The Should They Stay Or Should They Go? Debate, pt 5

Concluding GGOA's overview of Ardija 2009 personnel with a look at the man in charge. No, not God, silly! But one of his own...

Agent Orange: At first, I liked what Jang Wae Ryong was doing. The attacking, flexible, pressing style of soccer was something that appealed to me. As the season went on, I started to have my doubts. I didn't like the fact that some of our more reliable players were cast aside, but I did appreciate the fact that it was done in order to get new blood into the squad. When I saw that the new blood was in turn cast aside for players that time and again have managed to fail on the field, I had even more doubts.

The last two weeks have shown me that this coach and this front office have no clear plan for the future. They play a style that doesn't suit half the players on the squad. The team often is disjointed and make a lot of careless turnovers. Often the same group of players make horrendous mistakes with no consequences, while others are pulled after one or two flubs.

As recently as two weeks ago, I still was on the fence about whether or not we should give Jang another year to implement his plan. After seeing him fail to react to circumstances in both the Vegalta Emperor's Cup match and the Sanfrecce league game, I have severe doubts about his acumen as an on-field manager. His selection has been less than inspiring and often times, the team doesn't look like they are prepared to carry out a game plan.

I appreciate what the team did when they affirmed their support for the coach during a rough patch when, rightly, he was fielding experimental squads for essentially meaningless League Cup matches. My problem was that he wasn't giving matches to guys that needed them the most. I hate how Daisuke Watabe was dropped after one bad performance. I'm not happy that Taishi Tsukamoto has been yo-yoed in and out of the line-up. I think it's been an absolute waste that Shunsuke Fukuda has only seen minutes as a striker. I'm upset that a coach who was brought in to develop young players has not done so.

I think no matter what happens this year, Jang Wae Ryong needs to pursue his options elsewhere.

I'm not one to throw out things without giving solutions, so here is the man I'd like to see come in for him. Nobuhisa Ishizaki would be a great replacement for Jang. He has poven that he can take a team with meager resources and get the most out of them. Just look at the job he did with Kashiwa Reysol. One promotion, one seventh place finish and one cup final appearance in three years - with young teams to boot. Currently his contract status with Consadole Sapporo is not stable. There is talk that sponsor Nitori won't reup for another year, so his availability is possible. He also has a history with the young core of Reysol, who if they are relegated might be up for auction.

Combine Ishizaki with a talented core of Mato Neretljak, Naoki Ishihara, Rafael and Koji Ezumi, add to that some parts from Reysol and you have the possibility of a breakthrough year for the franchise.

I just received my Season Ticket renewal information. I think I'll hold off a little while.

Furtho: There's not much there that I can disagree with, AO. Like you I was excited about the start of the year and the fact that Jang's team were playing a more mobile, attacking style of football. It seemed like a pretty refreshing change following the years of caution. The selection in the first team of players like Ishihara, Yoshihito Fujita, Masahiko Ichikawa and even Ryohei Arai I took as positive signs that Jang was going to be his own man and was looking at the guys available to him in a new light.

But after the unbeaten run came to an end, things rapidly started to go wrong and the crushing Nabisco Cup defeats in May and June caused the player unrest to come to light - Denis Marques, Klemen Lavric and Yoshiyuki Kobayashi all left in quick succession. It's clear enough that the man management of Jang and Haruo Yuuki are not good and if you combine that with a lack of tactical understanding, Jang is starting to look a less and less capable coach. It looks to me like he panicked when things went awry mid-season and players like Tsukamoto and Watabe got mistreated as a consequence of that.

I'm not convinced by your points about Shin Kanazawa in the volante position, but broadly across the midfield we're of a similar mind, i.e. that this part of the team is not strong enough to help Ardija achieve its target results. While Jang has got rid of a key, well-respected midfielder and two foreign strikers, he hasn't during the course of the campaign done anything serious to strengthen the midfield. That seems incomprehensible to me.

Ishizaki is someone that I don't know well enough to comment on, although results for Consadole have been pretty disappointing this year. However, whatever the positives and negatives of him individually, I certainly do think that we need a Japanese coach to be appointed and to be a person that the club can stick with over a period of seasons. It's desperately, terribly disappointing that, with a new stadium and levels of support improving all the time, we're still in the same old position come the end of another year. I'm well aware that there's an irony in calling for the club to adopt a solid, coherent plan of development while at the same time hoping that they do not retain their fourth coach in three years, but I simply can't see that Jang is the person to take Omiya forward.

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