Maya Yoshida officially joins German club Schalke 04 on 1-year permanent contract, with an option to extend for a further year. https://schalke04.de/en/team/maya-yoshida-transfer/
That's a good move for both parties. Just need him playing top tier football until the World Cup. Afterwards he should probably make a $$$ move to whomever willing to pay. Maybe Qatar league afterwards.
Probably dont need the cash. Better go home or retire from a top league. I have more respect for that. I hope is really included in Schalke 04 plans. So he is fit before WC.
He had a nice time in Italy. Thanks to him (and Tomi) someone else will buy other japanese CBs in the future. And as league mainly based on defence perfect to nurturing CBs this is good for the whole japanese football movement.
Looks like he has a nightmare of a season so far at Schalke. He is one of the worst center backs of the Bundesliga so far. Very slow, very bad in both, ground or areaduels and his positioning is also a Desaster. People are really start to hate him at Schalke. Hope he gets in better form, otherwise he cant play for JNT anymore with those performances. Maybe his time time is over.
He has been terrible last couple of games. I just don't think he has the pace to keep up with the Bundesliga. His team is below par but he has been one of the worst from what I've seen in the past few games
I think he could work well with a faster defender alongside him. Looking at the other defenders I think he was planned as filler player who can help out occasionally. Unfortunately he's the only defender healthy for all matches so far, and Schalke play with a way too high line for him to be able to cover all the space. The attribute I heard most often is not hated but tragic.
Wait, in Italy he was always from average to really good. Maybe this Schalke04 sucks too much and his weaknesses are underlighted. Italy has the most defence minded football and Maya was solid into his team gears. If Schalke can't defend and had a nightmare of a season Maya will keep performing poor for sure. Anyway we are losing our starting CBs 1 month before the WC.
Only Itakura at the moment and it looks like he will be 100% fit before the WC, he is all ready back in training at Gladbach. Ito, Tomiyasu, Yoshida is there and likely Itakura too.
Missed it before, Yoshida has been captain of Schalke for the last three matches. The last five matches weren't lost, and against Stuttgart yesterday way the first win in nearly 4 months. Suddenly Schalke only needs 3 more points to reach safe region again in Buli. On Stuttgart side captain Endo managed 3 headers on goal. If he keeps getting this many opportunities he should work more on targeting (and not targeting the GK at that).
Another win, another clean sheet. Unstoppable defence at the moment. 6 games, 2 wins, 4 draws. 5 times, 0 goals conceded, 1 game they coneded 1 goal. Crazy how Yoshida gets from maybe his worst performances to one of the best in the hole league.
With this Schalke also left the last place by goal difference. The four clubs at the end of the table now all have 19 points. I didn't think he played that bad actually, it was the whole team that lacked cohesion. I don't think it's a coincidence that he captain now, the whole team is much better organized now which allows Yoshida to play to his strengths.