Friday 5 June 2009

Marinos Preview

How to preview a game like Marinos in the Nabisco Cup on Sunday? Well, I can start by mentioning that Ardija began this season's competition in fine style, picking up seven points from games with Albirex Niigata, Oita Trinita and Jubilo Iwata to head the group. But then I pretty rapidly have the veer away from the positive stuff to head up Bad News Alley and question marks over coach Jang Wae Ryong's tactical approach and man-management, which may or may not be connected to the 7-0 Cup drubbing last weekend by Sanfrecce Hiroshima that has pushed the Squirrels down to fourth.

It's hard to speculate with any certainty about how much the departure for Kashiwa Reysol of captain Yoshiyuki Kobayashi will have impacted upon the squad. The former Verdy man had made only a handful of appearances in the team this year, having more or less been replaced by Shin Kanazawa as key central midfielder in Jang's new-look Omiya. While this modification and others introduced by the incoming Ardija boss have energised the side, this has come at a cost of making the defence look less strong - in spite of the arrival at the club of a quality central defender in Mato Neretljak.

So to an extent, the forthcoming Nabisco Cup matches against Marinos and next weekend against Urawa Reds provide a means by which Jang can measure his progress and the resilience of his team, following on from Yoshiyuki's leaving and the disaster in Hiroshima. The injury to Masahiko Ichikawa and apparent unavailability of Naoki Ishihara and Klemen Lavric led to a 4-5-1 formation being fielded last weekend, although it is difficult to see this formation being used again when it resulted in only four shots on goal throughout the ninety minutes. Can Omiya bounce back? With your ACL ambitions, coach Jang - it's over to you.

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2 comments:

Furtho 6 June 2009 at 17:47  

From El Golazo, a predicted return for Murayama...

GK Takagi
DF Murayama
DF Mato
DF Kataoka
DF Hato
MF Tokita
MF Arai
MF Kanazawa
MF Fujimoto
FW Watabe
FW Denis

Anonymous,  7 June 2009 at 12:03  

Takagi

Hato-Tomita-Mato-Murayama

Tokita-Kataoka-Kanazawa-Chikara

Fujita-Denis

Shimizu-Fukuda-Tsukamoto-Arai-Aoki-Saito-Kawanabe

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