2020 season ins and outs

I thought I’d better do a quick post about the various players who have joined us and left us in the off-season. So here you are. Not many photos, as it seemed a bit cheeky to steal too many from the official site, so you'll have to make do with just the one above (stolen from the official site...sorry).

IN

YAMANE Miki - Transfer from Shonan Bellmare
It’s no surprise to see us sign a right sided defender after Oniki shifted both of last season’s right backs out of the squad. Shonan fans seemed quite upset that he has left them and joined us and whether that is because we are rivals or he was a great player remains to be seen. Hopefully both are true. Can apparently play right across the defence, which is useful as we seem a little light on numbers in a few positions there. Let’s not think about the fact that he played in some really heavy defeats for Shonan last year. Seems to be quite a positive signing.

DIOGO MATEUS - Loaned from Ferroviária

The new Elsinho? Not to put too much pressure on him too early! Loaned from Ferroviaria but was out on loan last year in the Brazilian second division. Played 29 games last year making four assists and getting a yellow card every third game. Hasn’t scored since 2017 though, but he is a right back and perhaps we were spoiled with Elsinho's goals. Got to think that he will be competing with Yamane for the right back spot. Let’s hope Oniki can be a bit more decisive about that position than he was last year. The last thing we want to see is Morita there and the two right backs out of the squad again.

TANNO Kenta - Transfer from Cerezo Osaka
Another keeper and one with some experience. Although this experience has recently been sitting in the stands as he hasn’t played more than a handful of games since the 2015 season. Who knows where he’ll be in the keeper pecking order? Who knows where anyone will be in the keeper pecking order? I’ve heard some rumours that we might be attempting some keeper-sweeper type antics next year so perhaps he’s been brought in with this in mind or perhaps we just liked the fact that his name sounds a bit like Kano Kenta and therefore we can maybe use the same song.

JESIEL, FUJISHMA Eisuke and MAWATARI Hiroki - Loan to permanent deal
These three have all been signed on permanent deals after joining us on loan last year. Jesiel signing permanently is a huge coup as he looked very good when he wasn’t injured last year. The two keepers, well, who knows, but hopefully Fujishima will finally get a chance to be involved after spending most of last year injured. We now have five keepers though, which seems a lot, given that I think we only played two last year. I suspect the Levain Cup group games will give us an opportunity to change things around a little.

KAMIYA Kaito - signed from Tokai Gakuen University
We signed someone from a university who isn’t a midfielder or striker!! Amazing! Central defender I believe, but there’s not a great deal of info I know about him. 1.82m… that’s about it. Could be crucial if we have injuries in a position we are light in, but whether he actually gets a chance is another matter. Tabinas didn’t and hasn’t been doing much on loan either. Itakura wasn’t played much, got loaned out and then sold to Manchester City. Will Oniki trust him enough for him to get on the pitch or is he just making up the numbers?

ISSAKA Zain, MITOMA Kaoru, HATATE Reo - signed from university teams
These three were all hanging around the place last season and some even got a bit of pitch time but have now officially joined us. Many people are talking about us being a youthful and exciting team this year and I’d love that to be true, but I’ll believe it when I see it. The average age of the squad has certainly got a bit lower though, I think. Fingers crossed!


IN THEN STRAIGHT OUT AGAIN

MIYAGI Ten - From youth team then loaned to Kataller Toyama

Striker from our youth team, only 18 years old and has played for the Japan U20 side. Saw him play in one youth team game but don’t remember him doing much. But don’t remember much about the game apart from the penalty shoot out. Loan spell in J3 makes sense as he’d likely be nowhere near the team if he stayed with us. Good luck!

TONO Daiya - From Honda FC then loaned to Avispa Fukuoka

Lots of people are saying good things about him and he's still young. Hopefully he can make the jump from semi-pro to professional easily as he spends a season on loan in J2 at Avispa Fukuoka. Short, so perhaps we can guess what kind of striker he is from that. Has a record of scoring once every three games for Honda FC which is pretty good. Interesting prospect!


OUT

NARA Tatsuki - Free transfer to Kashima Antlers
You can probably guess what I’m going to say about this transfer. Can’t blame Nara for leaving as he hasn’t been treated particularly well by Oniki who has never really seemed to like him or rate him even though I think he was our best defender on many occasions. I think it will be another transfer where the player leaving goes on to better things. Just wish he hadn’t gone to Kashima…

ABE Hiroyuki - Free transfer to Nagoya Grampus
Bit of a surprise, but we are overloaded in this position. Fan favourite but obviously felt like he could be getting more pitch time and who can blame him. Really should have been played up front more as he was always a goal threat for us. Did drift out of games a little at times last season, but was always willing to have a shot and scored some crucial goals which we may well miss.

MAWATARI Kazuaki - Loan to Shonan Bellmare
A mixture of injuries and Oniki’s whims meant that he didn’t have much opportunity to make his mark. Feel a little for him as he looked useful on occasions, but had big boots to fill following on from Elsinho. We will miss his dead ball delivery. Or rather we would if we had actually seen it often enough to get used to it. Lovely free kick against Kobe though! Feels like he was a bit of a scapegoat at times for the failures of Oniki’s favoured ones in a season in which we were a bit dubious defensively.

MAGUINHO - Loan to Yokohama FC
Can say the same thing about Maguinho. As well as he played on the limited occasions he did play, he never seemed likely to start the next game. Seemed more attacking than defensive and maybe this was his downfall. Seemed like a lovely guy so I hope he does well at Yokohama FC and we get to see what he could do for us.

CHINEN Kei - Loan to Oita Trinita
Slight head scratcher. Played loads at the start of last season then seemed to disappear. Scored more goals than we probably remember but was always going to struggle getting into a team which plays one up front and has Oniki favourite Kobayashi starting and ex-Brazil international Leandro Damiao on the bench. When he first broke through I made a bold prediction that I thought he’d end up in Europe and maybe now that will be the case if he has a good season at Oita. Sure he'll be knocking in the goals and then perhaps another player who Oniki considers not good enough for us will transfer to a European team.

ARAI Shota - Free transfer to JEF United
Another head scratcher. Seemed to have won the battle for the number one shirt towards the end of last season and it looked like it would be Sung-Ryong leaving. Clearly wanted to play more games so you can’t blame him for leaving. But you might have thought that he would have had a chance to do that this year. The only thing I can think is that if we are doing the keeper-sweeper thing he might slip down the pecking order as his kicking/passing was always his weak point. Feel sorry for him though, and I’m sure he’ll be missed.

SUZUKI Yuto - Loan to Matsumoto Yamaga
No surprise to see him out on loan again, as he never was going to get much of a chance in his preferred midfield position and he clearly wasn’t suited to playing right back. Hopefully he can get a bit more pitch time with Yamaga.

CAIO CESAR - Loan to V Varen Nagasaki extended
Same as above really. Pleased that he’s getting some game time. There’s a lot of traffic ahead of him in our squad.

AKASAKI Shuhei - Free transfer to Vegalta Sendai

Feel like he didn’t get much of a chance with us, but as I mentioned with Chinen, there are a lot of strikers all going for one spot in the team. Good luck to him at Sendai.

William POPP - Loan to Fagiano Okayama
Perhaps worth him dropping down to J2 to get some game time. Didn’t play much at Oita last year. Think there’s a good keeper in there, but I'm saying this based on having no experience of ever seeing him play for us apart from at practice sessions. Still young though, so potentially one for the future.

TABINAS Jefferson - Loan to Gamba Osaka
Weird last season for him on loan at Gifu where he didn’t play very often in his preferred defensive position but apparently had an absolute stormer after coming on as sub playing much further forward. Strange that after struggling to get in the team at J2 Gifu he has no gone on loan to J1 Gamba, although perhaps crucially they do have their U23 team in J3 for one more year. Perhaps being managed by a legendary Gamba defender will do him some good. Really want to see him play for us one day though as he arrived with a lot of promise.


Not a hugely informative blog post, I’ll admit, but there are perhaps a few things that we can take from these transfers looking at them together. Next year looks like it might be one dominated by our younger players, which is quite exciting. However, we’ve got to remember that Oniki doesn’t have a great record of bringing these youngsters through. Fingers crossed that is going to change in 2020. I’m interested to see what is going to happen with the goalkeeper situation next year as I think no-one really knows the pecking order yet. We’ve had some fairly big names leave us, and I wonder if we will regret letting some of these players go. Hopefully it will be more of an Okubo to FC Tokyo situation rather than an Elsinho to Shimizu one. I have to admit I was quite unenthusiastic about the new season, but after writing this I’m thinking it could be interesting if the right selections are made. Big if though, isn’t it? But I’ll do my best to keep positive for at least a couple of months of the campaign!

2019 Season round-up

Here is my long postponed end of season round up. The end of season posts seem to be dragging on quite a bit this year, perhaps because winning the Levain cup doesn’t quite provide the same euphoria as winning the league. But we shouldn’t diminish the achievement. A few years ago we would have bitten your hand off to win any cup, even this most lowly of ones. I’ll split this up by competition and will just run through some thoughts about how we did and what might have gone wrong. I’ll leave thoughts about the players to the individual player posts as no one wants to hear me go through all that again. So here we go, starting with what I consider to be the most successful and finishing with the biggest disaster. (By the way, I realise the pictures don't really match with the competitions they are next to, but you know, it's difficult to find good photos of bad experiences).

Fuji Xerox Super Cup

We won! We had new players! We made Urawa look terrible. Unfortunately, perhaps they were just rubbish. Given that this was only one game and we won it there was no chance for us to disappoint. Ah, the excitement and hope of early season games!

Levain Cup

The Levain cup was undeniably the high point of our season. Another star won for the shirt and a first victory in a cup competition is quite satisfying. However we did only have to play five games in this tournament against three teams and won only two of them, so let’s not get too carried away. Perhaps the highlight performance wise was the 3-1 home win against Kashima, where we really destroyed them in the second half. Of course the final was exciting and it was pretty exhilarating to win on penalties, but it wasn’t exactly a quality performance from us. Seems churlish to moan though. It always seems a bit off that the ACL teams automatically qualify for the quarter final in this competition. The fact that we started at that stage of the cup also takes the shine off a little and makes me feel like the win was a little undeserved. Going in this stage also denies us the opportunity to give some of our fringe players some pitch time in the group games. But no worries about that for 2020, as there’s a big chance we’ll be playing the group stages due to our dodgy performances in....

J League

After back to back titles, the second of which was a runaway victory in quite some style, this year has got to go down as a big disappointment. Finishing fourth is perhaps not so bad, but given the squad we had, and the fact that most of the league seemed to be worse than in the previous two years, it has got to go down as a huge missed opportunity. As always, we started slowly. The early draws against FC Tokyo, Kashima and Yokohama turned out to be draws against teams who finished above us, so perhaps were not as bad as they felt at the time but they did sow the seeds for a season of us floundering, failing to take chances, not playing what I consider our best eleven and stagnating tactically. We then followed this up with a late home defeat against a totally hopeless Gamba team who couldn’t buy a win at that stage. The late goal was another developing theme of this season. We conceded late on in a lot of games. I hate to see us taking the ball into the corner flag with five minutes to go, or sitting on 1-0 leads with 30 minutes to go and it didn't seem to work very often. Sure, we had some more defensive solidity in the last few seasons under Oniki, but this year that evaporated and when you're not defensively solid and you're trying to hang on for a 1-0 win for a significant portion of the game it’s always going to come back and bite you. We actually lost the least games in the whole league this year, which is perhaps something to be optimistic about and celebrate. However, the fact that we were only out 'drawn' by Matsumoto, (they drew 13 and we drew 12), a team who seemed to be attempting to stay in J1 by getting 34 points from drawing every game shows what kind of company we were in tactically. The draws killed our title hopes and also a significant portion of my enthusiasm. After the initial three draws against the end of season top three we did scrape some kind of form together but the reason we finished fourth is because of Nagoya home, Urawa home, Sagan Tosu home, Matsumoto home, Sendai away, Shimizu home, all of which were draws against bottom half teams. Looking at this list you can see that our home form was rubbish, teams having sussed us out at Todoroki, sitting back and waiting for a chance to hit us on the break, and this is something Oniki has never been able to counter. In previous seasons we’ve started slow and then built up momentum. This season we started slow, accelerated briefly, crunched the gears, veered of the road and crashed into a tree over the summer, then got pushed back onto the road and coasted downhill in neutral to the finish line, with massive pieces of our vehicle occasionally falling off down the final stretch. Yes, I realise I’ve overdone that metaphor a bit, but let me have it, won’t you? It’s maybe one of my favourite things about this years league campaign. Oh, finally, I should probably mention, as I’ve hinted at before, we used a ridiculous amount of different starting line ups this year. Unfortunately, I’ve left the stats I worked out back in Japan, but as far as I can remember, we used 29 different starting line ups in 34 league games, and the few times we repeated a starting eleven were after truly awful performances. I dunno why, I can’t work it out, but it definitely has contributed to a disappointing 2019 league campaign.

ACL

It was a a toss up for me as to whether our ACL or our Emperor's cup performances were worse. I’ve plonked for the ACL being just a little better. We had a tough group with three league champions (including us), and one very strong Korean club. We’d actually met the two toughest teams in this group in the previous year's ACL group, so we should have been prepared. As seems to happen in this competition with Oniki, we seemed to try to adjust too much to the opposition rather than playing our own game. Mercifully, due to work commitments, I didn't get to see many of these games this year, but it once again seemed like we were trying to be canny and cagey and hang on for one of those draws we liked so much this year,  yet more often than not failed and conceded late. (Some familiar themes here, eh?). Shanghai away, a late unfortunate penalty undid us. Ulsan away, a 91st minute absolute howler of a goal to concede. And by that stage things we’re looking dicey, even though we’d beaten the mighty Sydney FC at home thanks to a late Manabu goal. A couple more draws followed leaving us theoretically in a possible qualifying position if the game between our two qualification rivals went as we wanted it to. Sadly, these teams also knew what score we wanted and didn’t oblige. We had some more weird team selections in this tournament, Oniki still not really getting the whole rotation thing. Caio Cesar was rewarded for his couple of minutes from the bench away at Matsumoto with a start away at Ulsan, his only start for us ever. If we were struggling for continuity in the league, Oniki really pushed the boat out regarding random selections in the ACL. So basically, bad tactics, bad selections and we still managed to almost qualify, mainly thanks to a couple of wins against a pretty poor Sydney team. Who knows what might have been? Unfortunately, we all know what was. Next year, we probably won’t have to deal with ACL disappointment. we probably wont qualify and therefore won’t be able to underwhelm.

Emperor's Cup

I really want us to do well in this competition, feeling that we have unfinished business. Although it’s a competition that I’m unlikely to ever be able to see to its conclusion as I’m normally back in the UK around the final time. Thankfully this year there was no danger of me having any scheduling conflicts, due to us absolutely stinking away at Kobe and tanking out of the competition. Mercifully, I wasn’t able to attend that game, and not going was perhaps one of the best Frontale things to happen to me this year I think. The writing was already on the wall though. We’d laboured to a 1-0 victory against Meiji university thanks to an own goal. We had a decent team out but could easily have been knocked out at the first time of asking. Not sure Leandro Damiao and Chinen as a front two ever really worked, but still Oniki kept trying it, on this occasion supporting them by playing two left wingers. This saw us move on to Okayama away, where our blushes were spared by a late Leandro Damiao equaliser and then late in injury time, a penalty winner from Ienaga. On to Kobe where we generously gave them a 3-0 lead and unsurprisingly couldn’t pull back three goals in the last half hour. Although the two goals we got maybe made it look a bit more respectable. Still a loss though, and still a load more goals conceded. And another huge wasted opportunity.

So, all a bit gloomy this, isn’t it? But I’m sure you’d expect nothing less. I’m shocked that such an underwhelming league campaign could be the second best we did this year. I think we need to take a good look at ourselves, as many of these competitions were there for the taking this year as most of the teams in the league seemed pretty average this year. Yokohama would definitely have given us a challenge, but if we hadn't had all those awful league results we would have been putting some pressure on them. Next year, perhaps we'll get a go at the Levain group stages for the first time in a few years. Whether that is a welcome thing, you’ll have to decide for yourself. 2019 saw us gain another star for our shirt,  yet can’t really be taken as a huge success. It might sound snooty to say so, but we could have done a lot better and we probably should have. Anyway, that’s all from this blog this year. I’ll post the results of the survey some time early next year. Until then, I hope you all have a happy Christmas and a happy new year. Or that you enjoy whatever festive event you celebrate at this time of year. Cheers!

2019 Season Player Round-Up Part 3

The third and final part of my end of season player round up. Today, from Ao to Oniki. Plenty more moaning coming I guess.

25. TANAKA Ao

Definitely my player of the season. His improvement has been phenomenal, and now he looks like he’ll soon be pushing Oshima to be our first choice in that spot. Composed on the ball, tough in the tackle and more often than not plays a great pass. Fully deserves to get international recognition and I’m sure other clubs are looking at him. Really hope he stays.

26. MAGUINHO

Scored twice, assisted a similar amount, has played pretty well when asked to. Is another who finds himself behind other players paying out of position at right back. Oniki really doesn’t seem to like him (again... if so, why did we sign him?). Perhaps a bit more attacking than Mawatari so occasionally got caught out at the back, but like many others, only was able to work on this on the training pitch as more often than not, he didn’t even make the match day squad.

27. SUZUKI Yuto

Spent a large portion of the season on loan at Gamba Osaka. Before he went on loan was another player who was played out of position at right back. Didn’t really have a chance so it’s not really fair to comment too much. No idea if he’s coming back, staying on loan, or leaving us permanently.

28. WAKIZAKA Yasuto

Another rising star of 2019. Has played in both the Kengo role and on the right. Always seemed to gets subbed around 60 minutes regardless of how he was playing. Imagine his future will be in the Kengo spot. He has a good eye for a pass and really wants to score. Still raw, and gives the ball away cheaply at times, but it always seems to be with a nice pass in mind, rather than through carelessness. The fact that he’s our joint third top scorer with not so many appearances says a lot. And it’s even more impressive when consider that even though he seemed miles from the match day squad last year, he’s now staking a very real claim to be a starting member.

29. Michael James FITZGERALD

Similarly to with Suzuki, Michael James left midway through the season and didn't play much before he did. The few appearances he did make though seemed to be an improvement on previous seasons. Definitely he wasn’t as good on the ball as some of our other defenders, but he played reasonably well I thought. Particularly strange from our point of view that we let him go to Niigata when we had only one fit centre back. But I guess from his point of view the move made sense. Good luck to him!

30. MIYASHIRO Taisei

Never made it onto the pitch for us, (was on the bench a few times though) but scored a couple of times for Renofa Yamaguchi on loan. One for the future but there are a lot of other strikers looking to claim that one spot, so perhaps another season on loan would do him good.

31. HARADA Koki

No action for him, not even making it to the bench.

32. MITOMA Kaoru

Once an unused sub, once a used sub and seemed to be quite bright when he came on, but it was only briefly so we'll see next year, I guess. One for the future.

33. HATATE Reo
 
Made it briefly onto the pitch in the final game of the season and seemed up for getting stuck in. Was played on the right though is apparently a striker. One for the future.

34. YAMAMURA Kazuya

Ultra versatile but only really got a chance at centre back. Always seems to want to go forward with the ball when he’s playing there though, it seems. Did a reasonable job at centre back and scored a couple of times, but I think he and I would both like to see him playing further forward. Could he not do a job on the right side of midfield perhaps? Maybe his versatility will count against him though, as he’s a really useful player to have on the bench, given how many positions he can cover.

35. ISSAKA Zain

One appearance as an unused sub so judgement is delayed. One for the future.

36. MAWATARI Hiroki

No action for him, not even making it to the bench. The goalkeeper situation is so up in the air that I've no idea what will happen.
 
41. IENAGA Akihiro

Tough season. Only one goal in the Emperor's Cup from the penalty spot and started off the season with some pretty ordinary form. I’ve heard he had some personal and injury issues earlier in the year which can’t have helped him perform to the best of his ability. Came alive in the second half where he started to look a lot more like the old Ienaga we know and love. I particularly like his shoulder barges against opposition players which seem simultaneously quite aggressive and amusingly soft at the same time. Passion! And quite enjoyed the way he went on a yellow card spree at the end of the season, timing it perfectly to avoid a ban!

44. CAIO CESAR

Breakthrough year for him, although sadly he broke through and then was sent out on loan. Younger than I thought so maybe one for the future and think that the loan will do him good. Whether he'll come back to us at some stage or the loan is a stepping stone to a permanent move, who knows. Came on briefly against Matsumoto and then started an ACL game. That probably says more about Oniki's selections than Caio though. We'll see.

ONIKI Toru

I don’t think I need to say too much as anyone who’s read any of my blog Posts will know what I think of Oniki as our coach. This year, I think his luck ran out. Previously we’d been able to get away with being pretty inflexible and tactically rigid. This year, we weren't able to do this at the start of the season and Oniki went for the opposite, changing the team almost every game, giving no one a chance to get into any kind of form. We drew far too many games and ridiculously there were a crazy amount of 2-2 draws. The excitement is draining away from our football. There are players who seem undroppable and there are players who seem unselectable. I don’t think Oniki has the ability to freshen us up after we’ve fallen into this malaise. The Levain cup has papered over the cracks, but we went into the competition late and didn't exactly knock anyone’s socks off in most of the games we played. I don't dislike Oniki and when I watched one game from behind the dugout I was delighted to see him having a real go at some more useless officials. He's won our first three titles so deserves credit for that but I would like a new manager though. If it can happen in a mutually beneficial way, that would be nice. So, come on Kashima and hire him and then we can all get a happy ending!

2019 Season Player Round-Up Part 2

Here's part two of my 2019 season player round ups. Today it's from 11-24, Kobayashi to Ando. Part 3 coming tomorrow.


11. KOBAYASHI Yu

Firstly, I should apologise a little for some criticism of Kobayashi I’ve made this year. Perhaps I hold him to a higher standard than some of his teammates so when he doesn't perform so well (which he’s done on quite a few occasions this year), I probably criticise him too much. As captain, I understand it’s difficult to drop him. However, he’s had some really bad patches this year and Oniki has kept on picking him. Wonderfully skillful player on the ball, it's just his shooting that lets him down, needing five or six shots to find his range usually. This is a bit worrying for someone we’re repeatedly playing as a lone striker. As we’ve seen this year, we’re not getting as many chances, and if we’re wasting most of them, we’re not going to do very well. Strangely he seems to do quite well coming off the bench. I still want to see him on the right, but apparently he doesn’t want to play there. Scored a surprising amount of goals this year considering how how negative I'm being, but sadly it will be the spurned opportunities that stick in the mind.

12. Supporters

I dunno, we did ok, taking lots of fans to a lot of games. Clearly our fan base is growing. Have probably been way too quiet at times in games where things are not going our way and the players need encouraging. And at the same time, have been way too kind to them when the have really been stinking the place up.

14. NAKAMURA Kengo

Time is perhaps unsurprisingly catching up with Kengo. The big injury he got near the end of the season could have been a career ender but he seems determined to come back from it. At times he’s been great and at times he’s been not very good. Like most of our players, he seems to be unable to take corners, especially compared to how he used to. Still has something to offer I feel, but probably just as much in the changing room as on the pitch. It might be shocking for some people to read, but I don’t think he should be a regular starter next year. Wish he'd take over as player manager, to be honest.

16. HASEGAWA Tatsuya

Limited opportunities but decent results. The player who provided the most assists for us this year, despite not starting so many games. Seems to be ahead of Manabu in the pecking order recently. Has his best impact from the bench, which might not be great for him, but certainly works for us. Whether he’s happy with that, I don’t know, but he seemed to be at the end of last year. Fingers crossed he'll stay and fingers crossed our manager can work out a way to accommodate the numerous left wingers we have into the team a bit better, rather than just playing one of them on the right.

17. MAWATARI Kazuaki

Unfortunately injured on a few occasions and when he wasn’t injured was still not getting picked sometimes, with others playing out of position ahead of him. Lack of pitch time has meant he has been unable to really stake a claim to be our first choice right back, but Oniki's tinkering meant that nobody has claimed the spot yet, so it’s still all to play for. Lovely free kick against Kobe was his season highlight I'd say. Oh, and his surprisingly good singing at the fan event!

19. SAITO Manabu

It looks a little like it’s not going to work out for Manabu with us. Another player plagued by injuries and slipping down the pecking order, but I still don’t really feel like he’s got started with us, even after two seasons. Remember he played really well in one game this year and was immediately dropped for the next. Plays in a position that we are hugely oversubscribed in, but really feel he could do a job elsewhere (up front, behind the striker, on the right) too if he were only give the chance as his running with the ball always looks dangerous. Fingers crossed for next year.

20. CHINEN Kei

Whatever happened to Chinen? In the first half of the season he was one of our three strikers who were rotated almost every week. Went on a scoring run fairly early on, but then pretty much disappeared. Whether Oniki lost confidence in him, I don’t know, but we’ve barely seen him in the second half of the season. With us usually only playing one up front, his options are going to be limited, but it’s a bit weird that none of these three seems to do particularly well in the system we’re using right now. Perhaps the problem lies with the system and not the players. He's off to Oita on loan next year, which is good for him I think. I imagine he'll do well given a run of pitch time. Good luck! Judging by Oniki's recent loaning this probably means he'll get transferred to a European team in a season or so.

21. ARAI Shota

Looked like it was going to be another season of bench warming for Arai but then he got his chance in the Levain cup and seemed to become our first choice. His distribution was never as good as Sung-Ryong's but Arai made some really important saves this year and I can't really remember him making any big mistakes. After the Levain final heroics, it seemed to me that he would take over the number one spot and the Sung-Ryong would leave at the end of the season. I suspect however, that he was told about a new keeper coming in and realised he’d be back to second choice again and therefore decided to leave. It seems pretty sad, as many of the players look like they’re going to miss him and he’s always been solid for us. Suspect that Oniki's man management might have come up short again. Good luck to him at JEF.

22. SHIMODA Hokuto

Wonder perhaps if Shimoda will also leave us. Has probably played more games this year than previously, but he’s stuck behind Oshima, Ao and Morita so will most likely always be only a back up for us. Real shame as his song is great and he can actually take set pieces!! Has done well every time he’s been called on, but seems to perhaps unjustifiably be one of Oniki’s first choices to change when we are not playing well, regardless of how he's actually doing.

23. FUJISHIMA Eisuke

Cant help but feel gutted for Fujishima as he has played absolutely no part at all this year due to a horrible injury. Whether he stays on, who knows, but he’s only on loan. Didn't even really get a chance to work out where he was in the pecking order.

24. ANDO Shunsuke

Another quiet year for Ando. Made it onto the bench once I think. No Levain cup group games means that it will always be tricky for him to get involved.

2019 Season Player Round-Up Part 1

This is the first part of my 2019 season player round up. I wrote these on a plane, sleep deprived and still a bit grumpy about the 2019 season, so fans/haters of my moaning are going to find lots to enjoy/get angry about in here. Given that Arai has left already and is almost certainly not going to be the last player to leave, I'd better get these three parts up soon, before all of this becomes horribly out of date. By the way, Chinen is off on loan next year to Oita, so I'd better update his part before I post it. Here we go then, squad numbers 1-10 today.


1. JUNG Sung-Ryong

Bit of a weird year for the player who was our number one keeper, but now, who knows really where he is. I feel he has been unfairly blamed for us conceding goals, when it seems to me that the problem has mainly been in the defence in front of him. He hasn’t helped his cause by making a few blunders, but every keeper does that, don’t they? Him being dropped towards the end of the season convinced me that he was going to leave. Him being recalled confused me, but then it became apparent that Arai was leaving. I suspect they both will go in the end as Oniki seems to really not get on with foreign players. But full credit to Sung-Ryong, who has been a crucial part of a couple of successful seasons for us, and shouldn’t be blamed for our failing this year.

2. NOBORIZATO Kyohei

A stop start year for Nobori due to some injuries. Feel like he’s a really important part of Oniki's plans though. Has played on both the left and the right sides of what was a slightly shaky defence at times and always does his best and gives 100% it seems. Can’t imagine he’ll be played further forward due to the huge number of left wingers we have in the squad. His versatility is one of his best attributes and can definitely still do a good job for us. As with many other players, he’s not at his best at right back, with his left-footedness being taken advantage of on a few occasions, but can certainly do a better job at playing there than some others we’ve tried to cram in. 

3. NARA Tatsuki

A season blighted by injury for Nara. Of course I’d say so, but we’d definitely have done better this year if he had stayed injury free. If all players are fit, you’ve got to think that Nara and Jesiel are our best centre back pairing. But that’s never going to happen, is it? Disappointingly looks likely to leave, but you can’t blame him. At the end of the year he wasn’t even making the bench whilst players ahead of him in Oniki’s pecking order were making mistake after mistake. I’m sorry Nara that you had to have Oniki as your manager.

4. JESIEL

Seemed a different class after he’d settled in. Another player whose season was blighted by injury, and another who couldn’t get on the pitch at the end of the year even when fit. Attracted some big attention for his performance against Chelsea. If we can hang on to him, it will be a big bonus. But in order for us to cash in on this bonus, we’d actually have to play him. 

5. TANIGUCHI Shogo

The player with the most appearances this season and towards the end, it was showing. I don’t want to criticise him too much, but he’s made some serious errors this year and seemed to be dropping clanger after clanger whilst retaining his place in the team. Needs a rest, I think. Not saying he doesn’t make some magnificent and crucial interventions at times. It’s just that more than often, these are dwarfed by his mistakes. But no one really seems to notice the mistakes. Inconceivably was in the running for the team of the year, but I suspect that was more for the fact that he was a mainstay in a top 4 defence rather than being a selection made by anyone who’d actually watched us play this year.

6. MORITA Hidemasa

This could have been a great year for Morita. He finally scored his first goal for us and therefore finally got his own song. He had some recognition from the national team (although I don’t think he made it onto the pitch). Can’t help but feel that he was outshone by his younger teammate Ao though. Oniki putting him at right back at the end of the season was a disaster and I don’t know when Oniki will stop thinking this is a good idea. He’s great going forward, but constantly got rinsed in defence. Perhaps he could be tried in the Ienaga position in the future. Has great composure and keeps the ball well for the most part, but still occasionally loses it through trying some kind of trick or fancy play. Doing this nowhere near as much as he used to though, and is clearly still learning and improving.

7. KURUMAYA Shintaro

Much like with Morita, Kurumaya has done pretty well when he’s been played in his preferred position. Seeing him at centre back doesn’t fill me with too much confidence, especially when it’s as one of two. Used to do better on the left of a back three when Kazama was manager, but would still always rather he played at left back. Hasn’t all been great at left back though, as he went through a bit of a sticky patch, but then again, who didn’t this year? Someone will almost certainly try to lure him away from us again this year and I hope he once again stays, as he’s a crucial player for us.

8. ABE Hiroyuki

Seemed to have a slightly quieter season than usual, perhaps because he kept getting switched over to the right early on in the second half of games. It didn’t really work, but Oniki persisted. Scored an impressive amount of goals considering he hasn’t seemed to have played as much as in previous  campaigns. Still love the fact that he always seems willing to have a shot and he’s scored some crackers. Does seem to have drifted in and out of games a bit this year though, perhaps a reflection of the general malaise in the team.

9. LEANDRO DAMIAO

Undeniably our most exciting signing at he start of the year, and has been undeniably underused. Never got a chance to have a proper run in the team. If he started and didn't score, he was dropped for a few matches. If he made an impact from the bench, that’s exactly where he stayed in the following game. This is all exaggeration of course, but it certainly felt that way. Did well to get as many goals as he did given his limited pitch time. The games he started tended to be ones where we were fielding rotated line-ups and his sub appearances often amounted to little more than time wasting changes. Oniki clearly didn’t want to play him and there was no real attempt to accommodate him. Perhaps wasn’t the best choice signing for our system (in which case, why did we sign him?!?!), and we never really played to his strengths. But he still did reasonably well and we are definitely left wondering what might have been if he’d been played a bit more. If he gets an offer from another team, I really wouldn’t be surprised if he took it, although he does genuinely seem to want to do well for us. Good guy!

10. OSHIMA Ryota

If we’d had Oshima fit all season, we would have done better. Pretty obvious thing to say I guess, but clearly it’s true. But then again, Oshima is never always fit so this is something we have to expect. We look so much more organised and composed when he’s playing and we really miss him when he isn’t. Doesn’t seem to shoot as much as he used to, so I’d like to see more of that as he’s got the potential to smack in some crackers. Defintiely one of our best players and if fit, even with Ao and Morita playing in the same position, he’s probably the first name on the sheet in the defensive midfield spot. 

2019 season survey

Here is the third annual Frontale Rabbit Blog survey. Once again, the questions are not exactly thrillingly original. In fact most of them are still the same as last year but there are a couple of new ones this time.  If you have any questions you think I should add, please let me know and I'll put them in. Please reply any way you want. Leave a comment on the post, send me an email to frontalefan(at)gmail(dot)com, tweet them, instagram message me…. any way you can think of really. I'll follow up collating the answers when I've (hopefully) got a few responses. And in the interest of getting as many replies as possible, it's in Japanese too. Thanks!

Frontale Rabbitブログの年末恒例アンケートも3年目になりました。質問は昨年とほぼ同じですが、これ以外にも聞いたらおもしろいと思う質問があったらお知らせください。返答方法は自由 - ブログコメント欄、メール(frontalefan(at)gmail(dot)com)、ツイート、Instagramのメッセージなど。返答が集まったら結果を報告します！

1. Game of season
今シーズン1番良かった試合

2. Player of the season
今シーズン1番良かった選手

3. Goal of the season
今シーズン1番のゴール

4. Disappointment of the season
今シーズン1番がっかりしたこと

5. Villain of the season (anyone, from any team or an official or...)
今シーズンの悪者(他のチームの選手でも審判でも誰でも)

6. Best away trip (if you've done one)
今シーズン1番のアウェイ遠征(もし行った場合)

7. Best stadium in the J League
Jリーグで一番好きなスタジアムは？

8. Opposition J1 team you like the most
フロンターレ以外でJ1で1番好きなチーム

9. Opposition J1 team you like the least
J1で嫌いなチームを１つ選ぶなら

10. Team you're disappointed to see go down
J2に降格して欲しくなかったチームを１つ選ぶなら

11. Team you're pleased to see come up
J1に昇格してうれしいチームを１つ選ぶなら

12. Best thing about the J League
Jリーグで1番良いこと

13. Worst thing about the J League
Jリーグで1番嫌なこと

14. Trophy you would like to win the most next year
来シーズン1番欲しいタイトル

15. What's Kengo's role next season? (first team regular, semi-regular starter, sub etc.)
来シーズン憲剛の役割は何が良いと思うか)スタメン、準スタメン、サブ、など)

16. What’s your view of Oniki?
鬼木監督についてどう思いますか？

17. If you could have any J League player sign for Frontale, who would it be?
Jリーグの選手でフロンターレに欲しい選手は？

18. Favourite Frontale song/player song
1番好きなフロンターレ、または選手のチャント

19. What’s your prediction for next season?
 来年の予想

20. Any other comments
その他コメント

2019 season round up: Ref stats

As usual, there’s probably not a great deal we can take from these stats to be honest but I still enjoy compiling them for some reason. I’ve added average cards per game and average points per game in an attempt to find something we can take away from these stats. Although some of these games were cup games, I've still counted the result towards the average points per game total. It seems that since the ridiculous applause for Iemoto that we gave him before FC Tokyo away he is doing his best to not give us decisions and we’re not doing well in his games. Perhaps it’s a sign of the general quality of this year’s performances that we only have one ref with a perfect record with us this year (Koya, but it was only one game so probably doesn’t count). Even if the ref was great for us we often weren’t able to win this year. But Matsuo, Yamamoto and our old friend Tojo (!) seem to be the best refs for us now. And Nakamura and Iida seem to be the most card happy. I have given triple points significance for the calculations to red cards as I feel a red is probably more than twice as costly as a yellow so two points didn't seem quite right. This is all a bit tenuous away I guess, so interpret them as you want.


G - Games refereed
W - Wins
D - Draws
L - Losses
Y - Yellow Cards
R - Red Cards
AVC - Average number of cards per game (yellow = 1, red = 3)
AVP - Average points for us per game


ARAKI
G 3 W 0 D 3 L 0 Y 2 R 1 
AVC 1.66 AVP 1

FUKUSHIMA
G 1 W 0 D 1 L 0 Y 0 R 0
AVC 0 AVP 1

IEMOTO
G 3 W 1 D 0 L 2 Y 1 R 0
AVC 0.33 AVP 1

IIDA
G 2 W 1 D 1 L 0 Y 4 R 0
AVC 2 AVP 2

IKEUCHI
G 3 W 1 D 1 L 1 Y 4 R 0
AVC 1.33 AVP 1.33

KASAHARA
G 3 W 2 D 0 L 1 Y 2 R 1
AVC 1.66 AVP 2

KIMURA
G 1 W 0 D 0 L 1 Y 1 R 0
AVC 1 AVP 0

KOYA

G 1 W 1 D 0 L 0 Y 1 R 0
AVC 1 AVP 3

MATSUO
G 3 W 2 D 1 L 0 Y 2 R 0
AVC 0.66 AVP 2.33

MURAKAMI
G 2 W 1 D 1 L 0 Y 3 R 0
AVC 1.5 AVP 2

NAKAMURA
G 1 W 0 D 1 L 0 Y 2 R 0
AVC 2 AVP 1

NISHIMURA
G 4 W 1 D 2 L 1 Y 3 R 0
AVC 0.75 AVP 1.25

SATO
G 4 W 2 D 1 L 1 Y 3 R 0
AVC 0.75 AVP 1.75

TAKAYAMA
G 2 W 1 D 1 L 0 Y 0 R 0
AVC 0 AVP 2

TOJO
G 3 W 2 D 1 L 0 Y 4 R 0
AVC 1.33 AVP 2.33

UEDA
G 2 W 1 D 1 L 0 Y 0 R 0
AVC 0 AVP 2

YAMAMOTO
G 3 W 2 D 1 L 0 Y 4 R 0
AVC 1.33 AVP 2.33