New transfers announced: -MF Tatsuya Yazawa acquired on a full transfer from JEF Chiba -DF Ryo Hiraide's 1-year loan to Kataller Toyama announced
He's quite ungainly looking, but pretty fast and skillful dribbler who plays on the right wing I think. I watched a game where he scored a couple of goals for JEF last season (I can't remember the opposition) and looked pretty eccentric in the post-match interview. When I was looking at players stuck in J2 which Avispa might be able to pick up he was one of the ones which I thought would be a decent acquisition for J1. Should carry on doing well at J2 level, but played some part in the JEF team which totally collapsed at the end of last season.
His wiki entry makes him sound like a strange dude, but we can use some eccentricity. New announcements... IN: DF Tomokazu Nagira (from Avispa Fukuoka, full transfer) OUT: MF Shuto Kono (to Oita Trinita, 1 year loan) FW Kentaro Shigematsu (to Avispa Fukuoka, 1 year loan) Thoughts on Nagira? His Wiki profile makes him out to have been quite the hothead a few years ago, what's he like these days? Kono I totally understand, he's still way too young. Shigematsu I'm not so happy about... I'd almost have rather seen the team sell Hirayama, use two Brazilians up top, and use Shigematsu as a sub. Also apparently Chesena intends to buy out Nagatomo's contract when his loan expires.
And since transfer news seems to be winding down, here's an idea of our roster: GK: Gonda, Shiota, Tokizawa, Hironaga DF: Konno, Mukuhara, Tokunaga, Morishige, Hiramatsu, Takahashi, Abe, Yoshimoto, Nagira MF: Yonemoto, Kajiyama, Nakamura, Ishikawa, Otake, Hanyu, Tanabe, Shimoda, Hoberto, Uesato, Yazawa FW: Suzuki, Hirayama, Roberto, Pedro Junior, (Takamatsu?) Takamatsu (who I didn't realize is out for at least 3 months after an ACL injury in November) and our AFC slot are still undecided. Apparently there won't be any promotions from the youth team this year.
I looked to see if that interview was on youtube after replying and I can't find it, but there is plenty on there about Yazawa... [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpEIJyi-w2I"]YouTube - ????2[/ame] Nagira only got 3-4 games for us, and only 1 start last season, so when he did play he was quite low on match fitness so always cramped up and had to be substituted after 75 minutes. He is very popular with the crowd, and has as many banners as anyone else, because of his commitment to the team. His nickname on them being Killer Nagi. As that suggests, he doesn"t mind a strong challenge. He never played badly for us, and I would have kept him as a squad defender who never let the team down when he played, trained well and never complained (as far as I know). He is let down by a lack of pace and mobility, but is definitely good enough for J2. The only time he looked uncomfortable was against Kashiwa, when none of our defence looked alright. Do you think Shigematsu will be competing for a 1st team slot? At the moment we don't have any proper strikers other than the aging Takahashi. Jogo has been playing as striker. I'd have sooner had Hirayama too. Shigematsus profile on the FCT homepage says he is physically strong and calm under pressure.
Oh man, Yazawa looks like a total weirdo. Excellent. He and Hanyu can form the Area 51 Brigade. I'd say that's accurate. I think he could easily emerge as a starter. I really wish that Tokyo had kept some of their younger players but if the goal is a speedy return to J1 then I understand their personnel moves. I'm surprised that they've kept Tanabe, but I suppose we'll see him more this season. I expect Otake to get a lot more time on the pitch as well...
Takamatsu now confirmed. Good to see much more depth in midfield, should be able to stop playing central defenders there now! We will see how things turn out up front, although we still don't have an out an out goal scorer do we? Heard rumours about Hanyu and Shiota leaving, neither of which would bother me. Would like to see Tatsuya shown the door. Starting to feel better about J2, Tochigi for one might be a nice away day!
How many players are you buying? Some will be rather unhappy, on a J2 bench... Seems like JEF last season...
Now that Takamatsu is there, Hirayama can leave to join Real Madrid or Inter Milan without feeling guilty.
I'm pretty sure the article I read said that it's not happening until the summer. Also Tokyo hasn't announced the full transfer, but that could be because it's been a weekend... Takamatsu, Pedro Jr, Uesato were all rentals, everyone else was a buyout.
So (in J2) you're going to field all those who accepted to stay and all the new guys? Will the J.League allow you to play with 17 on the field...?
One thing to consider is that Konno and Gonda will be missing a lot of time for NT duty, and Yonemoto (and possibly even Mukuhara and Otake) will be missing time for Olympic qualifying. So there will be plenty of holes to fill throughout the regular season... and nobody quite knows what's happening to the players whose rentals expired who are coming back to the team. If having a couple talented players warm the bench means that we have enough depth to not need to put Tokunaga at midfield if a couple of our volantes stub their big toe, I'm cool with it.
Are you sure? I don't see so much overlap in the schedule, plus Gonda and Konno are a GK and a CB, and you bought mainly attacking players. I mean, it is good to have a lot of good players, but if they accept to come down to J2 and don't get to play regularly, you'll have the same problems that JEF had, especially if those staying out are bosses in the locker room.
I mean, first of all it's not like the transfer window is over yet, so it's a little early to say how it'll all shake out. Second, compared to our squad last year, I just don't see where you think the big change is. FWs in 2010: 5 at start, 6 after summer transfers FWs in 2011: 5 MFs in 2010: 8 at the start, 10 after summer transfers MFs in 2011: 11 now but who knows if Shimoda etc. will stay in the end DFs in 2010: 9+ at start? 8 at the end DFs in 2011: 9 Those are numbers off the top of my head; I know we started with more players than we ended up with b/c of midseason rentals and that sort of thing. Our starting 4 midfielders (Hanyu, Ishikawa, Yonemoto, Kajiyama) all spent significant time off this season with injuries, so it's a matter of course that we'd shore up that position. As far as the new transfers being attack-minded... well, we only scored 36 goals last season. You do the math. Also, scheduling news! In addition to the Tokyo Derby season opener reports, someone on 2ch claims that they've gotten a hold of the opener schedule and that Tokyo will be making a "very long trip." The post further implies that the season for some food or another that the area is famous for lasts from November through March... doesn't narrow it down that much but people are thinking Sapporo or Tottori.
I haven't the faintest idea of what sort of formation we'll be going with, but assuming 4-4-2... [LINEUP-4-4-2]Hirayama, Pedro Jr, Ishikawa, Yonemoto, Kajiyama, Hoberto, Nagira, Morishige, Konno, Tokunaga, Gonda [/LINEUP-4-4-2] I'm past the tiredness threshold where I care, but with this as your base you can come up with a pretty solid depth chart.
So, you think that Takamatsu, a former captain, and Yazawa who has played as starter all his life, would be happy to sit on a J2 bench...? Also, Nagira was a reserve at Avispa last year, started in five games only, mostly because of others' suspension and injuries... The impression is that FCT transfer market is a cards' collection. Just picked all decent players available Plus, I personally I rank Akamine higher than Pedro Jr., and I believe that playing regularly in J2 would have surely been the best for Shigamatsu. Then again, we all know that it is impossible for FCT not to be promoted, but I don't really see the "vision."
*shrug* I don't know what to think until I see the team practice. This is pretty much the biggest lineup turnover I've seen since I started following the team. Brave new world. You asked me for a starting lineup and I'm throwing names out there for discussion, which is hard because I'm not totally familiar with our new transfers yet and I haven't seen them take the field. I don't know if Nakamura is going to switch to being a left back permanently (since he's technically still registered as MF), or if Mukuhara will finally get the spot now that we all know he's not just a placeholder for when Nagatomo comes back, or if Nagira becomes a super-sub... I mean, they bought him for a reason, after all. Unfortunately, Murabayashi was the only person in the front office to step down. We all wanted a complete top-to-bottom scrubbing, but it didn't happen. The "vision", if you can call it that, is pretty much just the mercenary route... send the youngins off to where they can get playing time without getting in the way and get them back next year when hopefully they've gained more poise on the field. Assuming we get to J1 in one year I would be surprised if more than 1/3rd of our new pickups (rentals included) are with us next season. So really, the club's vision for 2011 is to come up with a vision for 2012, it would seem.
I don't think Nagira is likely to be playing at full-back. He is s a bit of a lump who tackles well/hard and enjoy a physical battle with a target man, but doesn't really have any pace. I suspect he will be a back-up centre-back for you, and probably do a decent job at that.
Okay, here's an attempt at a depth chart. [LINEUP-4-4-2]Hirayama (Takamatsu), Pedro Jr (Roberto), Ishikawa (Otake), Yonemoto (Tanabe), Hoberto (Uesato?), Kajiyama (Yazawa?), Mukuhara (Nakamura), Morishige (Nagira), Konno (Hiramatsu), Tokunaga, Gonda (Shiota)[/LINEUP-4-4-2]
Roberto is a defensive midfielder, but anyway, that's not the problem. You have a LOT of quality, but too many NAMES. Like, did you really needed a primadonna like Pedro Jr when you have Shigematsu?? Somebody will be unhappy, just wait and see. Hopefully for you, it won't be a veteran who will sabotage the locker room as we have seen at JEF last season.
It's always good to have a good Brazilian in J2 Goru. If Pedro play at his highest level he can score 30 goals. That's the perfect kind of player to come back in J1 quickly, but he won't be a part of a project.
Yeah, if he doesn't get pissed off and throw on the ground the uniform of the club that pays him... Like... FC Tokyo needed Pedro Jr. (on loan!!) to come back to J1...??