Old Thread: Japanese Abroad 2007/08 - part II [R] Someone make a list of current Japanese players abroad.
Re: Japanese Abroad 2008/09 [R] Current list Morimoto (Catania/ITA) Fukuda (Las Palmas/ESP) Hasebe (Wolfsburg/GER) Ono (Bochum/GER) Inamoto (Frankfurt/GER) Matsui (Saint-Étienne/FRA) Ito (Grenoble/FRA) Honda (VVV Venlo/NED) Nakamura (Celtic/SCO) Mizuno (Celtic/SCO) Miyamoto (Salzburg/AUT)
Re: Japanese Abroad 2008/09 [R] I think he's done quite well considering a bad spell earlier with all the 7kg weight increase etc. I think his time in Turkey was crucial in finding himself. Fair play to him. As far as Japan goes I think his greatest contribution is at grass roots. I hope he'll become a midfield coach once he retires.
Re: Japanese Abroad 2008/09 [R] LOL West Brom introduced baked beans to him , explains the 7 kg weight increase and may be he was depressed. But he always looks skinny, I never noticed weight change. I'm a big fan of his but I always thought he'd go back to J League sometime or to a first division English team. Just surprised that he's in an okay club in the Bundesliga.
Re: Japanese Abroad 2008/09 [R] Inamoto turns 29 next month so he's still got some time. I think this is the last year of his contract in Germany though, hopefully it gets extended.
Re: Japanese Abroad 2008/09 [R] Naka said he would return to Yokohama F.Marinos in January 2009. But now that Yokohama are in relegation crisis, I can't predict his future.
Re: Japanese Abroad 2008/09 [R] Well, 7 kg won't really show up in appearance among sportsmen of his stature. In fact losing a few kilos during a match is quite common (mostly water though). So you certainly won't 'see' the difference on TV. I think I covered this topic at length years ago, and his weight training issues were fairly well known among those of us who followed him to Fulham back then; that's how I found out about it, it was an issue raised by their physio internally. And as with any internal info, they have the habit of leaking to those who are on the ground (as I was). Hence the nickname "overweight lightweight" (meaning, he's overweight enough to be immobile yet too lightweight to fend off challenges) he earned among some fulham fans back then. I can assure you it wasn't a pleasant time for me to be an Inamoto fan. And sadly, for most people, such imbalance of athleticism vs weight doesn't drop out of your system easily especially when you develop it over a short period of time with supplements. I think his time in Turkey was his cold turkey in that regard. I think he has done well. I sometimes wonder whether he ever talked about it to Nakamura, to advise him on this matter from his hardship. That, I'll never know. Nakamura was another player who was suffering from lack of physique, more so than Inamoto. And yet Nakamura didn't follow Inamoto's footsteps, instead resorting to exploit what he's good at rather than overtraining to overcome his weakness. It has worked for him, although his weaknesses always remained the same as a result.
Re: Japanese Abroad 2008/09 [R] Really? I would like to read that topic, I must of missed it. Anyway, yeah, I find it hard to support Inamoto, beside being such a fan girl and the lack of news on him and not knowing any Japanese. I hated his inconsistency. On off topicness and on a lighter note, I have the tendency to not notice physical change, unless someone points it out. Ina always looks normal to me. He seemed physical, maybe not compared to premierleague players, but he seemed to do well for an asian, he didn't look scared of tackling.
Re: Japanese Abroad 2008/09 [R] Inamoto left for Turkey in 05-06 season and this account started at the end of 2004, I believe it was after he moved to westbrom that I was ranting a lot about him here. Go search for them, you'll find it somewhere in there among my customary ultra wordy posts. You're right in that he's always been a strong player, but it's during his time at Fulham that he acquired that side of his game. If you look back to during/pre 2002 I think many viewers would remember him to be more mobile and attacking, making lung bursting runs ploughing down the middle. That shifted to more slow and defensive at Fulham, but in the early days he was still very much athletic and he won Fulham the intertoto almost single handedly just after he arrived. I think he saw shortcomings with his game in an overly physical EPL, and having faced a fierce competition from a much more physical Sean Davis and often losing his place to him, he started the transformation to become a more sluggish, defensive player. I think he did reasonably well though, in balancing out the strength vs robustness/stamina and he began to look good in the run up to the friendly against England, when he ended up with a lengthy injury. After that, it was more or less downhill as obviously he lost fitness and resulting imbalance & brittleness overcame him. When you 'overwork' your physical training against your body frame, it's a hard work keeping up the stamina and robustness. It is possible, but it only takes a lengthy injury or two to set you back by miles, which you'll have to make up at later date. But anyway. That's the long story short (short by my standard). I think many JL players would face similar problems in EPL's central midfield, where the main focus is more on brainless aggression to bulldoze down opponents than creative craftiness. Generally the defensive duties given to the central midfield is big in Europe, especially in the UK. If you look at the similar example of Ono in Eredivisie, luckily for him Feynoord used to change formation to 3-5-2 in order to accommodate him in the middle, and switching back to 4-4-2 when Ono goes out. In Nakamura's case, cleverly enough Strachan circumvented the problem by putting him out wide and letting him drift into the middle to playmake from time to time. By doing that, Strachan could play 4-4-2 with 2 strong central midfielders while exploiting Nakamura's craftiness. Good on him. Anyway. For me, Inamoto set an example of what not to do in EPL, unless you have an absurdly good natural fitness to circumvent his fate.
Re: Japanese Abroad 2008/09 [R] On the subject of EPL, I've often wondered why Japanese don't aim more for Spain. I know Naka nearly went there when he went to Celtic instead, but he's the only player I've known to seek it out. EPL is, as you say, about brainless aggression first and then skill. Italy plays too defensively I think as well, really doesn't fit the Japanese style at all. But I've often thought that Japan NT and JLeague play a very Spanish style of football; that would allow players to shine overseas and enhance their strenghts domestically rather than attempting to make up for deficiences they can't control. Anyway, just my thoughts and it's interesting to know a lot more about Ina. I've always liked him but -- as cookie points out -- it can be difficult to get the details on players if you don't speak much Japanese. =)
Re: Japanese Abroad 2008/09 [R] Well, the bitter Korean dude that was redded bumped up 11 old threads to mess up our forum, so we had to re-bump up the latest topics...
Re: Japanese Abroad 2008/09 [R] I understand where you were coming from, but you're a mod, and it was so funny to see you act like a kid. But doing what you did came with consequences.
Re: Japanese Abroad 2008/09 [R] Guys... mods are fans too, not robots... we have a heart... and I also had too much beer... But I did not insult anybody...
Re: Japanese Abroad 2008/09 [R] I've learned not to rile up Koreans in their own forum. And its obvious that shit stirring Koreans in this forum is not a good idea, they go attack mode, even if its a bit of humour. I didn't see you're post, but you did know that it would probably anger some of their fans.
Re: Japanese Abroad 2008/09 [R] Too bad for them: a supermod (not me, actually) took care of it. Yup, those with no sense of humor... In the end it was me who cleaned up the "bumping mess" here, so I think I did my bed. (But overall, it was fun )