Football Season Guide

Only just managed to avoid relegation last season - it really went down to the wire. Masami Ihara retired as manager after it so they brought in Ricardo Rodriguez. In 2016, he was the first Spaniard to win silverware in Japan, earning Tokushima Vortis promotion. He knows Japanese football but hasn't been involved in it for 2-3 years. The first complication he needs to overcome is the departure of Savio, their star midfielder of last season - he was poached by Urawa Red Diamonds. Right-back Sekine was another to move on. Both players will be sorely missed. Numerous others have left, and Yugo Masukake is also supposed to be leaving but nothing has been announced yet. The club have approached the above issues by bringing in a large quantity of personnel rather than bringing in quality. Harada is expected to replace Sekine but there's no alternative if that doesn't work out so it's a risk. Nakama is supposed to replace Savio, which is beyond difficult as he's simply not as good. They also brought in two new goalkeepers, one of which (Kojima) is expected to displace Matsumoto, who didn't convince last season. Despite Koga still being there to lead them, their defensive changes will lead to a transitional period to begin with. They should settle after that. The bigger concern is chance creation though. Without Savio, their strikers are not guaranteed good service, and the likes of Kinoshita and Hosoya are not the type to fashion their own chances. If they don't figure out how to create chances early on in the season, it could prove to be their downfall. They barely survived relegation last season, after all, and this squad is no better than that one. It's arguably worse, as it goes.