Shogun Soccer Scouting #8: Junnosuke Suzuki
A Ball-Carrying & Passing Force Advancing from the Back Line!
Hello, I’m back with another scouting piece ahead of the 2025 J.League season. I’m very excited to have access to StatsBomb and Hudl’s event and physical data for the J.League to enhance my analysis. This report is on Junnosuke Suzuki!
tl;dr (too long; didn’t read)
Very good progressive ball-carrier and passer, impactful in the build-up phase. Main concerns are the lack of aerial presence and high amount of fouls & resulting yellow cards.
Name: Junnosuke Suzuki // 鈴木淳之介
Date of Birth: July 12, 2003
Age: 21 years old (as of writing)
Nationality: Japan
Position: Left Center Back (Back 3), originally a central midfielder
Club: Shonan Bellmare (J1)
Squad Number: #30 (2024 season), #5 (upcoming 2025 season)
Height/Weight: 1.80m // 78 kg (Source: Soccer Digest)
Junnosuke Suzuki was born in Gifu prefecture. After a number of years playing for local clubs he enrolled into Teikyo Kani High School (a somewhat regular fixture at the All Japan High School Tournament in the past decade as the representative of Gifu prefecture). Suzuki’s performances at the All Japan High School Tournament were awarded with a place in the Best Players Squad list for the 2021 and 2022 tournaments and he earned a professional contract with Shonan Bellmare in 2020. Suzuki doesn’t have a whole lot of international experience with a U-18 domestic training camp call-up back in 2021 as his only experience with the national team setup.
He officially joined Shonan Bellmare’s First Team in 2022 and slowly worked his way up to a J1 standard both physically and mentally. He made his professional debut in 2022 in an Emperor’s Cup fixture before making his league debut in the opening game of the 2023 J.League season. However, it wasn’t until the 2024 season that Suzuki started to make regular appearances and as a starter from only the second half of the season with the June fixture against Gamba Osaka. Originally a midfielder, in 2024 he was converted to slot in at Center Back in a Back 3 and his J1 career has taken off since then. Suzuki would go on to win the Best J1 Young Player award for October as well as a nomination as one of the candidates for the Best Young Player of the 2024 J1 Season.
VIDEO NOTE: Junnosuke Suzuki plays on the Left, wears #30. Shonan’s kit colors are neon green with blue lettering (home), white with black lettering (away).
Let’s get started!
Defending
Block Defending
Junnosuke Suzuki is at his best when defending on the front foot. He is very good at aggressively stepping up to lock on to ball receivers receiving to feet as well as a nose for interceptions. His anticipation skills come from a good understanding of Shonan’s defensive set-up in a 3-5-2 mid-block. On top of his intelligence, his athleticism to accelerate quickly to close down or sprint back to cover for teammates is also shown when defending in block situations. As an added bonus, once he wins the ball Suzuki is very quick to transition into attack. His awareness of his surroundings lends him to assess accurately to quickly pass out or even dribble away himself to start the attack.
On the flip side, I do think he has positional issues as well as getting caught ball-watching which results in a failure to provide adequate cover. What also negatively stands out is his high number of late clumsy tackles and resulting fouls.
1v1 Defending Approach
As noted in the previous section, Suzuki is good when facing up to attacker from the front as he is fairly big and not afraid to put his body in to win the ball. He has good upper body strength to push opponents off the ball in duels. However, the big concern is how easily he gets turned and dribbled past which results in Suzuki leave out flailing arm to pull down or dangling leg. This is why Suzuki’s foul count is so high from rashness or carelessness.
Transition Defending
In transition phases, Suzuki’s quick recovery pace is an asset to cover for his fellow Center Backs or the very attack-minded Wing Backs that Shonan employ. While he can be alert to shift over and cover these spaces however, he is not consistent in doing so as he can be a step or two late at times which lets opponents turn past him and drive forward dangerously on the counterattack.
Box Defending
On the ground, Suzuki can shepherd opponents away from goal competently enough with his large frame as he would outside the box. However, his aerial deficiencies come to the fore when defending in his own box.
While Suzuki can be positioned to cover in the box and make fairly standard clearances from uncontested aerial crosses, he has difficulty dealing with crosses against runners. Even with scanning, he can lose his marker from either inattentiveness to blindside runs or simply overpowered by larger aerial targets.
Passing
Junnosuke Suzuki as part of the Back 3 is quite active in the build-up phase, both as a passer and receiver. He can punch passes to break lines and find teammates between-the-lines effectively, even in tight spaces. One thing to note that he can be a bit careless or a bit too eager passing straight from an interception action which can lead to counterattacks.
From the pass maps below you can see that he’s comfortable with both feet, however, in the final 3rd he prefers using his Right foot. What can also be gleaned from the data is that he mainly seeks to play safe passes (high expected completion rates) and completes them too. When it comes to progressive passes, Suzuki is quite adept at completing difficult passes than what StatsBomb’s passing model suggests with both feet (actual completion rates higher than the expected completion rates).
What stands out is Suzuki’s passing under pressure, especially with his dominant Right foot. His 6% overperformance with his Right foot compared to what StatsBomb’s pass success probability model expected is 3rd in the league among Center Backs (with over 50 Right footed passes under pressure), behind only Kota Takai and Takumi Kamijima. It’s also noticeable that Suzuki struggles more with passing from his left foot when under pressure.
Overall, Suzuki is a useful passing outlet from all 3rds of the pitch. Even in the final 3rd although Suzuki is not often directly involved in chance creation, he combines well with teammates once Shonan have successfully pushed down the wings and he joins the attack. Whether stationary or on-the-move, his passing is consistent especially after a ball carry or dribble.
Long Passing
From the footage, Suzuki’s long diagonals across and longer lofted passes forward are quite good. Shonan are a team that likes to use long diagonals, switches across, or simple lobbed passes down the line with their Wing Backs stretching the width. It does help Suzuki that he has a very willing runners in the form of Wing Backs Taiga Hata and Yuto Suzuki as a target too.
From the data we can see that he is quite adept at switching across from the Left side with his Right foot, completing 84.4% of his switch passes when StatsBomb’s pass probability model posited that he’d only complete 75.4% of them.
Shooting
Playing mostly as a Center Back in 2024, Junnosuke Suzuki didn’t get many shots. They were mostly pot shots from outside the box as he was given the ball from cut-backs when the opponent has opened up the top of the box from getting ready for a cross or simply getting on the end of rebounds and poor clearances.
He gets a lot of power with the time/space he’s afforded when given these opportunities when pushing forward but they usually don’t end up hitting the target to make the goalkeeper work anyway. In total, 14 shots with 1 on target for a grand total of 0.68 xG according to StatsBomb.
Ball Control & 1st Touch, Receiving/Turning
Junnosuke Suzuki is quite agile and technical. He has quick thinking as he receives the ball and is quite positive on it, being able to turn past oncoming pressure within his first few touches. He has a clear preference for his Right foot despite playing on the Left of the Back 3 but he can still use his left foot without qualms.
Dribbling & Carrying
Suzuki’s dribbling and carrying skills are one of his highlights and one that certainly is quite eye-catching. This is highlighted more so when he is playing as a Center Back in a Back 3 as it affords him the room to drive forward bravely in the build-up phase. Suzuki is also careful and intelligent in picking when to drive forward or when to simply pass it along, driving into the gaps of opponent lines.
What makes him good is how he uses his change of pace to evade opponents, either bursting past with powerful acceleration or skipping past with a variety of small-medium-large touches in succession. His dribbling style is mostly about unbalancing opponents with body feints and quick feet to shift in the opposite side of their movement. With his close control he is quite press-resistant, especially when he builds momentum in his carries and also wins a fair number of fouls from these situations too.
Movement & Physical Attributes
(Re-)Positioning & Off-Ball Runs
Junnosuke Suzuki is very adept at finding space after making a pass and is very mobile in pass combination situations. In the build-up phase under pressure he can create “escape routes” behind the opponent’s 1st Line of Press for his team with intelligent positioning or runs. Further forward he has a variety of ideas as he can make runs inside to his more natural midfielder positions or keep the width while the Wing Backs bomb forward. In the final 3rd, while he may initially hang back as the safe back pass option, he can make under-lapping runs himself.
Speed & Agility
Junnosuke Suzuki is fairly quick, especially in the first few steps in acceleration to get away from his marker on the dribble. While he is not the fastest over longer distances, he is an asset in sprinting back in counterattacking situations. As seen from his dribbling/carrying section, Suzuki is very agile and body balance with quick feet to turn and move past opponents in quick succession, even in tight spaces.
Suzuki’s maximum speed tops out at 33.87 km/hour which is in the 40th percentile among J1 Center Backs with at least 900 minutes played while his average top speed across his 23 games was 30.09 km/h.
Physicality & Heading
Suzuki is strong in the tackle and is able to easily slip his body in to bump opponents off the ball with his good upper body strength. However, he does overdo it by going in too hard or late which is why he has so many fouls/cards.
As seen below, Junnosuke Suzuki’s physical profile doesn’t particularly stand-out compared to other Center Backs in the league. However, when looking at metrics like these one needs to consider the playing style of the team and the difference in workloads and roles between Center Backs in a Back 4 to a Back 3 (all types of Center Backs are included in the percentile ranking below).1 Even still, while from the footage it’s clear that Suzuki can perform these high intensity actions when called upon, it’s clear from the data that he doesn’t do these actions with regularlity in comparison to other Center Backs in the league.
2024 (J1): 18.3 90s, 1646 minutes (source: FBref)
A big area of concern, especially if Junnosuke Suzuki is to remain playing as a Center Back in the future, is that he is very poor in the air. While not bad in terms of simply knocking back long balls and clearances from a block, I have major concerns about him defending against big strikers in/around his own box. Despite his frame and strength, I find Suzuki’s leaping ability is somewhat limited and he simply isn’t good at challenging opponents in the air with conviction.
Data & Miscellaneous
The player radar is fairly straightforward and tracks with what I’ve talked or shown in the previous sections.
Suzuki’s ball progression and driving forward with speed are clearly highlighted in the data. He is an active defender although his lack of aerial ability is a concern. As Suzuki has primarily been playing as a Center Back he hasn’t had the opportunities to show a whole lot of creativity in the final 3rd despite his ball progression abilities. As mentioned before his card and foul collection is also significantly worse compared to other Center Backs in the league.
I’ll post all the other data visualizations from the other sections again below:
Summary
Junnosuke Suzuki rose to prominence in the second half of the 2024 J.League season to help Shonan Bellmare escape relegation once again. As noted, Suzuki is originally a midfielder and up to mid-2024 he had mostly been playing a bit-part role, making cameo appearances late in games and occasionally starting cup games. He came to the fore by being converted to play Left Center Back in Shonan’s typical Back 3.
Junnosuke Suzuki certainly plays like a midfielder forced into a Center Back position, I mean this in both a good way and a bad way. His on-the-ball and off-the-ball movement is extremely good. Suzuki is highly intelligent in taking up positions to receive and having the courage to drive forward under pressure from the back-line. His progressive ball carrying and incisive passing has been a positive impact to the possession-play of a Shonan team mostly known for their press-and-counterattack style of play and a team that usually struggles in sustained possession sequences.
On the other hand, Suzuki can be easily turned and dribbled away from which has him make poor and/or late fouls to compensate. In general he can be a bit rough-around-the-edges when it comes to the finer points of defending as a Center Back which amounted to a grand total of 7 yellow cards in 2024. Despite his size, especially his broad upper body which has been a benefit in ground duels, a curious lack of aerial presence is a big concern if he is to make it to Europe.
One might wonder perhaps a return to midfield in the 2025 J.League season after the departure of Satoshi Tanaka might present an alternative way forward. However, I would push back against this as it would be far, far, more interesting if Junnosuke Suzuki continues to develop as a Left Center Back. Let’s face it, Japan produces plenty of these technical box-to-box like midfielders (Yuto Ozeki, Yotaro Nakajima, etc.) and Shonan also have plenty in their team already in the form of Masaki Ikeda and Taiyo Hiraoka. I think Junnosuke Suzuki is unique when he is playing at Left Center Back and if he can develop better defensive skills to properly establish himself then his value and uniqueness will increase further more.
I do think he can have a good J.League career and could even make the jump to Europe if he can work on his defensive flaws. However, for now I have him staying in Japan for a little while longer.
Thanks for reading!
Resources, Limitations, etc.
Video analysis: DaVinci Resolve 18
Tactical diagrams: Tacticalista
Time period: 2024 J1 Season (12 games)
Footage: Broadcast footage, no tactical camera
Stats: Hudl/StatsBomb, FBref, Transfermarkt, WyScout, FotMob
Player radars: Ben Griffis
I had a lot of difficulty joining together minutes played and positional data to the physical and event data. Unfortunately with how positions are defined there are plenty of players in the “Center Back”/”Left Center Back”/”Right Center Back” category that are players who only filled in there for a number of minutes at the end of the match or are (at least to me) shouldn’t have been categorized as Center Backs. Instead of manually filtering out a number of players, I’ve kept them in which might impact things but there’s not a whole lot I can do about that.
Great post. I looked at him for an article on the Analytics FC site (although in nowhere near as much detail) and reached the same conclusions
Oh and really liked Tanaka too, when I did that research. Interested to see how he does at SH