Player Suggestions

Watched a few yt clips and he looks too similar to Taylor. Seemed to lack a bit of pace and couldn't go past players because of it.

 

I know there’s been a lot of talk on the J league after Kyogo being great and Ange coming from there. Another Asian market worth a look is the K League.

One player being tipped for big things at the moment is 21 year old left winger/striker Min-Kyu Song. He is predominantly right footed but plays off the left, is naturally a very good dribbler but in the last season in a half the most notably improvement has been in him physically. He is strong and very good at attacking the back post of the left wing in the air for only being 5’10.

He appears to time his runs into the box well when his team are attacking down the right to find space. In addition to his attacking play he is a team player who has excellent stamina and is hard worker and presser for the cause.

He has been said to be South Korea’s biggest talent to emerge since Son at Spurs came through. He already has full international caps as well.

Another bonus is he recently just transferred to the league leading side from Poonang where he had been impressing but insisted on a clause being inserted that if a Euro club comes in for him he can go for a set fee believed to be between £1-1.5m which was what they paid to get him.

The reason they agreed to this was he would not sign otherwise as ideally he wanted a move to Europe rather than within the K League.

He could be a real bargain and even if it didn’t work out it wouldn’t be too expensive so low risk.

 

Should be signing Baningime from Hearts. Boy looks class every time I watch him.

 

Ramsay has been class for Aberdeen this season.

 

He played brilliantly today. Real solid, robust midfielder.

 

He was good against us at tyncastle, really stood out in that game. Has the attributes we could be doing with in our midfield.

 

From Nordsjaelland there are a few of their prospects whose deals are coming to an end this year worth a look.

Abu Francis is a 20 year old, quick attacking midfielder who can also play LW but predominantly plays through the centre. He is a good passer, energetic and would fit in well to our existing team as one of the two midfield 8’s. Deal is up next summer.

Magnus Kofod Andersen, is a 22 year old centre midfielder whose style is very similar to McGregor and a bit of an all rounder as a centre midfielder. He has a good range of passing both long and short, reads the game well, is good at creating space for himself and is pretty good at winning the ball back for his team as well. He would be a no brainier that we should go all out for to me, especially since his deal is up next summer as well.

More in the prospect mould but with some talent is Tochi Chukwuani, an 18 year old centre midfielder. He has more limited first team exposure but is seen as a top prospect and been capped up to U20 level by Denmark. He again had in expiring contract.

One player whose deal isn’t running out but who looks like they could be the next Kudus or Kameldeen is Mohammad Diomande who is a 19 year old attacking Centre midfielder who has a bit of everything to his game, he is quite tall, quick, times his runs well, his dribbling ability is excellent as is his use of his body to get in front of opposition players and disposes them or protect the ball. He looks like a real top prospect who would likely cost a bit but you would make your money back when it came to selling him. He looks like the type of CM again who would fit our current system well.

 

As a backup?

 

It's early days, but we should be keeping an eye on Baningime from Hearts. He was fantastic against us and Hibs and we need another CM.

 

We should be looking at Ramsay. I say it every week.

 

That fuchs from dundee utd been solid against us today.

 

We're just *, anyone playing against us looks good

 

There was talk of players from the J league given Kyogo’s success here’s a list of some worth a look. Obviously we wouldn’t sign them all but definitely a few would be worth pursuing.

Defenders

Miki Yamane, Kawasaki Frontale, Right back, very attacking, good on the ball has league winning experience over last season and technically very capable.

Ryoya Ogawa, FC Tokyo, LB, 24 year old currently in the national team set up and very decent left back.

Ryo Hatsuse, Vissel Kobe, LB, 24 year old very offensive left full back, he started the season as back up but has broke into the team and now starts regularly has 5 assists in 26 but only started around half those game’s.

Ayumu Seko, CB, Cerezo Osaka, 21 year old very quick and good reader of the game for his young age. He is an excellent passer of the ball and seems comfortable of either foot, he is predominantly right footed but plays left CB. He is on the short side for a CB in our league at 6 foot but could do well in a partnership with a Julien or potentially even given his young age and how good he is on the ball be used as a DCM.

Koki Machida, Kashina Antlers, 24 year old, CB. Machida is a big guy at around 6,3 and is excellent in the air and strong at defending, he is also left footed. Not as good on the ball as Seko but a solid defender.

Midfielders

Reo Hatate, Kawasaki Frontale, 23 year old, versatile CM, LW or LB. despite mainly playing on the left Hatate is predominantly right footed. When playing in midfield he is pretty much box to box and has managed to grab 4 goals this season and an assist in 22 games. His interceptions and tackling stats are solid too. He was part of the Japanese Olympics team. Looks like he would fit Ange’s system well.

Sergi Samper, Vissel Kobe, 26 year old, deep lying playmaker who had an excellent understanding with Kyogo and had the passing range to pick him out of when he made the runs. Question marks would be around his physicality and we would probably need a strong midfielder to play in the 8 if deploying Samper as a 6 but he would be a much more able deputy for McGregor in that role than McCarthy for example.

Kento Misao, Kashima Antlers, 25 years old, holding midfielder. Misao is more defensive in his play but is a solid ball winning midfielder. He has been the captain of the team from a young age and is good at screening and protecting a defence, breaking up play and starting attacks.

Takuya Kida, Yokohama Marinos, 27 year old, was a key cog in the engine room of Ange’s old team so knows the way he likes to play. Very energetic, presses hard and is good at getting his body in and intercepting or wining the ball back. Is also capable of carrying the ball and playing quick passes to advance quickly up the field.

Tsukasa Morishima, Sanf. Hiroshima, 24 year old, number 10 type attacking midfielder, capable of that bit of magic to open up a team and chipping in with goals. Good dribbler, quick and skill full, also can hit a freekick.

Attackers

Daizen Maeda, Yokohama Marinos, 23 year old, has been discussed plenty, has blistering pace and has scored 16 goals this season so far. Plays off the left of a front 3, would seem a no brainier.

Ryotaro Araki, Kashima Antlers, 19 year old, looks like the next big talent from Japan, can play off the right or through the middle, has a great goal return for just bursting on the scene.

Yuki Soma, Nagoya Grampus, 24 year old, winger who can play on either side, is very two footed, prefers his left probably but seems very capable on his right too. Is quite small but gives him that low centre of gravity and given how two footed he is allows him to go either way and be a nightmare for defenders. Seems under the radar a bit compared to some of the others but a good player.

Ayase Ueda, Kashima Antlers, 23 year old, ST seems like an out and out striker that is good at getting on the end of things and through balls and putting them away, has a decent 1 in 2 return. Is also capable from the edge of the box. He attacks the ball well when it gets put in the box and is one of those players who is quicker than he looks especially after a couple of strides. He also has a good leap which makes him useful in the air.

 

Lirum Kastrati. 22 year old Kosovo winger who plays for Legia Warsaw. Ripped Leicester apart last night. Played over 100 games in his career, mostly in Croatia with Lokomotiva and Dinamo Zagreb. Looked awesome last night but only played 3 games for Legia so far this year.

 

Ivan Šunjić of Birmingham- he might be what McCarthy was supposed to be. A tough DMF who lets others do flashy work, while he does the dirty work.

 

Good knowledge. Do you know the level of finances in the J league, like what people would be getting a week? I would have assumed they were getting more than what people in Scotland were on. But I suppose Kyogo probably moved here more to make a step into European football, rather than for any financial motive.

 

I am not entirely sure but looking at a table of J League salaries for 2021 it has Kyogo being only on around £6-8k a week there and most good established Japanese players don’t seem to be on more than £8-10k week tops.

Iniesta is on crazy money but other than that Samper is in the top 5 and on €20k a week, about £17k at the current exchange rate. Kento Misao who is Kashima Antlers captain and been at the club a while is on about €10k a week, about £8.5k a week.

Guys like Reo Hatate, Miki Yamane, Ryataro Araki, Ayase Ueda, Yuki Soma, Daizen Maeda, Ryo Hatsuse and Koki Machida are all on less than €5k a week so all would be good value wage wise.

I know it looks like a lot of players in the league are out of contract in January but I am not sure if their contracts work a bit like how the Japanese businesses do contracts, which is like on a rolling 1 year basis. Therefore, some of them may be out of contract and others may have more time on it to go, but even still most I have picked out wouldn’t command a massive fee.