2024 season round up

Today, the last part of stage one of my end of season posts and it's my impressions on our performance in the various competitions we took part in this year. As you might expect, it's not the most cheery of posts. All of the end of season posts can be seen here. After this, it will just be the survey results but I'm going to leave that till I get back to Japan after my Christmas holiday, so still plenty of time to get your responses in for that.

League

Another pretty disappointing season to be honest. A late run of good results definitely put a gloss on our record and pushed us up the table, but to be honest, we were so bad for the first three quarters of the season that finishing eighth was a bit of a miracle. The turn around in our form neatly coincided with us ditching Oniki’s favoured 4-3-3 formation and tactics. I dread to think where we would have ended up if we’d continued with the same old stuff for the whole season. Even though we finished up in eighth, we were significantly closer when it came to points to the relegation zone than to the champions. It was a weird year in the league with everyone being able to beat anyone. Close examination of our games against the top teams makes it look like a better year than it was. We easily beat Kobe once and totally messed up against them once. We drew twice against Sanfrecce. We hammered Machida and stuffed up the other game against them. The one thing that we could consistently rely on was our inconsistency. If you look at games against the relegated teams, things look a lot bleaker. One point from a possible six and seven goals conceded in the two games against Jubilo. One win and one defeat to Consadole. One slightly fluky win against Sagan Tosu but once again, seven goals conceded in the two games against them. Our late season semi-recovery came with a lot of goals, and this was a big part in the fact that we finished the season as the second highest scorers, only behind recent perennial chokers Sanfrecce. It’s a miracle we scored so many as there were long periods of the season where we were lucky to even break the five shots total in a match. Clearly the problems were at the other end of the pitch where only six teams conceded more goals than we did. And I dread to think what might have happened if Sung-Ryong hadn’t saved us on numerous occasions. Definitely this was a season to forget, but the problem is that the trauma from some of the games might make that a difficult thing to do. However, the late flurry might have eased some people’s anxiety a little bit. When I do my end of season survey I think there will be no shortage of options for worst game of the season, and when this is the case, you know things haven’t been great. Fingers crossed for 2025.

Emperor’s Cup

Well, if the league was disappointing, surely we have something fun to write about in the cup, right? Absolutely not! As is our way, we managed to just about squeak past a non-league team in our first match. And as is also our way we got knocked out by a J2 team in terrible form in the next round. I didn’t see that match but I think we can safely say we were shite. Nothing more to add. Our 2024 Emperor’s Cup campaign was a disaster.

Levain Cup

As we were taking part in the ACL, we joined the Levain Cup at the quarter final stage and were handed the easiest possible tie, against Kofu, a J2 team in pretty bad form. We struggled to an underwhelming, (that word seems to sum up a lot of our wins in 2024), win at home, and then were somehow equally bad in the second leg. A very late equaliser in the away leg saw us through. It was a good feeling when the goal went in, but afterwards felt a bit hollow as we’d really struggled. After that we faced Albirex and blimey, we were even worse, losing 4-1 in the away leg and then, needing plenty of goals in the return fixture, proceeded to also lose that. A 6-1 humiliation against a team in dodgy form! You couldn’t write it? Actually you could, it happens quite often to us in the cup. I really can’t decide which cup campaign was worse.

ACL

Perhaps the one saving grace of 2024 was our ACL campaign. At least that’s how it feels right now. But don’t worry, I’ve got some moaning to do here too, as don’t forget in 2024 we played in two different ACL competitions. Many months ago in February we did a decent job of winning 3-2 in the away leg of our round of sixteen game against Shandong Taishan. Great! And of course then we proceeded to totally mess up the home leg, losing 4-2, crashing out to a last minute goal, just as we were thinking about extra time. This game still sticks in my memory for containing perhaps the absolute pinnacle of terrible Wakizaka corners, where he tried to play it short, instead passed it directly to the opposition who went straight down the other end and scored. It was definitely not just down to him though. Everyone was awful. To be honest, at this stage we should have realised what was coming in 2024.

Somewhat bizarrely though, when it came time to start the following ACL campaign we seemed to do much better than we were doing in the league. An early win away against our ACL nemeses Ulsan looked like a bright start. On reflection though, they have been pretty terrible in the ACL this year. The next game followed our 2024 script more, being a 1-0 home loss to Gwangju where we perfectly replicated our appalling league form on the continental stage. We followed this up with another defeat, slightly mitigated early on by a classic Marcinho red card. So with three games gone we had scored one goal and had lost twice. Writing this now I’m realising that our later ACL form really helped to wipe the memory of some very bad games. We followed up these first three games with three wins on the bounce, going goal crazy to boot. This has all left us in a pretty good position going into next year’s final two group stage games. One is away to the team sitting immediately below us in the table and looks tricky. The other is at home to the team right at the bottom who have one point from six games. So in theory, we should be ok. But of course, things never really work out how they should in theory, do they? And as we have a new manager for the remaining two games, I guess no-one really knows what will happen. Only four of the twelve teams will be eliminated, so if we went out from where we are now, it would be a big surprise with only six points left to play for. Initially I was very suspicious of the new format of the competition. In practice, I think it has turned out better than I expected, but I still don’t think the changes were necessary and don't understand what the point of making them was. The big problem at the moment though is that the competition is spread over two seasons. This won’t be the case for much longer as the J League season is moving, (a decision which I think is absolutely idiotic). The ACL is still a bit of an enigma for us. I don’t think it is ever fair to say that we haven’t taken it seriously, but from looking at our sometimes baffling results you could be forgiven for thinking we haven’t. But in a year that has been filled with some truly terrible games and performances, praise be to the ACL which has at least given us something to be cheerful about at the end of the season. Once again, fingers crossed for 2025.

2024 season player round up part 3

Here's part three of my end of season individual player round up posts. Today it goes from Matsui to Kamifukumoto (and Oniki). Part one is here and part two here. All the end of season posts can be found here.

25. Renji MATSUI (MF)
AP 0 M 0 G 0 AS 0 Y 0 YY 0 R 0

After a successful loan spell at Machida last season Matsui came back and… went out on loan again a month or so later. Clearly he was never going to get to play in our massively overcrowded midfield so it made sense. And equally, I think it makes sense that he’s now signed for Vegalta Sendai permanently. As he didn’t even play a minute for us, there’s nothing else to write here.

26. Hinata YAMAUCHI (MF)
AP 21 M 630 G 0 AS 1 Y 0 YY 0 R 0

Interesting first season for him. It’s weird, as I thought I could remember him scoring but it seems he didn’t. Had bright moments but didn’t quite deliver in a kind of… erm… Miyagi Ten way. Neither of them were helped by Marcinho being a nailed on starter in their preferred position. But at the same time, neither of them took their chance when they filled in for him during one of his bans. Reasonable first season but needs to push on a bit next year I feel.

28. PATRICK VERHON (FW)
AP 3 M 87 G 0 AS 0 Y 0 YY 0 R 0

In the Super Cup he looked like he’d be a really exciting player in 2024. Even had TV pundits raving about what an effect he could have. And then totally disappeared. I guess this is often the case for players in their first season with us, but we’ll see whether anything actually changes next year. I hope so, as he seemed to bring something that we didn’t have in the brief cameos he had many months ago. But perhaps that something was something that Oniki didn’t want. Fingers crossed he gets a chance in 2025.

30. Yusuke SEGAWA (FW)
AP 47 M 2178 G 1 AS 1 Y 8 YY 0 R 0

Lots of appearances, but mainly from the bench. And plenty of cards. But this probably had something to do with being played at right back quite often. Surprised he only scored once and only got the one assist but that was probably because he didn’t get the chance to get near the opposition goal very often. Don’t know if he’s happy with his involvement and there have been some rumours about him leaving so we’ll see what happens.

31. Sai van WERMESKERKEN (DF)
AP 40 M 2903 G 4 AS 3 Y 4 YY 1 R 0

Another weird season. Arrived with a fanfare but didn’t go straight into the team. When he won the spot always seemed to be one of the first players to be subbed. Have no idea why that was. Perhaps it was fitness or more likely it was Oniki’s insistence on keeping Tachibanada on the pitch as long as possible and using as many central midfielders as possible. Scored some cracking goals and seems to be a very useful player. Has a long throw too but that seemed to get dumped quite quickly. Maybe we’ll get some more of them next year. Felt bad for him when he got sent off against Nagoya, but to be fair that possibly wasn’t the worst thing one of our players did in that game. I think he’s one of our better players so hope he can do even better next year.

32. Soma KANDA (FW)
AP 3 M 8 G 1 AS 1 Y 0 YY 0 R 0

Absolutely out of the picture for most of the year, apparently not good enough to play for us, but being hyped by everyone and scoring goals for fun for the Japanese under… something team. When Oniki finally relented and brought him on for a couple of minutes in the ACL he scored and got an assist. Eight minutes on the pitch in total in the season. Gomis says he’s going to be a star so I’m quite excited about that. Hopefully we get to see that before he leaves us.

34. Kota YUI (MF)
AP 0 M 0 G 0 AS 0 Y 0 YY 0 R 0

Not a minute on the pitch but made a few bench appearances in the ACL. When I say bench appearances, I mean he sat on the bench. Maybe he’ll have more chances next year on loan at Fukushima, hopefully doing as well as Ozeki did this year.

35. Yuichi MARUYAMA (DF)
AP 17 M 1184 G 0 AS 0 Y 0 YY 0 R 0

Slightly weird season for him. Perhaps slightly weird signing too, as presumably he was signed to sure up the defence but then didn’t get played much. Like many other defenders, also spent quite a bit of time injured. Towards the end of the season showed what he could do and looked like a steady member of a semi-decent defence. Probably should stop trying the long passes out of defence though as they didn’t work out very well. Obviously not one for the future, but imagine he’ll be a useful player next year.

41. Akihiro IENAGA (MF)
AP 54 M 3714 G 10 AS 7 Y 3 YY 1 R 0

38 years old and played 54 games. Don’t like to say it, but this season there probably has been a bit of a drop off for him. In the past used to hold opposition players off for fun but has been outmuscled on a few occasions this year. Drifts in and out of games a bit, but on the occasions where I’ve moaned about him looking like he can’t be arsed in the first half of games he’d then go on to have a great last 30 minutes of the game. Ten goals and seven assists is a very nice return. Not sure what the future holds for him. There has long been talk that he’ll leave us and return to Kansai. A new manager joining could be the right time for him to do that. But if he does stay and his pitch time is managed correctly, he’ll probably still be a very important player for us in 2025

44 CESAR HAYDAR
AP 6 M 459 G 0 AS 0 Y 1 YY 0 R 0

Felt like he was signed to stand in for Jesiel when he was injured. Bit difficult to judge him on only six appearances and 459 minutes after moving to a new club, a new league and a new country. I think he’s a better player than he’s shown so far, so fingers crossed for 2025.


77. Yuki YAMAMOTO (MF)
AP 34 M 1999 G 2 AS 3 Y 3 YY 0 R 0

Was another marquee signing at the start of the year and then ended up dropping out of contention after a little while. People have talked about how good he is when playing with Erison, which makes it all the stranger that even when we were doing badly we didn’t try that more often. Two goals and three assists seems decent from his minutes in his first season with us, but we’ll probably expect to see more from him in 2025. His free kick against Shandong was a beauty.

98 Louis YAMAGUCHI
AP 2 M 180 G 0 AS 0 Y 0 YY 0 R 0

Apparently now seems to be our confirmed second choice keeper after signing permanently after the end of the season. And seems to have settled in well with us. Only made a couple of appearances and one was a bit of a nightmare away against Niigata in the cup. But I didn’t see that game so can’t say for sure if the result was down to him, and I suspect that even if he was to blame, there were plenty of others equally responsible. Whether he challenges for the first choice spot next year remains to be seen. Personally I think he’s still second choice, but who knows what the new manager will think.


99. Naoto KAMIFUKUMOTO (GK)
AP 8 M 720 G 0 AS 0 Y 0 YY 0 R 0

Probably was the right decision for him to leave and join Shonan. Feel like it never really worked out for him with us, but I don’t think he’s to blame for that. We were always told that his skill on the ball was a crucial element to the way that we were going to attack, but as far as I could see, that seemed to be complete nonsense. Definitely was a lot more confident than he perhaps should have been and made just a few too many clangers compared to the limited times that his skills on the ball did something positive. Wish him all the best at Shonan where he seems to have done decently.

Toru ONIKI

I’ve probably written a lot about this already so there will be a lot of repetition here. Was pleased that he managed to get some decent results towards the end of his time with us and leave on something of a high. Clearly he was a great success for us, but given that this post is about 2024, I think it will sound significantly less positive. 2024 was pretty much a disaster for us. In most competitions we looked hopeless. And even when we were at out worst Oniki seemed to think that we should just keep on doing the same thing and eventually success would magically come back. Although it was said that he was a very popular manager, I feel a little like he lost the changing room a bit in the middle of the season, or at least, the changing room resigned themselves to the fact that we weren’t going to achieve anything which I guess is just as bad. I would say this is the right time for him to move on, but the truth is that he probably should have done it a few years ago. But to finish on a positive, unlike the previous incarnation of the competition,  he has done a good job in the 2024/25 ACL so far. Kashima will be a real test for him as instead of tweaking a system, he might have to rebuild things from the bottom. Although the bottom for Kashima in 2024 was significantly higher than where we finished under Oniki in the same year.

2024 season player round up part 2

Here's part two of my end of season individual player round up posts. Today it goes from Kobayashi to Miyagi. Part one is here and part three should be up tomorrow. All the end of season posts can be found here.

 

11. Yu KOBAYASHI (FW)
AP 37 M 1033 G 5 AS 2 Y 1 YY 0 R 0

A bit of a weird season for Kobayashi, and perhaps a transitional one. I think we all expect him to stay at the club for the whole of his career as I believe he’s been promised a position with us after he retires from playing. Given that he’s 37, this could be happening sooner rather than later. The fact that he featured 37 times but only played just over one thousand minutes hints at the fact that more often than not his appearances were only right at the end of games. He did show that he can still score goals and contribute though. I hope he will be satisfied with taking more of a back seat going forward as he has clearly been a great servant to the club. And the fact that his minutes per goal were the same as Marcinho suggest that he still has plenty to give. He got injured in Kengo’s retirement game but hopefully that won’t be too serious and won’t affect next year too much.

13. Sota MIURA (DF)
AP 35 M 2771 G 3 AS 5 Y 2 YY 0 R 0

In his first season with us, Miura has had his ups and downs but I think it has been a generally positive one for him. There were definitely high expectations for him, particularly as he got a look in for the national team last year. Naturally, given how bad our season was, those kind of ambitions had to be put on hold a bit, but I think towards the end of the year he really started to show his worth again. Absolutely much better at going forward than defending, but that does seem to be the way with full backs at Frontale. His free kicks have been pretty good for us too. Sadly he seems to have been taking corner kick lessons from Wakizaka as they didn’t seem to work out so well. Seems to have settled in well with the rest of the squad and I suspect that he’ll have an even better 2025. Fingers crossed.

14. Yasuto WAKIZAKA (MF)
AP 47 M 3833 G 8 AS 9 Y 2 YY 0 R 0

Something of a tough year for Wakizaka. Again the player who got our captaincy suffered from a severe drop off in form. But he was still a very important player for us. This was definitely not his best season though. To be negative, his corners are still horrible, he wasn’t dropped when others around him who were playing better were, and when he got injured and was out of the team, we got our best results of the year. On the positive side he did surprisingly well when moved to the right wing and got the most assists in the squad and a decent amount of goals. He was once again very emotional at the end of the season which last year I interpreted as him being about to leave, which he obviously didn’t. His speech at the end of this season suggested that he is staying. Maybe this is something to do with him being injured though. However, clearly he’s not getting any younger so perhaps if he wants to move overseas it will have to be sooner rather than later, But perhaps he’s settled into being the new Kengo in more ways than just wearing number 14. Interested to see what happens with a new manager and new ideas.

15. Shuto TANABE (DF)
AP 9 M 258 G 0 AS 0 Y 2 YY 0 R 0

Another quiet season for Tanabe, but he did get on the bench quite a bit. Perhaps this had more to do with our defensive injuries though. However, I feel that sitting on the bench and in the stands isn’t going to help him develop. Perhaps he’s another who is waiting to see where he stands under a new manager. Seem to remember there was a period at one stage in the season where Tanabe was the expert at being subbed on and immediately getting a yellow which is quite a skill. But I guess it does suggest that he is really trying to take his chances when he gets them.

16. Tatsuki SEKO (MF)
AP 35 M 1931 G 1 AS 4 Y 2 YY 0 R 0

The latest victim of the Frontale Rabbit shirt curse. If I buy someone’s shirt they then leave shortly afterwards. At least for Seko his departure was probably a step up, moving to the Stoke in the Championship. I think that he should have played more when he was with us, but Oniki had other ideas. There’s something kind of strange that under Oniki, players who he wasn’t quite sure about were the ones who moved on to a higher level. In his time with us, I thought he was our best set piece taker and a player who more often than not looked to go forward rather than meekly retain the ball. Sometimes this made it look like he was losing the ball a lot, but if you don’t take a chance you’re never going to score. I think we’ll miss him but once again we have too many midfielders so it’s not a great surprise that some of them want to leave because they’re not playing much.

17. Daiya TONO (FW)
AP 51 M 2415 G 6 AS 6 Y 4 YY 0 R 0

Only four players in the squad were involved in more games than he was in 2024. But plenty of players who played less games played more minutes than he did, (including Ominami, who left half way through the season…). As far as I knew, Tono was a striker, but the amount of time he spent playing in that position was severely limited in 2024. Got a decent amount of goals and assists for the time he was on the pitch, but the massive amount of appearances perhaps took the shine off those figures a bit. The most interesting thing is perhaps the fact that he has decided to leave us for a bunch of sailors down the road. If Oniki was still in charge, perhaps it might be understandable as maybe he wanted to play more in his preferred position and get more starts. The interesting twist is that the manager who he played under when on loan to Avispa and who desperately wanted to sign him is now in charge of us and Tono has left. I don’t know what this means, but it’s definitely interesting and perhaps slightly worrying for our 2024 prospects. I usually say good luck to players leaving us, but as he’s gone to YFM, it’s a little hard for me to think that way. Yes, I am very petty. But I don't hold it against him, so maybe I want him to score every game but for Marinos to lose every game.

18. Bafetimbi GOMIS (FW)
AP 15 M 636 G 3 AS 0 Y 1 YY 0 R 0

His signing was another bizarre piece of business from our club, given that he seemed to be brought in to replace Damiao, who was at the same time getting too old but significantly younger than his replacement. I don’t think our system suited him and I don’t think he ever got to show us what he could really do. But at least we got to see his goal celebration in the first half of the one game he scored all of his goals for us in. I don’t know if part of the reason for his singing was for him to pass on his experience to the younger players. Certainly he seems to have had an impact on Kanda, who Gomis thinks will be a great player in the future. Given the fact that we signed Chanathip and then let him rot in the stands, whilst enjoying the commercial benefits of him being a Frontale player, I suspect that getting Gomis might be the latest equivalent signing and the real reason for him joining could have been a bit more cynical. Someone who can raise people’s awareness of our club but might not necessarily play much. It doesn’t particularly seem like a good way to run a football club, but what do I know? I’m glad that he seemed to enjoy his time in Japan and that he still feels an attachment to us. There’s no doubt he’s a very nice guy. I just wish he could have had a bigger impact as I’m sure that’s what he was hoping for.

19. So KAWAHARA
AP 18 M 1124 G 0 AS 0 Y 2 YY 0 R 0

A mid season signing to reinforce the area that… we had absolutely loads of cover for. Which is a bit bizarre, but that’s the way things seem to go with our club recently. Seemed to come in banging but then dropped off a bit. He was great for his first few games, but I felt a bit sorry for him as when he was playing well, the team as a whole was playing pretty badly. Didn’t make as many appearances towards the end of the season but I can’t really blame Oniki for not changing things much when we finally started playing a bit better. Can’t help but feel that he was signed to fit into a system that we stopped playing shortly after he joined. Hopefully he’ll have a decent start under a new manager as I thought he did well when he had the chance. Oh, and he’s probably our best corner taker now.


20. Shin YAMADA (FW)
AP 56 M 2769 G 21 AS 6 Y 3 YY 0 R 0

Goals galore from Yamada, but quite a lot of them came late on in the season. Our top scorer and came close to being the league’s top scorer so clearly had a good season. Love the fact that he seems to be able to bulldoze his way though opposition defenders with the ball glued to his boot. And that he is definitely a 100% effort player. And of course love his new Vai De La technique. Not as keen on the fact that there were quite a few occasions where instead of passing the ball for a guaranteed goal he instead tried to score himself and failed. Also, he’s not so useful at the other end of the pitch. In the 5-4 win against Verdy, Yamada was directly involved in most of the goals, at both ends of the pitch. Clearly he’s not in the team to defend though. 2025 will be an interesting year for him. If he keeps scoring he will presumably attract more attention so it might just be a matter of how long we can keep hold of him.

21. Shunsuke ANDO (GK)
AP 0 M 0 G 0 AS 0 Y 0 YY 0 R 0

Nothing to say here again apart from once again I feel sorry for Ando as he seems destined to never have a chance no matter how many inujuries the keepers ahead of him get. Wasn’t named in the ACL squad which could suggest he’s leaving, but I can’t really imagine that will happen. Maybe he’ll get more of a chance under the new manager, but I suspect he won’t. Definitely approaching Frontale legend status though not for the usual reasons you might expect.

22. Yuki HAYASAKA (GK)
AP 1 M 90 G 0 AS 0 Y 0 YY 0 R 0

Feel sorry for him as in his one start he conceded three goals. I don’t think he can be blamed for that though as we were just woeful at that stage of the season. Immediately after that game we got Yamaguchi in and that was the last we saw of Hayasaka. Going on loan to Iwaki next year which will probably do him the world of good. With Yamaguchi joining permanently, going out on loan and actually playing some football should be a good next step for Hayasaka.

23. MARCINHO (FW)
AP 54 M 3308 G 16 AS 3 Y 4 YY 1 R 2

It’s all been happening for Marcinho in 2024. A decent amount of goals, loads of minutes, three red cards, some sublime moments of skill and an equal number of not so good passes after good runs. Has definitely been in and out of form, but even in his worst moments, still seemed like he was Oniki’s first choice. And for long periods of the season he was our only route to goal, which was a bit scary. There were some rumours that he might be leaving and to be honest, I don’t know how I feel about that. Feel sorry for him with his red cards as clearly he can’t tackle and the awful state we were in meant that he was getting in more situations where he needed to try to tackle. Feel like we’ve relied too heavily on him for too long. But as with many of these player write ups, I just have to say, if he stays, we’ll see what happens under our new manager.


24. Ten MIYAGI (FW)
AP 5 M 89 G 0 AS 1 Y 0 YY 0 R 0

After a few years away Miyagi was back, perhaps due to being injured at the end of his last loan spell. As far as I could tell from his limited time on the pitch for us this year, he still seems to be the same kind of player and have the same issues, in that he looks good but doesn’t really deliver. Certainly he hasn’t been helped by his injuries and may benefit from a fresh start with a new manager, but I imagine if he wants to further his career, he might be better off doing it elsewhere, at least for the time being.

2024 season player round up part 1

 

As quite a bit of time has now passed since the end of the season, I feel like we’ve all had a bit of time to sit back and reflect on our 2024 campaign. Or actually, maybe like me you decided to try not to think about it at all, which I feel was by far the safer thing to do. Here is the latest end of season post and it’s part 1 of how I feel our players’ years went, from Sung-Ryong to Oshima. Part 2 and part 3 here will be coming soon here, which is also where you can find all of the end of season posts for this year.


1. Sung-Ryong JUNG (GK)
AP 45 M 4050 G 0 AS 0 Y 3 YY 0 R 0

When I was asked to nominate a player of the season by the J Talk Podcast Sung-Ryong was one of the three names I came up with, and was definitely at least in the top two of those three. Unsurprisingly, they didn’t go with my suggestion as it would seem slightly absurd to say your keeper was your best player in a season where, for the most part, you’d conceded goals for fun. But I think it was more a case of what might have been if he hadn’t been there. In previous seasons Oniki took the smallest mistake from SY as an opportunity to try to move him on and promote the second keeper, and he did this once again in 2024. But this only served to prove that SY was our best option and he won his place back after not very long. I’m not sure what the future holds for him. I don’t think we have someone who can take his place at the moment. But at the same time he did write a kind of emotional piece for the club website towards the end of the season which felt like it was hinting slightly at an end to his time with us. Apparently his family has gone back to Korea so this also perhaps suggests he won’t be with us much longer. But right now, I’d be more than happy to have him as our number one again next year, particularly as he could help with the development of the young South Korean keeper who we signed, who still hasn’t made it on to our website’s players list, (which explains why I haven’t written his name here…). Come on SY and stay another year, please!

2. Kota TAKAI (DF)
AP 31 M 2324 G 2 AS 1 Y 6 YY 0 R 0

Quite a mixed season for Takai. He’s made significant breakthroughs, both with us and with the national team. But I can’t help but feel that sometimes it’s a case of two steps forward and one step back with him at the moment. Clearly he has a bright future, but every time he got on a roll for us in 2024 he then went on to drop an absolute clanger in a subsequent match. He’s great on the ball and at defending but perhaps his concentration or decision making lets him down at times. I imagine we won’t get to see him play for much longer as already the vultures are circling. Whether his departure comes before next season or next summer, I think we all know it’s going to happen sooner rather than later.

3. Takuma OMINAMI (DF)
AP 32 M 2511 G 1 AS 1 Y 3 YY 0 R 0

A surprise summer departure, when he went off on loan to Belgium. Seems like he’s done well there but that’s not the point of this post. I liked Ominami a lot as he was always a 100% player. Definitely wasn’t the best centre back we’ve had in recent years and made the occasional mistake but did creditably in difficult circumstances. I always thought he looked good at right back but only really got the chance to play there on a few occasions. I can’t imagine he will be returning to us as he seems to be playing a decent amount with Leuven so I wish him luck with his career going forward.

4. JESIEL (DF)
AP 26 M 1329 G 1 AS 0 Y 3 YY 0 R 0

Another season blighted by injuries which makes it all the more surprising that he was involved in 26 games for us. I guess the fact that he only played 1329 minutes in the season shows that it was by no means a complete season for him. In the past I criticised Oniki for playing Jesiel to breaking point when he could easily have been subbed. This definitely happened again in 2024 and that hasn’t helped him. At the same time, I wonder if his multiple injuries are perhaps catching up with him as he often looked quite uncomfortable when he was playing. Still an important player for us, but I have the feeling that it’s unlikely we’ll see him as a regular in the future, so maybe he might decide he wants to move on.

5. Asahi SASAKI (DF)
AP 51 M 4132 G 2 AS 2 Y 8 YY 0 R 0

Another nomination for my player of the season and once again another confusing one for outsiders as he’s a defender and we’ve been terrible in defence. Sasaki played all across the back four in 2024. I wish he’d had more time at left back as I think this is his best position as he does well going forward. But perhaps others disagree. Played a lot of games for us in 2024. I’m not sure he’s the solution at centre back on a regular basis but there are rumours that he might be leaving us anyway and joining up with Oniki again at Kashima. It will be sad if he does this and I really want to see him with us next year, but given that Miura would be competing with him for the left back spot, I wonder if the rumours will prove to be true.

6. ZE RICARDO (MF)
AP 14 M 559 G 0 AS 0 Y 2 YY 0 R 0

A very sad season for Ze. I feel like he’s really been treated badly by the club and cheated out of match time. Started the season looking pretty good I thought, given that he was still settling into a new club and a new league. Got stuffed by Oniki’s refusal to change his formation and reluctance to drop certain players and ended up getting frozen out, so much that when he was in the line up at the end of season ceremony it took me a while to work out who he was. Getting left out of the ACL squad suggests that he’s not in our future plans which I think is a big shame, but as always seems to be the case, we have way too many central midfielders. No idea what’s going to happen. A new manager could be a new start for him. But perhaps a decision on his future has already been made.

7. Shintaro KURUMAYA (DF)
AP 6 M 380 G 0 AS 0 Y 2 YY 0 R 0

Pretty shocking stats for someone who used to be a regular. Was  injured a bit but the real reason he hasn’t played is that he’s dropped out of contention. I never really understood why he converted to being a centre back as I don’t think he was as good there, particularly in a back four. But I believe he wanted to play in the middle. And (currently) we have two players ahead of him at left back which I think is where he plays best. There have been rumours that he’s leaving which will be sad for lots of people. Would like it if he stayed and took his chance with the new manager but perhaps the decision has already been made and perhaps it might be best for both him and the team if he went elsewhere.

8. Kento TACHIBANADA (MF)
AP 55 M 4488 G 5 AS 1 Y 7 YY 0 R 0

Loads of appearances and minutes for Tachibanada in 2024 but I don’t think it’s been a particularly good year for him. Ever since he got the captaincy for a season he really seems to have dropped off. It can’t help that he’s spent plenty of time playing at left and right back. Another victim of the massively overcrowded midfield of our squad, but unlike some others, he always seemed to get slotted in somewhere rather than dropped. I can’t imagine that did his confidence much good. Clearly he’s best in the defensive midfield spot and had a few decent games there in 2024. But the constant shuffling of his position on the pitch definitely hasn’t been a good thing for him. Hopefully he can get back to the levels we know he can reach in 2025.

9. ERISON (FW)
AP 37 M 1817 G 10 AS 4 Y 7 YY 0 R 0

A stop start season for Erison as he started with a bang looking absolutely unplayable and then a series of injuries really disrupted his season and he couldn’t get back to the same heights afterwards. Definitely wasn’t helped by our tactics or formation in 2024 and hopefully he can kick on in 2025 under a new manager. Looks strong and dangerous and I think he’d score a lot of goals in the right system. So hopefully we use him in the right system. The approach of the new manager is going to be crucial in seeing how his 2025 goes.

10. Ryota OSHIMA (MF)
AP 17 M 813 G 0 AS 2 Y 1 YY 0 R 0

I could probably just cut and paste what I’ve said about Oshima over the last few years for this. It goes without saying that he’s had an injury disrupted season as this is what always happens. Feel like he played a bit more this year though, but still 17 appearances probably won’t feel like that many for him. (A quick stat check shows that he indeed played more this year. A whole 100 minutes more… But basically it’s been about the same for the last few years). In the past he’s talked about retirement but has always been encouraged to keep going. A change of manager might be something that could influence that decision either way, which I realise is not exactly startlingly insightful analysis, but I guess his future will depend on how things go in 2025. Fingers crossed he can stay injury free, (or at least less injured), than in previous years.