japan and arsenal.

i watched arsenal-newcastle. the epl one. the second half was all arsenal. that's the way we should play. get the goals, control the game. the first goal was fantastic. won the ball inside newcastle's path. ball to fabregas, all the way into space for flamini, super cross to the far post for adebayor. the keeper's face said it all- absolutely nothing he could do.

bendtner did well after coming on. nice to see that after the farce at spurs.

for me, flamini was man of the match. he was everywhere, scored, assisted, did everything. very lively, made penetrating runs as well. almost flawless. i must say that the team played well on a whole. it was rather comfortable. i can't really complain. but perhaps tts because this is the first game i watched since coming here. if i watch more, i will prob get more critical again.

adebayor is getting his movement right now, doing what he ought to do, and not try to do too much. the important thing is that he isnt just scoring, but also contributing to the overall team play. that was lacking last year.

japan also beat bosnia 3-0 in a friendly. i read the match report, as well as watched the highlights. i will touch on the report a lil later.

but firstly, japan has a super right back. Atsuto Uchida. I am very impressed by the teenager's attacking prowess.

Japan's second goal was very well worked-out. the movement was very good.

the report from the rising sun made some interesting claims.

japan should build its team around mobility. the period of time when japan played really well was when their attack comprised of players between 1.7 to 1.75m tall. against a bosnia that averages 1.85m

this can actually work. keep the ball on the ground and move it around quickly. create and exploit space. something like AS Roma.

japan's asian cup midfield comprises of suzuki, nakamura, nakamura and endo. suzuki's role is very simple- destroy the opponents' attack. the other three are all rather slow. at continental level, this can probably work. the midfield can probably outpass the opponents; japan's passing is actually not bad. but against top class opponents, let's be frank: kengo nakamura and endo can't pass like fabregas. this is where speed comes in.

a slower player with a very good passing ability can be very useful as a fulcrum. but too many will slow the team down. i think this was quite obvious in the asian cup, when endo held the ball too much as japan poured forward in a counter attack. so one is enough.

which leads to the next question. is he the number 10? i think japan's formation will be something like this.

so essentially, the answer is no. his main job is to get the ball to the four attackers in front of him. the four attackers in front must be very, very mobile and quick-thinking to unlock defences that are bigger. i think ono, fit again and playing regularly is the best man in all of japan to do this job.

to play like this, where the attack is very fluid and always interchanging requires alot of chemistry. i think what okada has to do is to define clearly his vision for the team, how the team should be playing and build his team arond that principle. only then can chemistry come in. this is hard because he doesnt get to work with the players week in, week out. and also because some of the players are in europe. ono, hasebe, koki mizuno are all moving to germany, for instance. but i think japan has the players to play very fluid football. he has to call up the right players. the bulk of the players should come from the top four teams in the J-League. this is a very simple logic.

the thing about japan is that due to the distance between europe and japan, it is very hard to get the strongest squad for games. there is a discrepancy between the team that plays in qualifiers and friendlies and the team that plays in the actual competition.

this is certainly a funny situation. japan has a good team. all it needs is confidence, belief and better organisation.

can okada give that to japan?