Kagawa. With that it's vital they have the best tactics possible.
Might as well be an optimist. Right now, we have no stars, for sure, but on the other hand we have as many in top league as we’ve had in the past. I’m not sure lack of talent is Japan’s biggest problem. For me a lot of the 2014 failure was in the head — you see this kind of meltdown fairly often in football (e.g. the England national team, Brazil vs Germany 2014). One thing I like about Vahid over Zaccheroni is Vahid seems more aware of the importance of having mentally strong players, seeing that factor as key to his success with Algeria. He’s using these friendlies to continue to audition players — definitely the right idea as the results don’t mean a thing. Not sure why he didnt call up Muto though.
He certainly isn't really good at creating the needed tension before the friendlies though, considering and how it's going lately and how it went vs Belgium and the Netherlands the time before instead. Hopefully he can do that just before the World Cup. And I agree that the problem isn't the lack of talent personally, though a few specific positions, like central midfield, seem to be suffering a bit right now.
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/sports...stumbles-ukraine-world-cup-warm/#.WruuRlplChA According to Vahid, Japan is still not ready, but will be in a better position for its next warm-up matches. Also, “we lost, but it was a better game than last time”. The game against Mali must have been pretty bad, then.
Please guys, I'll ask again, post here your ideal formation for the WC, let's participate and discuss!
---------------------Muto(Okazaki)------------------ Inui-----------------Kagawa-----------Honda -------------Hasebe------Shibasaki-------- Nagatomo---Makino---Yoshida---Sakai -------------------Kawashima---------------- I guess this would be mine. I would have put Shoji over Makino until recently but now both are being quite bad
It seems we agree Dax that Shibasaki should be a central midfielder. If Ideguchi doesn't get to play in la liga 2, there will be few players for that position who can both defend and attack well.
Kawashima; Sakai, Yoshida, Makino, Nagatomo; Hasebe, Misao; Kubo, Kagawa, Inui; Osako I'd pefer 2 decent form steady, tactically astute double six with decent distribution for world cup. As there is no guarantee that our defence will be decent enough in time. As for Osako, i just don't see Vahid will choose other FW as a plan A. And in fact, Osako is our only hope to sort-out our build-up issue, he is more indispensable than ever in time like this, when we cannot build-up cleanly towards final third. And that's when Osako will play his role. Goal scoring will be on the shoulder of Kagawa and co. From 2nd line.
I agree, Osako is a great player, the team in necessity really could play with him as a pivot, while other player like Okazaki or Muto could be the main striker. And let's' wait to see if Kagawa recovers well in time for the WC, but I see him playing as a secondary striker/second attacking midfielder, not as the main attacking midfielder, But what do you think of players like Nakajima, Doan, and Morioka? They are currently the best japanese attack players in Europe imo.
Does Nakajima also play on the right? I can't remember. But the team is too unbalanced in defense with both Inui and Nakajima Yes Honda is trash honestly. It's more like an act of faith that he can wake up at world cups. Doan is doing really well but you would basically throw him inside a team that he has never played with... Morioka and Nakajima can definitely make the squad, I just wouldn't start with them.
I'd prefer Nakajima over Inui. Inui is a good player, but Nakajima contributes more with goals and assists, and he played well these last two matches even though he never played before with that team.
I just hope we're gonna ditch the 4-3-3 after this cycle. It didn't work and it penalized a lot the creative players.
I can't remember the last time I was so pessimistic about the Japan NT 3 months before a FWC. Having followed this team more or less properly since 2005.
2010. Friendly lost vs England after taking the lead, with 2 owngoals (1 per CB), friendly vs Zambia scoreless some days before starting the competition, plus the young Kagawa not called and the total lack of a striker who can properly score a fecking goal. Rumors of Okada close to resign just before the WC and then we arrived 9th as the best result ever made by Japan even better then 2002's. In 2014 with Zac Japan fresh Asian Champion (plus that victory vs Argentina and France) we thought we were so strong to easily reach the final16 (despite being raped in Confederations Cup) and then we ********ed up as in 2006 did Zico Japan (the Z factor jinxed us). Now we are pessimistic as in 2010, let's hope Vahid will extract some rabbit from the hat and try at least to score some goal and make some points.
I wasn't as pessimistic in 2010, we had 2 solid CBs and didn't feel that far off being a decent team. The spine of the team (Tulio/Nakazawa/Endo/Hasebe/Honda) had been formed even if there were changes later. But here our defence is kinda crap for a while now and we can't beat anybody who isn't Asian lately.