Meeting News pt 5

This post concludes the series of GGOA reports on the meeting on Wednesday evening between Ardija club staff and supporters, by providing a translation of the second part of the Q & A session. All questions are asked by fans; answers are by Omiya Ardija club president Seigo Watanabe, unless stated as being by general manager Haruo Yuuki.

Q. I read on Chikara Fujimoto's blog that he thinks this is the worst ever time at Omiya. I want to know what you think about communication. Do you think that handshakes between Jang Wae Ryong and the players before training constitutes real communication? I think the defeat in Hiroshima demonstrates that there's no communication and no trust between the players and Jang and the club management.

A. [Yuuki] I saw the blog entry. Afterwards, Fujimoto said to all the players that we have to get together and fight. I asked Jang and the coaching staff to talk to the players about this.

Q. That means you personally did nothing, when the club is in this situation?

A. [Yuuki] I trust Jang, so I talked to him and to [head coach] Hiroshi Ohashi about communicating with the players.

Q. That means that you don't know directly from the players whether or not there is discontent, because you're getting second-hand information?

A. [Yuuki] I was thinking that and I was going to do something about it.

Q. When?

A. [Yuuki] As soon as possible.

Q. Mr Yuuki, do you really understand the situation that we are in? Omiya used to be known as a strong defensive team. Since you came to the club, we have become like this - but you are not doing anything about it.

A. [Yuuki] I trust Jang.

Q. You don't take any responsibility. Why don't you talk to players directly yourself? When Satoru Sakuma was in your job, he spoke to the players.

A. [Yuuki] I've been away.

Q. You're not doing your work at all.

A. [Yuuki] I'm researching new players. I asked one of our other staff to communicate with the players because I was abroad. But before I went away, I talked to Jang and Ohashi.

Q. Omiya have been struggling to stay in J1 and we were in a dreadful situation in 2007 with Robert Verbeek. This time seems more serious than that. I don't think the fans trust Jang or the club management and the reason for conceding so many goals is because the players don't trust Jang, either.

We see things from the outside as fans, so that makes us worry. I was really looking forward to this meeting because I thought it might make the fans feel more confident about things. But to be honest, listening to what Mr Yuuki has said, that hasn't happened at all. I love Omiya and I'll always be a fan, but you can just quit as a job. I and the other fans - we can't quit. Please understand this and please sack Jang.

A. We are not thinking about sacking Jang.

Q. If we lose all the games are you going to sack him?

A. That's negative. We're just thinking about how to win.

Q. But Mr Yuuki isn't doing this.

A. It isn't just a problem for Mr Yuuki but also for the staff who work with him, like Mr Furuya, who has a good communication with the players.

Q. That just sounds like you're avoiding the issue. Seriously, aren't you ashamed that we conceded sixteen goals in these three games? I'm going to stop talking now, but I just want to say that if we continue in this direction, we're sunk.

A. We're trying hard to make things better.

Q. Omiya Ardija always lose over the summer, every season. The media always comment on this, too. It doesn't matter when the coach or the players change. This season, are you giving any attention to this issue?

A. [Yuuki] I've spoke to [physical coach] Fuka about physical aspects, so under his guidance I think the players will be fine over the summer. Last season we had a zonal marking system and I think that was tough for the players in the summer because it involved a lot of running. This time, we're going to look at how to handle things on an individual basis.

Q. One of the key points of Ardija's football is a lot of running, but how much do the players run during a game? Apparently the average is 11 km per match in the J-League. Do you have any data about this?

A. [Yuuki] No, we don't. But a key point is that the players run in the right place, not just running for its own sake.

Q. Do you actually think about what you're doing? If you did, surely it wouldn't be possible to concede so many goals.

A. [Yuuki] We noticed that when we are in possession out wide, we lose the ball too easily, so we're working on developing those situations to stay in possession and turn them into shooting chances.

Q. I get the feeling that Omiya wants to change but you always say that you trust Jang, even if nothing happens to change. Do you have any targets for improvement?

A. Setting targets, this season we wanted to finish in the top five. Usually that means about 54 or 55 points and at the moment we have fourteen. But that's an overall target for the year and thinking about players at the moment, those who are recovering from injury, together with Jang's leadership, I think we're going to move up the table.

Q. I went to Hiroshima for the Nabisco Cup game. Referring back to your point about not running for its own sake, the players in that game just didn't run at all. But my question is, are the club aiming to finish in the top five, or are you aiming to bring up young players? Which is more important?

A. [Yuuki] I'm thinking about bringing up players who didn't play much last year. I want to win games with younger players.

A. Bringing up young players doesn't mean that we choose players who aren't good enough to win games. It's hard to say which is more important, but we need a mixture of players of different ages. Of course we want to win games, but we also want to develop players who will go on to make Omiya a better team in the future.

Q. Every season I'm worried when I watch league games, but this year is the most concerning of all. Not only are we losing, but we are playing really badly. I can't imagine what type of football that Omiya are aiming to play. Is there an example of another team who play this type of football?

A. [Yuuki] In terms of style, we want to play a fast game, exciting football. At the moment there are a lot of mistakes, so that's stopping us from playing in that style. We want to be flexible about positions and to move up and down the wings, and we want to score lots of goals. We don't want to give up.

Again many thanks to Mrs F for her assistance with this post.

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