The first two articles ("22/23 Japanese Players in Europe: Best Performers!") Kaoru Mikasa, Hiroku Furuhashi, Kiyo Ueda, 22/23 Japanese Players in Europe: Rising Star! Soichiro Kazuki, Keito Nakamura, Mitsuki Saito") are mainly sharing stories of "positive energy" and "good news", while this article is mainly about players who were a pity in the overseas group last season. In the past few years, we have seen many back waves slowly pouring into the European continent, and those veterans of the "front waves" who have been fighting for a long time have also begun to slowly plan their own "back roads". During this time, we have indeed seen many foreign players return to their roots, and some Japanese players of that year have also faced some career challenges, trying to break through the difficulties and win back a city, this article let's talk about the following three players who personally felt that it was a pity last season.
Takumi Minamino
Team: Monaco (Ligue 1)
Takumi Minamino announced his departure from Reds Liverpool shortly after the end of the 21/22 season. Looking back, I remember that Takumi Minamino joined the Reds that year, and the editor also shared with his transfer opportunity at that time to share Takumi Minamino joining the Premier League compared to the Asian players who were "delayed" by Arsenal in those years. After four years of Liverpool's career (including loan to Southampton) with a record of 65 games, it may be a bit harsh to evaluate the expectations from reality (at least in my personal opinion), but Takumi Nanno's report card before joining the Premier League was a player who played 200 games in the Austrian Super League and scored 64 goals and 43 assists, which was the leader of the attacking players in Japan's overseas group at that time, and he was also a very efficient player.
He will have such a gap mainly in the past four years Liverpool and Manchester City high competition "victims", after all, Liverpool's three attacking gods are the main force of iron, Minamino Takumi positioning and style is similar to Firmino but still a little less capable and efficient, it is reasonable to be put on the bench by the manager. In any case, Takumi Minamino did regret his time at Liverpool, but he didn't get nothing, and helping the team win the League Cup and FA Cup domestic doubles in his last season was a good memory he left for Reds fans at Liverpool.
Leaving the Premier League could have allowed him to get back on his feet, but he fell into another quagmire, and his long-term instability led to his loss to the national team. As you may know, Takumi Minamino is the Japanese player who scored the most goals in the Qatar World Cup qualifiers, and the player who scored the most goals in the current national team. It is really puzzling to be abandoned like this, why is he so depressed? Let's start with his experience.
After joining Monaco on 1 July 2022, it was expected that his appearance would win for the team, but the first game was poured cold water on reality. After drawing with PSV Eindhoven in the first leg in the pre-season Champions League play-offs, Takumi Minamino did not step up and performed mediocre after drawing PSV Eindhoven in the first leg. After the start of Ligue 1, he waited until the second game to make his debut as a substitute and did not contribute an assist until the fourth game. The first goal came two months later, and sadly, it was his only goal of the season.
He then became a regular on the bench, mostly off the bench and rarely starting a start. In WHOSCORED's data, the average rating of 6.44 points per game is in the latter part of the Monaco team. In addition to poor average ratings, the efficiency of shooting is very low, and according to the statistics, only one goal has been converted in 22 shots, which is only 0.05 on G/Sh, which is the bottom of the team. In Monaco we can see that they mostly put Takumi Minamino on the wing, and good dribbling is needed as a winger, but Takumi Minamino has a passing success rate of only 44%, which is not comparable to the best Golovin in their team (55% success).
Monaco sporting director Paul Mitchell explained Takumi Minamino's slump in an interview with the media.
He said:
"Takumi Minamino is currently in the most difficult period of adaptation. But you have to be patient. Hopefully the goal against Reims will bring us more goals in the future.
He is the oldest of the new additions, so there is some contradiction in the adaptation. He needs more time to adapt to the demands and physicality of Ligue 1 and our style and tactics. You have to get used to it mentally and physically. You also need rhythm. But we know he's a good player.
Hailing from Liverpool, he shined at Red Bull Salzburg and has Champions League experience and scored important goals. Moreover, Klopp has always praised him. We're trying to help him regain the relaxation that he lacked in recent games. He is only 27 years old this year (2022) and is at the peak of his career. There is no doubt about his abilities. ”
Now only 28 years old, Takumi Minamino still has a chance to rise again, and personally I think that he is the ideal position for him in the single forward position or below the striker, because his positional sense and mobility are very threatening in the tandem up front, and if he is forced to be placed on the wing and played like Junya Ito or the three-ball king, his weakness will be magnified. Hopefully he can adjust himself next season and start again.
Tomiyasu Kenyang
Team: Arsenal (Premier League)
The addition of Tomiyasu can be called Arsenal's "timely rain", and Tomiyasu's immediate combat power has helped Arsenal stabilize the defense on the wing. However, last season, due to the return of William Saliba, Ben White moved from the center to the wing, which instantly turned Tomiyasu's absolute main force into a tool man. And the accidental injury season reimbursement during the important title period indirectly allowed Arsenal to decline in the final period and cede the league title to Manchester City.
After joining the arsenal, he directly became the absolute main force of right-back, and although he suffered injuries in the later period, he still stabilized his original position after returning. This season, Willian Saleba's good performance in Ligue 1 has allowed him to get the position of central defender in the new season, with Gabriel sitting in the central defense. As for Ben White, who played well in the central defender position last season, he was placed on the right by the coach, and it is surprising and gratifying that Ben White can highlight his strong fighting and defensive ability on the right side, but it affects Tomiyasu Kenyang to lose the main position on the right side.
Tomiyasu Kenyang, who is already good at multiple defensive positions, still has many opportunities, allowing Arteta to set up and target opponents' tactics to make a flexible deployment to assist the team, for example, against Liverpool, the coach changed the formation and put Tomiyasu Kenyang in the left-back position to contain Salah, and the effect was indeed that Salah's performance was limited in that game. Having said that, Tomiyasu Kenyang actually became Ben White's replacement. However, stability such as Tomiyasu Kenyang also had thunderstorm moments last season, such as against Manchester City, Arsenal in the battle of King Mountain because of Tomiyasu Kenyo's defensive mistakes caused Manchester City to score the first goal, which in turn affected the final 1-3 loss to the opponent.
The real difficulty was Tomiyasu's accidental injury, which put Arsenal, who had a tight schedule, under pressure in an instant. Throughout the season, Tomiyasu has scored 50 points in the Premier League games, but only 34 points in the games he has missed, especially the four winless runs (three draws and one defeat) and the final two-game losing streak directly allowed Arsenal to say goodbye to the title. Some people may think that I exaggerate the importance of Tomiyasu in the team, but Tomiyasu has 3.7 steals/90, midfield fighter Thomas has only 2.5, and interceptions/90 has 1.9, which is very important in the team. To add insult to injury, Willian Saliba also entered the injury list, allowing substitute Rob Holding to become the starting centre-back and finally fell into the unwinnable circle, missing out on a rare chance to win the title.
It is said that Tomiyasu Kenhiro, who is now in rehabilitation, will return in September, and I believe that the young man will still be an important member of Arsenal and provide enough opportunities for him to perform, and I hope that his return will help Arsenal to achieve the title well in the coming season.
Takuma Asano
Team: Bochum (Bundesliga)
On November 23, 2022, Japan played the first match of the group stage against the menacing German team. Under heavy bombardment, Japan's skillful tactical maneuvers in the first and second halves made the German team a little uncomfortable. In the 57th minute, a player was substituted, and in the 83rd minute, Itakura was caught off guard by a pass from the backfield captain to the player. The long pass went straight past all the German players, who picked up the pass just right and started to rush towards the goal. Although there were already German players ready to defend and try to create fouls with pulls when he entered the box, he had a good physique and got rid of the defenders and scored from a small angle! Let Japan win 2-1! Successfully get a valuable three points! This superb player is the protagonist we want to talk about - Takuma Asano. THIS COMEBACK SHOT BECAME A MOMENT THAT SHOCKED THE WORLD AND BECAME THE HIGHLIGHT OF TAKUMA ASANO'S CAREER, BUT IT WAS THE ONLY HIGHLIGHT OF HIS 22/23 SLUMP.
Asano played for Arsenal (did not play for the Gunners), but unfortunately during his two-year career at Arsenal, two loan loans did not get much attention, and as a result, he could only leave Arsenal to join Partizan Belgrade in the Cypriot Super League. However, his squatting salary during his time in the Cypriot Premier League began to transform him, and scoring eighteen goals in his second season allowed him to still attract a lot of attention in the mainstream league in Serbia, far from Western Europe, and finally successfully returned to the Bundesliga to join Bochum.
Bochum has recruited Shinji Ono, Kantakashi and Yusuke Tasaka, and is a Bundesliga team that is quite kind to Japanese players. However, Asano Takuma won as many as 58 games in two seasons in Bochum, but only scored seven goals and six assists, and this season he only scored three goals and two assists, a far cry from the time in the Cypriot Premier League. Asano Takuma will have such a performance, in addition to personal factors, in fact, there are also team factors.
First of all, the first problem was that he suffered a ruptured ligament in the knee early in the league and missed for two months, but luckily returned to the World Cup in Qatar before the World Cup and created a miracle against Germany. The second is that the team has too many shortcomings and too poor a record to perform at its value. According to the data, Bochum is a team that is good at long passes and air battles and defends counterattacks, which is also a common tactical style used by downstream teams.
If you compare the team style with Asano Takuma's style with power and speed, it is a good reason, but I found in the advanced statistics that Bochum's overall offensive efficiency is not ideal, especially the passing data is from the back. For example, Bochum's overall pass success rate is only 68%, which is the second lowest in the Bundesliga, while the short pass success rate is only 79.5% and 75.4%, ranking second and first from the bottom in the league. As for the so-called good long pass, the success rate only obtained 48.8%, ranking sixth from the bottom. Therefore, in the case of poor passing efficiency, the entire offensive tandem cannot be structured, and the feeling brought out on this field is very passive and led by the nose.
In addition to his inefficiency on the field, Asano's position has not been fixed this season. According to WHOSCORED data, he has been officially arranged for as many as seven positions on the field. In fact, his performance data of 6.92 points on the right winger is probably his best position (in Partizan Belgrade is also a right winger), but he is placed in the middle of the midfield that needs to have some ball control, and in the front position, he not only really can't play his strengths on the field but also exposes his poor skills at the feet.
Another proven drawback of Asano Takuma is the lack of decisiveness, in fact, according to some advanced statistics, his touches in the box (56 in total, second in the team), process dribbling (48 in total, third in the team) and dribble in the box (16 times, second in the team) and corresponding to the entire Bundesliga season of 33 shots (sixth in the team) and 11 shots on target (third in the team) but only contributed 3 goals and 2 assists can prove the fact that his decisiveness is insufficient. Why put these data out and look at it? In fact, from the data, we can observe that Asano is very active in and outside the box, but frequent shooting dribbling cannot be turned into a goal assist, which is a problem that he needs to face in the future and needs to improve, so as to help the team improve its offensive efficiency.
At just 28 years old, Takuma Asano still has the potential to challenge European football, and as long as he can improve his shortcomings and the team's system and efficiency can be more complete, I believe that this season's lucky relegation success can make them better results next season.