J.League 2023 Winter Transfers (So Far), Part Three
The promoted teams: Albirex Niigata & Yokohama FC
Hope y’all had a relaxing new years!
I’m back with Part Three of the J.League winter transfers (so far) on the two newly promoted teams: Albirex Niigata & Yokohama FC to round off this series of newsletters. Check out Part One and Two below:
Important Notes (please read before you start typing away):
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 the beginning of January, 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!
Albirex Niigata
Albirex Niigata from the north east of Japan have come back to J1 after they were relegated in the 2017 season. Following a slow start in 2022, they improved to fight in a tight title race with Yokohama FC before winning out in the end to finish as league champions.
Compared to their fellow promoted team, Yokohama FC, transfer activity in Niigata has been very subdued.
In defense, Naoto Arai comes in from Tokushima Vortis. A Full Back who can play on either side, he will be providing cover for both Horigome and Fujiwara. Further forward is Shusuke Ota, who is another player that can play on either side but on the wing. With the rotating cast of exciting young wingers at Niigata’s disposal, he’ll be another one to provide some depth in the attack.
In terms of departures, Alexandre Guedes returned to Portugal after an underwhelming spell in J2. Ippei Shinozuka couldn’t break into a very crowded winger position while also suffering from a big injury for a large chunk of the 2022 season. Otherwise, back-up striker Ken Yamura leaves on loan to Fujieda MYFC.
One big worry is Yoshiaki Takagi’s long term injury (ruptured a cruciate ligament…) as he won’t return until mid-2023, can Niigata persevere with just Ryotaro Ito there as cover for the first few months of the season?
In terms of depth, besides striker/#10 maybe, this team is pretty deep especially when you consider the fact that a lot of the players can fill in a variety of positions (like star attacker, Ryotaro Ito). My main concerns are with the quality of the squad, can the players on this team, many of whom dazzled at the J2 level, make the step up against J1 level defenses?
This is an interesting team led by Rikizo Matsuhashi, who had previously been a coach under some illustrious names like Ange Postecoglou and Albert Puig but I’ll talk about their style of play and players in the season preview at a later date.
Yokohama FC
Yokohama FC had a tremendously good start to the 2022 season where they went undefeated until matchday 14 but a bit of a mid-season bobble let other clubs back into the title race. In the end, two 2-3 defeats against Oita Trinita and Zweigen Kanazawa meant they surrendered the title over to Albirex Niigata, but nevertheless finished the season very comfortably in 2nd place.
As a result of their promotion, the Yokohama-based club have seen a huge amount of transfer activity.
In terms of departures, several older veterans have been let go: Kazuma Watanabe, Kleber, Hideto Takahashi, Rhayner (loan not made permanent), and Takuya Matsuura. Oh and also, it was a sad day for all Japan soccer fans as Shunsuke Nakamura retired. Besides Masashi Kamekawa who was picked up by Avispa Fukuoka and Kosuke Saito who left for Tokyo Verdy, it was mainly clearing out players that Yokohama FC thought wouldn’t be effective at the J1 level such as Kyowaan Hoshi, Yuya Takagi, Daiki Nakashio, Ryo Tabei (an useful rotation member in the final months of last season and only left on a loan), Reo Yasunaga, etc. It was a bit curious to see Zain Issaka not take the opportunity to fight at the J1 level after frustrating years on the bench at Kawasaki Frontale in the past, but he’s moved on to join Montedio Yamagata instead.
With painful memories of their last foray into J1 (2020~2021), the purse strings have been opened as Yokohama FC brought in over a dozen players. In defense, Tokyo Verdy’s Boniface Nduka joined alongside Vegalta Sendai’s Kyohei Yoshino. With Kosuke Saito leaving for Tokyo Verdy, Yoshino might also play in midfield as well as in the backline. Katsuya Iwatake, who battled all season with Takumi Nakamura for the Right Center Back spot, may be shifted over to the Left after the departure of Kamekawa to Avispa Fukuoka unless Mateus Moraes, who only had a bit part role last season, really impresses in pre-season. At wing back, we could possibly see Kento Hashimoto and Koki Sakamoto providing competition for last season’s regulars, Takeda, Kondo, and Yamashita.
Central midfield has seen a big turnover with only veteran Takuya Wada keeping his place while Yuri Lara and FC Tokyo’s Hirotaka Mita joins the team. This team’s midfield can shape up in a double pivot or a single pivot, it’s usually Tatsuya Hasegawa who is dropped slightly deeper to form the midfield three. Joining Hasegawa in the left midfield/attack-ish position are a host of new signings including Shion Inoue, Mizuki Arai, and Kazuma Takai. The first two have a point to prove after a disappointing spell at Vissel Kobe (Inoue) and a failed journey into Europe (Arai). Other attackers include C.P. Nguyen who joins from his native Vietnam and the Brazilian winger Caprini, both of whom are quite highly rated (relative to their level) and come in with big expectations.
Up top doesn’t see any new changes besides Kaisei Ishii making his loan permanent as a free agent. With Saulo Mineiro still out with a long term injury and Sho Ito not quite what he used to be, it’ll be up to the ex-Tosu youngster to provide back up for the two main strikers in this team, Koki Ogawa and Marcelo Ryan.
Compared to their awful relegation season back in 2021, this team seems much more youthful while still maintaining some experience in key positions. With so many new players coming in at once, pre-season will be crucial for manager Shuhei Yomoda to get the team to gel or it’ll be yet another difficult season in the top flight for Yokohama FC.
And that completes this series of “Winter Transfers” newsletters. There probably will be a few more big moves as pre-season starts and managers think about last minute additions or departures but I will talk about those in the season preview posts rather than create another transfer window series.
Thanks for reading!
