I'm hoping for something like this: ---------Lee/Havenaar---------- ----Miyaichi-Kagawa-Okazaki---- ---------Endo--Hasebe--------- Nagatomo-Konno-Yoshida-Uchida -----------Kawashima---------
Am I the only person who thinks Nakamura is more suited as a deep lying playermaker rather than behind the striker?
Nope, I think Zac knows it too but Nakamura is 31 and might not be able to play the role as he used to be. (damn he's 31 ... age is a b!tch)
Yea but Endo is 32 also. Not sure who the fitter of the 2 is but Nakamura seems more mobile than Endo.
Of course not. That was a response to his age. I would love to see a front 4 of Someone Okazaki Kagawa Inui Inui would probably suit better for Uchida than Okazaki.
Nakamura can play both positions well, Endo only the deep playmaker one I guess, he doesn't have the reflexes or the quickness to do it. BTW, I think for the time being, it's better for Uchida to have a hard working player by his side to help him on the defense, even though I'd prefer Inui too.
I think Uchida' defending has improved a lot since 2010...although he has regressed going forward. The big problem with him is his lack of concentraton which leads to mistakes. I don't think Okazaki will be able to cover him for those.
Okazaki's defending has improved a lot. His defensive work saved Gotoku's ass multiple times in the last games. Uchida's current problem is lack of game time, which leads to him not able to concentrate the whole game (like you say) - one could see that in the game he started the other week. But his basic problem is that he has no ball control and is weak man vs man. He needs players around him who anticipates his runs, plays one-twos and that is not Okazaki.
I'd like to see Kagawa and Inui playing together in the NT for once, but I feel that Zac will rather replace Kagawa with Inui if at all. Well, and the other player I'd like to see (with NT-players around him) is of course Miyaichi... but I'm not quite sure if he gets the nod over Fujimoto.
If I'm not wrong Okazaki's reluctance to keep the ball on the pitch (which is standing out in the whole league and could cost Stuttgart few points) when he's playing with Gotoku led to the Hannover's fourth goal in crushing defeat one week ago. If Zac will have to to replace Uchida or Okazaki with other player I doubt he'll replace Shinji who's priceless for his goals in NT (soon one of the best scorers for NT and still not in his prime I hope!).
I'd like Lee to start over Havenaar, still unsure of Havenaar at JNT level. If Japan's winning comfortably maybe Zac might bring Miyaichi on, Nagatomo and Miyaichi combination would be awesome.
With Hiroki Sakai and Nagatomo Havenaar should be a beast. Zac said that if Miyachi will play then Kagawa will move from the wing towards center behind the FW just like he does in Dortmund (in NT that was Honda's position so far).
Kagawa at CAM is amazing, he can dictate plays and create numerous chances, attacking on any angles. He largely contributed to Dortmund's incredible run this season as well. Isn't CAM Kagawa natural position? I really hope newcomers Miyaichi and Inui will showcase their skills and potential. btw, Japan normally play the 4-2-3-1 formation, with Zac trying 3-4-3 sometimes. I wonder how they fare in a 4-3-3 or a 4-4-2 ? and... GOOD LUCK, JAPAN! GO JAPAN! GAMBARE, NIPPON! GAMBARE SAMURAI BLUE!
He was to blame for that goal but I'd rather question what an attacker is doing at the own byline than his defensive skills. Generally, I off course think that there are more positives to take out of Okazaki & Gotoku than negatives, but in that particular situation maybe Gotoku should have been where Okazaki was? Other than that, with his defensive skills I mean Okazaki constantly applying pressure in midfield with his running, forcing opponents to errors, winning balls, switching from defense to attack etc. and not so much classical defensive skills like tackling, marking, heading.
GK:川島永嗣 DF:長友佑都、内田篤人、今野泰幸、吉田麻也 MF:遠藤保仁、香川真司、長谷部誠（Cap） FW:藤本淳吾、岡崎慎司、ハーフナー・マイク Starting line-up: GK: Kawashima DF: Nagatomo, Ucchi, Konno, Yoshida MF: Endo, Kagawa, Hasebe FW: Fujimoto, Okazaki, Havenaar
Do u have any link to watch? Starting line-up: GK: Nesterov DF: Ismailov, Filiposyan, Inomov, Andreev MF: Hasanov, Kapadze, Haydarov, Magdeev FW: Nasimov, Shadrin Only 3 players from main team.