J.League 2023 Winter Transfers (So Far), Part Two
December 2022 edition: Nagoya Grampus to Yokohama F. Marinos
Hello,
I’m back with Part Two of the J.League winter transfers (so far). You can check out Part One below:
Important Notes (please read before you start typing away):
I'm going to leave the newly promoted teams, Albirex Niigata and Yokohama FC, for last as I need to research them a lot more.
I'm doing this by alphabetical order but Wikipedia sorted FC Tokyo as 'T' rather than 'F' so you'll see them in Part 2 instead. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
For players that have just come back from loan, players I don't have a lot of info on, players whose status I really can't find out, players who have been heavily rumored but not officially been revealed, etc… I'll simply include them in the team depth chart with a ? either in their closest position or on the side.
I really don't know enough about youth team // high school // university recruits so I won't talk too much about them or even include them in the squad depth graphic unless I've heard lots of noise coming from my usual sources.
It's always tough to simply fit every squad player into a single formation (especially Sagan Tosu who switch up their formation in vs. out of possession and not just game-to-game...), so bear with me here as I'm just going with the formation teams used the most last season. Gamba, I'm assuming, will change things up to a 4-3-3 under Dani Poyatos.
Players can play multiple positions (ex. Consadole Sapporo) but to not confuse myself and save space, I am placing players in each team only once.
We are still in December, a LOT can still change. Something might be happening as I’m writing this sentence, at this moment, right now!
Information sources:
Transfermarkt (I mean, duh...)
Wikipedia (I hope none of you are spending your holidays mischievously editing player pages...)
Let's get started!
Nagoya Grampus
Nagoya faced difficulties in Kenta Hasegawa's first season in charge as Grampus were hovering around the relegation zone 1/4th of the way into the season until a inspired switch to a back 3 slowly steadied the ship. A lack of firepower up front and an over-reliance on Mateus for any offensive spark were two of just many problems at the Toyota Stadium and Hasegawa and the upper management will hope to rectify that during the winter pre-season.
In defense, Tiago has been let go after mainly a back-up role last season. In the Brazilian's place, Nagoya have plucked Yuki Nogami from Sanfrecce Hiroshima. The only other defensive acquisition is Ei Gyotoku who joins from the famous Shizuoka Gakuen High School. As Nogami's signing points to the fact that Hasegawa will persist with the back 3 next season, I feel like another Center Back might be needed, especially as we don't know how well the young Gyotoku will adapt to a pro environment yet.
At wing back, with Shumpei Naruse being loaned out yet again, there doesn't seem to be a clear option to back up Ryoya Morishita at Right Wing Back besides utility man Takuya Uchida. With Yutaka Yoshida (not getting any younger nor really suited to wingback it seems leaving for Shimizu S-Pulse) and Kawazura not appearing much at all last season, there may be some more signings here as well.
Things are a bit more clear in midfield. Takuji Yonemoto has returned from a loan spell at Shonan Bellmare to fill the big “veteran” hole left by the departure of midfield general, Leo Silva. While the Brazilian was one of the better Grampus players last season, he also recently turned 37. After a season hampered by injuries on loan at Roasso Kumamoto, Thales will finally be given a chance at the J1 level along with Ventforet Kofu's Riku Yamada. Given that the Brazilian plays wide on the right, maybe Thales will deputize at wingback? I really don't know.
With Kazuki Nagasawa also scheduled to come back from a major injury, central midfield looks pretty full. There is a lot of leeway for Hasegawa to try both a double pivot or a three man midfield, especially with the likes of Ryuji Izumi (a very versatile player that's just re-joined Grampus after a few years at Kashima Antlers) and Takuya Shigehiro in the squad as well.
Up top, Kensuke Nagai has had a "second wind" after re-joining Grampus mid-season with 4 goals and 3 assists in the last 13 games of the 2022 season (11 starts, 9.5 90s). Nagoya may still want to bring in another proper #9 as both Naldo and Noriyoshi Sakai have looked very underwhelming. The big rumor is Urawa’s Kasper Junker.
Most importantly, Nagoya Grampus have been able to keep star man Mateus at the club this off-season (so far...). A lot of Grampus' attack has revolved around him for the past few years and hopefully he'll get some more help next season. With Yoichiro Kakitani likely staying as well as Shigehiro and Izumi able to play higher in attack, I imagine one of Hidemasa Koda or Ryotaro Ishida might be allowed to leave on loan somewhere? From transfermarkt it looks like Koda has a contract until 2025, both Kakitani and Ishida's may be expiring (or not!) so it's a bit up in the air from my eyes.
As I noted in the season review, Kenta Hasegawa will be under considerable pressure to get things right this season as Nagoya Grampus brought him in to challenge for trophies, not flounder around in lower-mid table.
Sagan Tosu
Sagan Tosu finished comfortably in mid-table despite having a significant chunk of their best players plucked away in the 2022 pre-season as well as their manager, Kim Myung-Hwi quitting over power harassment charges after the 2021 season. Under new manager, Kenta Kawai, Tosu used their excellent scouting/coaching to good effect to improve unheralded players to a J1 standard, and the Kyushu-based club were able to exceed all pre-season expectations (including mine!).
It's already been another turbulent market for Tosu as their good players get plucked away and their on-loan players return to their parent clubs. Yuki Kakita and Taisei Miyashiro will be a big miss up top as they return to Kashima Antlers and Kawasaki Frontale, respectively. While Kei Koizumi and Diego move up the food chain to FC Tokyo and Kashiwa Reysol following a really good 2022 season. Otherwise a whole host of fringe players were let go while Kaisei Ishii and Kyo Sato will hope to ignite their still nascent careers elsewhere.
In defense, Tosu have brought in Kosuke Yamazaki to shore up their aging back 3, also joined by Dai Hirase from Waseda University. Shinya Nakano, Masaya Tashiro, Hwang S.H., Kosuke Yamazaki, and Toshio Shimakawa rotating in the back 3 (with Harada also able to fill in at Right Center Back) makes sense to me in terms of depth. At wingback, things seem fairly set with Iwasaki on the Left, Naganuma or Harada on the Right. I also wouldn't rule out the possibility of new signing Ryonosuke Kabayama being converted to the hybrid wide midfielder/wing back role on the Left either.
Tosu's midfield will see some very interesting fresh faces in the form of So Kawahara following a splendid season at Roasso Kumamoto and Anthony Akumu, who joins on a free from notable South African club, Kaizer Chiefs. With mid-season signing Kohei Tezuka also in the running, it'll be an almighty scrum to see who wins the spot next to Akito Fukuta in the double pivot.
In the attack, the main changes are at striker where Vegalta Sendai's Cayman Togashi and the promising teenager Ayumu Yokoyama joins from J3 side Matsumoto Yamaga. Otherwise, Jun Nishikawa’s loan from Cerezo Osaka has been extended for another year but I imagine the two slots behind the striker will still be occupied by Fuchi Honda and Taichi Kikuchi for the time being.
Sanfrecce Hiroshima
Another big surprise in the 2022 season was Sanfrecce Hiroshima, who were completely transformed under their new manager Michael Skibbe despite the squad staying largely the same from the previous seasons. Skibbe's high octane football stood in stark contrast to the previous manager and culminated in a 3rd place finish and two domestic final appearances (winning the League Cup).
Between the posts, it’ll still mainly be Keisuke Osako and Takuto Hayashi. I don’t think anything will change here unless Osako goes to Europe. On the other hand, it’s the depth at Center Back that is giving me a bit of worry. Imazu, Nogami, and Iyoha (only on loan) have been allowed to leave, leaving only Sumiyoshi as the back up to the regular three Center Backs (of which Sasaki and Shiotani are on the wrong side of 30). Taichi Yamasaki and Shuto Nakano have come into the team as university graduates but I have no idea whether they are ear-marked to make the bench as back-ups or if there are some new signings in the pipeline.
With speed star, Tomoya Fujii, leaving for Kashima Antlers, it leaves the Right Wing Back spot a bit bare with only Yusuke Chajima the only non-converted option. This is on top of the fact that Nogami was the player that deputized as a wingback in the latter stages of the 2022 season during Fujii’s absence. It’s quite likely that Skibbe will continue to use Kawamura or even Taishi Matsumoto out wide when they are not needed in the center of the park, especially as Michael Skibbe seems to prefer Ezequiel higher up the pitch. With the acquisition of Takaaki Shichi from Avispa Fukuoka, another option could be that veteran Yoshifumi Kashiwa permanently moves over to the Right while Shichi takes up the Left Wing Back spot.
The front 3 is fairly settled at this point, in my opinion. None of Taishi Semba, Motoki Ohara nor Kodai Dohi will provide depth as they all continue on loan at J2 clubs next season. Perhaps Shunki Higashi will play higher up the pitch instead of covering at wing back (once he recovers from ‘compartment syndrome’). At striker, Pieros Sotiriou will hope to establish himself as the main guy after a difficult adjustment period to the J.League. He did score twice in the League Cup final which will give him confidence going into next season. Nassim Ben-Khalifa (who can also play behind/off the striker) and Shun Ayukawa (returning from a long injury lay off) should provide cover and Junior Santos will most likely leave permanently after being sent away on loan in the 2nd half of last season.
It’s been clear for a while now that Sanfrecce don’t have a whole lot of money to spend and recently much of that money was spent on bringing Sotiriou in, I imagine. I feel like this team still needs a few more players (especially at Center Back) but Sanfrecce might just have to rely on more managerial magic from Michael Skibbe yet again.
Shonan Bellmare
After quite a few years teetering in the relegation spots, Shonan Bellmare under Satoshi Yamaguchi posted their best season in the top flight since their return to J1 in 2018 with a 12th place finish. The Hiratsuka-based side finished the season strongly with 3 Wins, 1 Draw, 1 Loss in the last 5 games.
Probably the biggest news for Shonan this transfer window is that Kosei Tani has finally moved back to Gamba Osaka after multiple years on loan at the Hiratsuka-based club. In his place comes in the highly rated Korean goalkeeper Song B.K. to fight it out for a starting berth against veteran Daiki Tomii.
No major changes in the back 5 either, Daiki Sugioka transformed his loan to a permanent deal, while Shota Kobayashi and Ryo Takahashi left the club. Things are pretty settled there except maybe Right Wing Back. There is a possibility that new signing Kosuke Onose may play there like he did for Gamba but otherwise it’s Hirokazu Ishihara or Takuya Okamoto (who following his return from injury has curiously been playing at Right Center Back instead…).
In central midfield, the only acquisition so far has been Mikel Agu from CF Fuenlabrada who is likely to play as the deep-lying midfielder as a possible upgrade on Akimi Barada. Along with Ryota Nagaki’s return from loan and Hiroyuki Abe making his loan permanent, the midfield engine room is quite full so there may be one or two outgoing transfers.
Up front, Shonan were gifted a huge boon as star striker Shuto Machino has confirmed he’ll stay for the upcoming season. Joining him is Keita Yamashita, who has had a very tough time adapting to FC Tokyo and barely made a league appearance in 2022. On the other hand, a big loss is Yusuke Segawa who has been pulled away by the allure of Kawasaki Frontale while the big Brazilian striker, Wellington, departs Shonan for the second time in his long career.
Despite the big departures of Kosei Tani (which was only a matter of time anyway) and Yusuke Segawa, Shonan have largely been able to keep their squad intact which bodes well for manager Satoshi Yamaguchi who will aim to push Shonan further away from the annual relegation battles.
FC Tokyo
Albert Puig's FC Tokyo revolution was a moderate success, as despite the struggles of adapting a completely new style of play and the bouts of inconsistency that came with it, the capital club finished in a decent 6th place. 2023 will be the real test of Puig's abilities as FC Tokyo tries to establish themselves as a premier club that befits the capital city of Japan.
The defense and goalkeeper look pretty settled. Henrique Trevisan will be returning from a long injury lay-off that ruined his debut season with FC Tokyo and will provide back up to captain Masato Morishige and Yasuki Kimoto alongside Renta Higashi and Seiji Kimura. At Full Back is the only defensive signing so far in the form of Yuhei Tokumoto who joins as a Left Back from J2 side Fagiano Okayama. Makoto Okazaki, who never was able to stake a claim in the starting line-up as either a Center Back or Full Back, has left for Roasso Kumamoto in J2.
In midfield the one major signing has been Kei Koizumi from Sagan Tosu who slots in at the base of the midfield 3. I really like this signing. In 2021, Koizumi joined Tosu after Daiki Matsuoka had left for Shimizu S-Pulse and gradually became the solution to the problems at the base of Tosu’s midfield. This past season he formed a very strong double-pivot partnership with Akito Fukuta, he is very physical and will be a more natural player in this position for an FC Tokyo side that really struggled in the build-up under Albert Puig’s direction in 2022.
The departures from midfield have mainly been letting veterans go. Yojiro Takahagi has made his loan to Tochigi SC permanent while Hirotaka Mita has left for promoted Yokohama FC. Their squad roles in the team have been taken up by youth or university graduates such as Tsubasa Terayama and Yuta Arai. FC Tokyo will basically have 6 first team players rotating in the midfield 3 on top of Terayama and Arai as back up which should be more than sufficient (I had high hopes for Arthur Silva but he’ll most likely be let go).
On the wing, Teruhito Nakagawa should be a fantastic signing as a massive upgrade on Kazuya Konno (who left for Avispa Fukuoka to, in turn, replace Jordy Croux’s departure to Cerezo Osaka). A speedy dribbler who can operate on either wing, staying wide or crashing the back post to score from crosses, Nakagawa will be a key player next season provided he stays fit.
I still feel FC Tokyo need another winger as neither Leandro nor Ryoma Watanabe are exactly that (both, especially Watanabe, are useful for these same un-winger like qualities though). Unless Albert Puig’s is betting heavily on Hisatoshi Nishido’s development or even experimenting with Matsuki out wide, there could potentially be another winger coming in, especially if Leandro doesn’t renew his contract.
The one position that FC Tokyo still absolutely need to fill is the striker position, especially as star striker Diego Oliveira is still recovering from an injury sustained in the closing matchdays of the season. Keita Yamashita has been allowed to leave on loan to Shonan and Luiz Phellype didn’t impress enough to warrant activating his buy-option so it’s looking quite thin up top. There are strong rumors of Pedro Perotti joining in the coming months so that may alleviate concerns, especially as both Adailton and Leandro can fill in there in a pinch as well.
Urawa Red Diamonds
Urawa Reds were yet another team that couldn't live up to the promise shown in the 2021 season as they unexpectedly were mired in a relegation battle up to the halfway point of the season. Their underlying numbers weren't horrible however, and their recovery to a mid-table finish seemed just about right. Over in the Champions League, Urawa were very good and managed to reach the final, which due to AFC scheduling changes will mean that it will be played in April of 2023 instead!
There’s not a whole lot to say about Urawa Reds so far. Shinzo Koroki, Takuya Ogiwara, and Kenyu Sugimoto have all returned from loan (the first two most likely to stay). Ken Iwao makes his loan from Tokushima Vortis permanent, despite Ricardo Rodriguez leaving his managerial post. Daiki Kaneko made his loan move to Kyoto permanent.
The biggest news so far has been that Ataru Esaka has left for Ulsan Hyundai...
With his departure, Yoshio Koizumi has presumably “won” the #10/slightly-behind-the-striker spot but last season Yusuke Matsuo and Tomoaki Okubo have also slotted in there with good effect at times so I don’t think there will be anyone coming in to replace Esaka. The midfield shape could also change to a 3 man midfield with any three of Ito, Hirano, Iwao, Yasui, and Shibato rotating.
But anyway… life goes on…
Toshiki Takahashi has joined from Roasso Kumamoto. In general, there seems to be a lot of ins-and-outs at striker as Kasper Junker edges toward the exit to join Nagoya Grampus if rumors are true, while Alex Schalk has disappointed so far and may make his way back to Europe over the winter as well.
Even with all these potential departures you still have Yusuke Matsuo and Takahiro Akimoto who can play up top as well so I imagine Urawa will be fine. I imagine that there will be more in/outgoings as Maciej Skorza gets more time with the squad in pre-season but he will also have to keep in mind that no new players can play in the Champions League final in 2023.
Vissel Kobe
It was a season to forget for Vissel Kobe as all the enthusiasm from a highly successful 2021 season evaporated as the Rakuten-backed club were mired in the relegation dogfight for much of the season despite still having the highest player wages by quite some margin in the league. After grinding through three separate managers, Vissel Kobe finally gained some stability by re-hiring Takayuki Yoshida and ultimately finished 13th.
We’ve not seen the pomp and grandeur of past Vissel Kobe transfer seasons but maybe that’s a good thing?
There’s been lots of outgoings as Noriaki Fujimoto, Bojan Krkic (yes, that Bojan), and Hiroki Iikura all have had their contract expire. Nagisa Sakurauchi also left while Tomoaki Makino retired.
Yuki Honda has come in as an experienced back-up at Center Back and can also play Left Back. This should give a bit more room for both Gotoku Sakai and Ryo Hatsuse to also cover Right Back when Tetsushi Yamakawa needs rest or he is in turn covering at Center Back. Matheus Thuler will most likely transfer permanently but it hasn’t been made official yet.
Both Yuki Kobayashi have left, the defender to Celtic FC and the midfielder went north to Sapporo. Haruya Ide has come in as a like-for-like replacement in the center of midfield or behind the striker. This should also make it easier for Leo Osaki to provide cover at Center Back as well. Shion Inoue has left after a disappointing spell to promoted Yokohama FC. Yuta Goke leaves to return to his home town team, Vegalta Sendai.
Otherwise, not a whole lot of news from Kobe. Both Takuya Oghihara and Sergi Samper recovering from their respective long-term injuries will “be like a new signing” next season. Maybe they’ll want another wide speedy wide attacker? But I suppose Kobe might think that Nanasei Iino, Yutaro Oda, Koya Yuruki, and Yoshinori Muto are enough, especially without Champions League games to worry about. Well, Yutaro Oda has been heavily rumored to be moving to Scotland in the past week, so if that happens maybe we’ll see movement from Kobe.
Yokohama F. Marinos
In Kevin Muscat's first full season at the helm, Yokohama Marinos finished the season as J.League champions. It wasn't all easy sailing though as despite looking to have wrapped up the title by October, two consecutive slip ups to relegation stragglers put the title race right back to the wire but in the end Marinos held their nerve to secure a 5th league title.
Kevin Muscat likes to rotate a lot and keep a pretty deep squad. The champions won’t need to change their squad too much, mostly rotating out older and/or fringe players. And of course, it’s no secret that Tomoki Iwata’s transfer to Celtic is imminent. Possibly in anticipation of this or to simply bring in reinforcements at Center Back so Iwata can play in midfield instead, Marinos have brought in Takumi Kamijima from Kashiwa Reysol. He’s a good defender but I really don’t trust his skill on the ball, which he’s going to see a lot of in this Marinos team so this one gets a “hmm??” from me. If only Ryotaro Tsunoda was Right Footed, then you could pair him up with Eduardo more easily, but alas…
In midfield, despite Iwata’s imminent departure I don’t think there will be any incoming replacements. In the 2nd half of the 2022 season when Iwata was forced back to Center Back, Marinos were able to rotate Takuya Kida, Joel Fujita, and Kota Watanabe to good effect so I imagine that will continue, along with Riku Yamane being bumped up the hierarchy.
Marinos have been making good decisions on when to let go over-30s players in the past few seasons and after Takahiro Ogihara last year, this year it is Teruhito Nakagawa who has been allowed to join FC Tokyo. In his place, both mid-season signing Yan Mateus and new signing Kenta Inoue from Oita Trinita join veteran Kota Mizunuma over on the Right Wing. Along with Ryo Miyaichi (recovering from yet another injury after a good first half of 2022) and Elber, most of the wingers can play on either side so rotation should be fairly smooth.
Up front, as I talked about in the Cerezo Osaka section, Leo Ceara has moved on to the Kansai club and in his place comes in Asahi Uenaka from V-Varen Nagasaki. The main striker will remain Anderson Lopes while Takuma Nishimura may also fill in from time-to-time when he’s not needed in the #10 spot. Marcos Jr. and Kaina Yoshio make up the depth there although one of them could possibly leave for more playing time, especially the Brazilian who is way too good to be stuck on the bench.
That’s all for now, I may do another set of these transfer newsletters in late January or I’ll just write it all up in the season previews.
In other news… the All Japan High School Soccer Tournament has started!
The opening game between Seiritsu vs. Tsu Technical School was a cracker, the Tokyo representatives Seiritsu racing to a 3-0 lead by the 43rd minute but Tsu showed some character to bring the game to a 2-3 scoreline finish. I might make a newsletter about the tournament, it’ll depend on how many games I end up watching on TV or live at the stadiums.
Also Hajime Moriyasu has been confirmed to continue on as the manager of the Japan National Team. I certainly have… opinions, but again this is best left to its own dedicated newsletter.
Thanks for reading and see y’all in 2023!
NOTE PART TWO: Tomoki Iwata was ***officially*** confirmed a few minutes after I pressed 'send' on this newsletter...
NOTE: Albirex Niigata and Yokohama FC will be it's own newsletter!