Matchday 9: Sanfrecce Hiroshima vs. FC Tokyo, Vissel Kobe vs. Marinos, & Gamba vs. Yokohama FC.
Addendum to my J.Talk Podcast appearance! Some clarifications and corrections.
I’m still on vacation, so I haven’t had time to re-watch these games in full again but nevertheless there are certain things I thought I should clarify or correct (as well as creating some of my visual aids that I talked about) after my debut on the The J.Talk podcast (subscribe/join!) hosted by Ben Maxwell and Sam Robson, so here’s a special newsletter for y’all!
Hopefully I’ll be a bit more coherent next time I’m on the podcast and I won’t have to write something like this. If you have any questions or comments to what I said in the podcast or what I wrote here, please let me know in the comments!
You can find the podcast episode here (you should listen to it before you read this issue of the newsletter):
Let’s get started!
Sanfrecce Hiroshima vs. FC Tokyo
FC Tokyo’s high press on Sanfrecce: With how FC Tokyo press, it meant that Hotaka Nakamura had to cover a lot of ground to press the Sanfrecce wingback as the wingers/wide attackers have to press the Wider Center Backs (Sasaki or Shiotani) while Diego chases Araki and Osako alongside Shuto Abe.
At times, this worked out well and Tokyo were able to counter or at least prevent Sanfrecce from building-up cleanly but Shunki Higashi was able to use this to his advantage for Sanfrecce’s goal:
Expanding on the discussion about Diego Oliveira:
FC Tokyo build-up vertical passes from Center Back into the half-spaces: Hotaka Nakamura had a few good moments showing to receive in these areas while Nakagawa and Diego also drifted into these gaps on the outside of Sanfrecce’s double-pivot to receive the ball. FC Tokyo made good use of manipulating Sanfrecce’s double-pivot and keeping their attention to their midfielders in central areas which left these gaps for various players to receive but unfortunately from there FC Tokyo couldn’t really take advantage…
Note: I also thought it was a bit weird to have Koshimichi, who is a very good crosser, on for most of the game when neither Sotiriou nor Douglas Vieira were on and then he was subbed out after only about 15 minutes or so of playing with Vieira in the 2nd Half…
Note: When talking about Albert Puig, I meant to say that he’s pragmatic, rather than “realistic” but I think I got my main message through.
Please see my previous newsletters on FC Tokyo, like the review on the Cerezo game or the Matchday 1~5 review (both linked below), for more examples of FC Tokyo’s successes and failures in attempting to play as Albert Puig wants!
Vissel Kobe vs. Yokohama F. Marinos
Vissel Kobe pressing examples: Note how there’s always at least one Kobe player man-marking the nearest Marinos Center Midfielder closest to the ball in-play.
Details on the lead-up to Kobe’s 2nd goal that I talked about in the pod:
From around the 30th minute, I felt Vissel Kobe reduced the intensity of their press a little bit and therefore were pushed back as Marinos’ Center Backs had more time on the ball. From there, Kobe’s midfielders collapsed back into their defense line as Marinos threw many players forward to make runs behind the defense. As Kobe’s midfielders were pulled backwards to help out the defense, this then created more space for Marinos’ midfielders and even Hatanaka to find space in Kobe’s half of the field. Marinos were able to pull Kobe’s midfield around and create space on the weaker side and then advance into that space after a switch ball.
Anderson Lopes and Marcos Jr. found gaps open to receive in the half-spaces and were found by Shinnosuke Hatanaka, who was quite good this game, both in terms of finding good forward passes into feet but also in defending most of Kobe’s attacks (
11:17,34:48, 46:30, etc.).
Note: This match had Tomohiro Katanosaka (ex-Gamba and Oita manager) commentating and he’s really quite insightful so if you have access to the DAZN JP feed and understand Japanese, I urge you to watch/listen to the match on there.
Note: I think this is the part where I made up some new words when I was simply trying to say that Kobe stopped pressing high as much after the 30th or so minute!
Gamba Osaka vs. Yokohama FC
Juan Alano helping out in midfield to collect 2nd/loose balls or help circulate the ball in midfield, which while fairly useful, meant that Kurokawa had so much ground to cover all by himself on the Left Wing while also having to be wary of Yokohama FC’s threat down the wings on the counterattack.
The two times that Alano really stayed out wide on the wings both led to really good chances (the opening goal in the 1st Half as well as the chance in the 72nd minute), which I found a bit ironic.
Gamba build-up play: While there were occasional forward ball carries into space (on either side of Ogawa and Caprini who were busy preventing passes into central areas) by both Center Backs (Miura and Fukuoka), Gamba weren’t manufacturing these situations nearly enough times to my liking nor were they able to pick out dangerous passes despite the time and space afforded to them in these situations. Usami or Neta Lavi also came deeper to receive the ball, but then that left less people open to receive further forward in midfield or to pick up the 2nd/loose balls from any long balls into Jebali… I think when Usami is dropping toward the half-way line when Gamba have possession in the middle 3rd of the field is actually fine because he can really pick out some good passes but I don’t think it’s really effective when he’s doing it closer to Gamba’s own box.
Football is always about these trade-offs and this is what I meant when I felt that Gamba look very unbalanced, they weren’t using these movements and counter-movements effectively or in a coordinated way in the final 3rd or box. They have to use so many players either dropping deep or pulling wide to be able to even circulate the ball, which then meant that when good spaces opened up there wasn’t anybody left to take advantage.
Neta Lavi performance: I thought he was really good in this game, he had Caprini in his pocket for most of the game and was also so quick to prevent counterattacks from Yokohama FC when Gamba were in defensive transition. In possession, with opponents being really careful to mark Lavi, it should theoretically at least, be opening other Gamba players up in the build-up phase but it just wasn’t happening which was really disappointing (not just in this game but other games too).
Breaking down a low-block: In the 1st Half, Gamba weren’t moving Yokohama FC’s defenders out of the box enough before making the passes/crosses inside. There was also not enough movement in the box to open up spaces for good shooting positions. So in both halves (but especially late in the 2nd Half when Yokohama FC decided to “park the bus”) when Gamba were able to work the ball into central areas in or around the box, they were generally shooting into a lot of traffic.
Thanks for reading!
Again, a big thanks to Ben and Sam for having me on the podcast!