NAGOYA GRAMPUS VS JDT: AN ANALYSIS
Fourth game: Nagoya Grampus Eight vs Johor Darul Ta’zim
The penultimate game of Group G pits Japan’s third place team Nagoya Grampus Eight (NGE) against Malaysia’s champions, Johor Darul Ta’zim (JDT). NGE is on a hot streak, winning all of their Asian Champions League group stage games so far without conceding a single goal. JDT on the other hand is blowing hot and cold, only winning one of their last 3 games and hoping to turn their fortune with a win against the group leaders.
Scorers
NGE: Mateus (PEN, 4’), Hiroyuki Abe (28’)
JDT: Ramadhan Saifullah (42’)
Formations
NGE: 4-2-3-1
JDT: 4-1-4-1
NGE and JDT lining up from kick off. JDT are in a 4-1-4-1 formation, Haziq Nadzli gets his first start, Adam Nor Azlin partnering Mauricio at the heart of defence with S. Kunanlan on the right and Corbin Ong on the left. Syamer Kutty starts as a lone pivot with Leandro Velazquez, Nazmi Faiz, Ramadhan Saifullah and Akhyar Rashid in front of him. Hazwan Bakri gets his first start as a lone striker.
NGE attacks with four at the front. This enables them to spread wide to stretch the JDT defense. Along with having 2 holding midfielders that can cover the space vacated by the wingers, this can help to shore up defensively on transitions while liberating the attackers to stay forward. Additionally, once they have the balls on the wing as shown by the picture above, the opposite flank has a lot of space to receive the ball if they can switch the play quickly and accurately.
Here Adam’s inexperience at this level shows. He knows he is beaten and lunges in as a last-ditch attempt to win the ball and gives away a penalty. Mauricio should have stepped closer to Adam to cover for his teammate to avoid being forced to tackle and giving away the penalty. NGE dispatches the penalty with ease and start the game with a lead. Although it is a blow to JDT, the fact that the opposition scores so early also allows them to stabilize as long as they can keep a cool head.
JDT’s defensive shape uses a lone pivot behind four midfielders, and the striker on top. The box should stop the NGE DMs from being able to orchestrate play by ‘trapping’ them inside and crowding out the middle. However, with the use of an AM, NGE utilizes him effectively to pull Syamer out of position or find pockets in between the JDT defense and midfield in order to bring the team forward.
In defense, NGE kept one striker up top to occupy both of JDT’s CBs. Their 4-4-2 while out of possession made it difficult for JDT to play through the middle, and also enabled NGE to double-team the opposition wingers while compacting the middle of the field.
NGE pressed very hard the whole game. They forced JDT defenders and GK to clear the ball on multiple occasions, and even forced a turnover from inside the JDT penalty box through a mistake from the Malaysian GK. The effectiveness of the press shows in the first half stats as NGE edged possession 51% - 49%*.
The second goal for NGE. It was a strike of genius, and not much can be done about it. If we were to nitpick about what could have been done better before the goal, the midfielders should have dropped faster in transition (white arrows) to close down the winger before he put the ball into the top bins. Unsavable.
JDTs goal was a combination of a quick switch, good movement off the ball and luck. Leandro (pictured with the ball) attracts the attention of 3 defenders from a throw in, then is able to dribble past them. After playing a low pass to Corbin (white arrow), him and Ramadhan continue their run into the penalty box (red arrows). Cobin proceeds to take a shot that the NGE GK parries into the path of an oncoming Ramadhan who taps it into the empty net. JDT tended to play down the wing, but did not switch the play from one side to the other quick enough to stretch the defense of NGE.
In the second half, JDT tried to play faster and with more purpose. Most of their attacks centered around playing the ball long down the wing, as evidenced by their 33 long passes. Being dependent on long balls in order to attack the Japanese team’s defense by circumventing their midfield allowed them to attack more often, resulting in 4 shots.
Additionally, JDT dominated possession in the second half. They held 61% of the ball in the second half. However, they did not threaten the NGE goal enough, creating 0 big chances and not registering a single shot on target in the second half. They need to convert their dominance over the ball into shots on target in order to have a better chance at scoring.
A picture to sum up the lack of willingness for JDT to roll the dice. This was captured in extra time with JDT in possession of the ball on the edge of the penalty area with 3 players surrounding the ball. The problem now is, who are they to aim for? There is only one person in the box for the cross, against four NGE players. The two players outside the box need to get inside and gamble that they can score as they are chasing for a goal to earn them a point against tough opposition.
Overall: JDT grew into the game from the first half into the second. There are encouraging signs for them to do better in the future against tough opposition as they were able to pile on wave after wave of attacks on the NGE goal. However, there is still a distinct lack of creativity in the middle and final thirds of the pitch. The stark contrast between the two teams in terms of off the ball movement is the difference between creating half chances and attacks being snuffed out. Their final game is against unfancied opposition and hopefully they can come away with 2 wins from the group stage, an achievement for the Southern Pirates!
JDT’s Player of the Game: Leandro Velazquez. He kept the game ticking in the opposition half, with 31/45 passes happening in the opponent’s territory. With 92% pass success rate and 1 shot on target, he was the creative fulcrum that JDT depended on to make things happen for them in front of the NGE goal.
*All statistics used in this article were taken from FotMob and SofaScore