In 2020 season, despite the impacts of COVID-19, Kawasaki Frontale bounced back stronger to reclaim the crown of J1 League. Toru Oniki, the manager of Frontale, is considered as one of the best coaches in J1 league in recent year. Since he became the manager in 2017, Frontale won 3 out of 4 of the league titles. Frontale is dominating the league this year and winning games with style. They have 83 points with 18 points ahead of the second place. Frontale has produced some exciting talent in recent years like Ao Tanaka, 2019 Rookie of the year. They continued to bring in some youngsters into the squad this season and one has caught our eye. Kaoru Mitoma, U-22 Japanese national team player, triumphs over the league on the left side of the pitch.
Mitoma was born in Oita prefecture and grew up in Kawasaki prefecture. He started to play football because of his brother, who was playing football as a hobby. He joined the Kawasaki Frontale U-10 and Frontale’s sub-organization in his young age and the competitive environment made him realised that he wanted to become a professional player. At the age of 18, he was offered to be promoted to the first team of Frontale, however, he chose to matriculate to University of Tsukuba and play for the university football team instead. In 2018, Frontale announced that he would join the team in 2020 and at the same time, he was registered as a special designated player with Frontale in 2018 and 2019 seasons. He made his first Frontale debut in September 2019, playing against Nagoya Grampus in the J-league Cup quarter-final. He then made his J1 league debut on 22 February 2020. Out of the 34 league games, he participated in 30 of them and only started for 13 games. Despite the limited game time, he still managed to score 13 goals with 10 assists, which he was the assist leader in this season.
As a rookie, he impressively has contributed to 26% of Frontale’s goal so far this season. This analysis will examine the playing style of Mitoma and what makes him stand out in the league.
Dribbling skills and technique to create chances
One of the strongest attributes of Mitoma is his dribbling skills and how he takes on the opponent in a 1v1 situation. He does play like his idol, Neymar. The way he dribbles is not just about pace and acceleration but extraordinary techniques and skills to bypass his opponent. He made 187 dribbles with a 51.4% success rate, averaging 9.62 dribbles per 90 minutes which is the highest in the league of this season so far. Getting such a high number of dribbling does not mean he is not a team player. On the contrary, he excels at finding his teammates by constantly observing his surroundings to create chances for the team. He made 30 key passes, and 1.54 key passes per 90 minutes which both ranked third in the league.
The below picture showed that he dribbled over 70 metres from the back and he passed through 3 Yokohama Marinos players. He lured the last defender by dribbling slightly to the left, once he saw the defender closed down to him which created more space for Yu Kobayashi, he immediately laid the ball off to Kobayashi to send the ball to the right bottom corner.
Second picture below showed Mitoma is isolated on the left to get him in a 1v1 situation and take on the opponent. He spotted Kengo Nakamura who was making a run behind the opponent, but instead of passing, he waited for the opponent to be attracted by the run and move to block the pass which created an area on his left to be exploited. He ran towards the byline and bypassed the opponent where he could find Nakamura, who had a closer and better position facing the goal to score. It is rare to see a rookie playing with such remarkable skills and high level of intelligence who understands the game so well.
Off the ball movement in the final third
All of his 13 goals were scored inside the box this season. He read the games so well where he could get into the centre of the box to score goals. This requires Mitoma to be able to find spaces and time his run perfectly to provide options for his teammates. Below picture shows he made a cross to the right side while he placed himself at a distance to the defenders and in between the centre back and the right-full back. He made a forward run behind the centre back where it was difficult for the centre back to track, and it was also too far for the right-full back to move in to cover. He relies on his acceleration and change of speed to deceive his oppositions and create spaces for himself.
How Oniki utilises Mitoma’s skills
Under Oniki, Frontale mainly plays 4–3–3 with both sides of the full-backs pushing up to support the attack. On the right side, the winger, Akihiro Ienaga will cut inside, playing alongside with the striker and will then drop to the midfield to support and link the team up. The right full-back, Miki Yamane will push up to the right to provide width for the team. However, on the left side, Mitoma tends to stay wide and high up in the middle third to receive the ball instead of the left full-back. This set up is trying to create a 1v1 situation by isolating him near the sideline for him to thrive. An effective partnership between himself and left full-back, Kyohei Noborizato, has created more spaces for Mitoma and made Frontale’s left flank lethal. The below picture shows the average positions of Mitoma is wider and higher up then right winger Ienaga; The left side duo is standing relatively close compared to the right side.
We can understand how this partnership works by observing how close they stand next to each other and they interact with their positions with each other. Once the ball arrives on Mitoma’s feet, Noborizato will make an overlap or underlap run forward depending on the position of Mitoma. If he is out wide, Noborizato will do an underlap run into the half-space and if he is cutting inside, Noborizato will go wide to overlap. Such off the ball movement from Noborizato will distract the opposition who is defending Mitoma as they have to cover the passing lane and hence, more spaces for him to dribble and create.
At the same time, the reason they are standing close to each other is that it allows Noborizato to make a short and explosive run immediately which forces the opposition to react by adjusting their body shape and position to cover the passing lane. If the distances between them are too far, Noborizato needs more time to complete his run, and it is not sustainable to make such a long run for the whole game. It will be less effective to distract the opposition from Mitoma and will have more time to close him down.
After creating more spaces for Mitoma, he could then start working his magic with the ball by dribbling towards the left to the byline and assist like the example we have shown above. The biggest advantage that Frontale could gain is when Mitoma dribble towards inside the pitch near the left edge of the box, it will open up more attacking options. He can choose to pass back to whoever did the underlap or overlap run; look for options from the inside to the outside of the box; cross the ball to the far post or shoot it by himself.
How Mitoma defend with Kawasaki Frontale
Frontale usually use ball-oriented pressing but they do not press the oppositions aggressively, instead, they will utilise each player’s cover-shadow to cut off various passing lanes. They are not afraid of pressing high up in the pitch as a whole but if their pressing was beaten by the opposition, they will drop back to form a middle block or low block as a 4–5–1. Such method demands players to be aware of their surroundings, especially at their back. This requires a player to constantly shoulder-check his nearby to make sure the team can cover as much shadow as they could. Below picture shows Mitoma utilising his cover-shadow to trap the opposition to pass to it out wide which he anticipated the pass and intercepted it perfectly to create a counter-attack situation for the team. He recorded 3.03 interception per 90 minutes and 4.16 ball recoveries in opposition’s half with a 60% success rate.
Frontale’s pressing will gradually increase their intensity if the ball gets out wide and if the opposition has no option to pass, the nearest player will commit to tackle the ball-player. Mitoma will often be the one who commits and tackles for the ball if necessary. He recorded 3.13 loose ball duel per 90 minutes with a 42.2% success rate.
Potential area to improve
Physicality and Balancing
He needs to improve on his physicality, strength and balancing to hold off the opponent and to protect the ball. This is crucial for a winger as teams are now pressing more aggressively than before and passing the ball out wide is one of the common pressing traps where he would face a lot of physical challenges. He could see off the defender easier without tripping too much. This season he made a lot of successful dribbles but at the end of it he lost balance bouncing off by the defender and could not pass or shoot it.
Shooting outside the box
According to the below shooting map, Mitoma shot 6 times outside of the box where 4 of them were blocked and 2 of them were sent wide. 3 out of 4 blocked shot were cutting in from left where he tried a placed shot with his right foot to the right-hand corner. He timed his movement perfectly where he can find spaces in the edge of the box to have a shooting chance but he has to improve on the technique to place those shots. This technique can be used when he dribbles from the left towards the centre near the edge of the box where he could open up more options for himself. It will increase his unpredictability to the defender and makes him more difficult to defend.
Changing directions during his run or movement
We mentioned that his off the ball movement was good and he loves to stay away from the defender and uses his speed and acceleration to dump the defender. However, most of his runs were straight line forward running which makes him easier to be predicted. Instead of straight line, he should try to improve his movement by changing his direction during his run such as using “Zig-Zag” movement to deceive the opposition.
Conclusion
Mitoma is showing his capability during his first year in J league. His dribbling skills, ability to create chances for teammates and off the ball movement have shown he is full of potential to become one of the best attackers in Asian football. Frontale’s attacking system consists of different ways to attack which allows Mitoma to learn more and become more all-rounded. Even though he is not starting for every game, he cherishes every single minute when he is on the pitch to show his positive attitude and professionalism as a player. There is no doubt that he has a bright future in front of him and there is no surprise that he will attract the teams from Europe.
