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Episode 389: Rewind - Player Profile - Kuryu Matsuki
88 Plays1 month ago
Southampton – With Greg's Internet out seemed fitting to bring back a classic! Matsuki's profile that Zak did just before the season started!
Original Episode: https://zencastr.com/z/E1s9zFPm
Research Sources:
https://targetscouting.com/2024/04/16/kuryu-matsuki-fc-tokyo-scout-report/
https://www.fctokyo.co.jp/en/players/2024/3565
https://www.shogunsoccer.com/p/shogun-soccer-scouting-kuryu-matsuki
https://www.transfermarkt.com/kuryu-matsuki/profil/spieler/902021
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Transcript
Introduction
00:00:03
Speaker
This is the Daily Saints pod with Zach and Greg.
Young Players Research Series
00:00:11
Speaker
couple of players soft thought yeah could do some research episode on some of our young players and and kind of collectively and you know that that will easily fill twenty minutes so i've done a twenty five minute episode on mazuki yeah because It turns out that actually this is probably going be a series and I'm probably going to do a lot of research into each one of the individual
Focus on Matsuki
00:00:30
Speaker
players. And it's kind of the players that are breaking through into the first team that have a bit more of a background. Because like, you know, you could do Jay Robinson, but realistically he'd just be talking about his under-21s, right? And although Matsuki's only 22, he's had a bit of a bit of a career, mate, so far.
00:00:44
Speaker
So, yeah, I thought, you know... i'd I'd crack on with that. So how does that sound? you yeah I'm excited for it. I love your research episodes. You enlighten me and make me a more knowledgeable man when it comes to these things. i i look forward to it.
00:00:58
Speaker
Good, I've even got some sort of tactical information today and i've I've tried to get sort of some scouting reports from both sort of Europe and also some scouting from reports from when he was in Japan by sort of like domestic people that follow the domestic league over there.
00:01:10
Speaker
So yeah, hopefully we'll learn some things.
Matsuki's Career Path
00:01:12
Speaker
So he's a central midfielder that's been listed as being able to play as both a defensive midfielder and attacking midfielder. So he's a bit more versatile than I think we kind of give him credit for.
00:01:23
Speaker
He is kind of part of footballing family. And by that, I mean his older brother also played for the same team that he did, which is Murawan Oswa FC. And when I was like, oh, that's cool. He played, oh, hang on. He played for fc Tokyo and a whole other. This was when he was seven to 12. He played part of a quite a, played for a team, right?
00:01:43
Speaker
And then from there, he joined a his junior high school and high school team. And in 2021, Greg, he actually had a trial with Lyon, but returned to Japan to help in a school tournament where he both scored in the semifinal and final.
00:01:59
Speaker
So sort of football fored through and through since he was young, right, is what I've come to an end with this. And I think there was a lot of noise around sort of when he was getting to the sort of like 17, 18, that he was going to go to Europe, right?
00:02:16
Speaker
And that that wasn't necessarily the case because a big influence sold on him was Yutu Nagatomo, who, if you know him, he played for AC Milan. He went back to FC Tokyo about the same time that Masuki joined and basically said it would be really good to get a few domestic seasons under the belt, right? It's the same kind of things that we talk about with like Tyler Diplin maybe staying with us for a season or two to get a bit more experience and then going onwards. So, yeah, that's what he also like decided to do.
00:02:44
Speaker
He ended up staying at FC Tokyo. And i had a look at who his agent was, and I realized his agent is the same as Nagatomo, so that's probably how they know each other as well. His agent is the same agent as Kamada at Palace. That's probably the most well-known name. Other than that, it's sort of a lot of a couple of players around the J League. So he spent three seasons at FC Tokyo, appearing over 71 times. Not massively amongst the goals. He scored five goals in that time.
00:03:12
Speaker
But, you know, still still like young, still plenty of sort of plenty of time to work that into his game. And I don't think that his game has really been about scoring the goals as such.
00:03:25
Speaker
They described him in their sort of team sheet as a midfielder with excellent ball-winning ability and scoring prowess, possessing both strong competitiveness and a strong mentality. They bring energy to the team with aggressive plays. That was like his official tagline on their website when he was a player there, which I thought was interesting. I don't know if we have anything like that. and We just have the name and the number, right?
00:03:46
Speaker
but Yeah, sometimes not even the number. I don't think.
00:03:51
Speaker
So he was actually named the Asian Youth Footballer of the Year in November 2023, and at that time was captaining the under-20s national team as well. And he's pretty been much been part of Japan's youth setup since the under-15s, and he helped win the under-23s Asian Cup, I want to say, the year, I'll be five before, wrong, that he joined us. So he's like solidly an international as well. So he's sort of did well in the domestic lead, spent three seasons in a good team and and sort of transitioned initially from being part of a like a different formation to a similar formation to where he would play be playing now, right? So very a lot of the
00:04:31
Speaker
the sort of benefits of him as a player that have been by all these different scouring networks is he's a very, very good boxer, box midfielder. So that's kind of where we should expect to see him. Great. It means got an engine on him. That's exactly what we're looking for. Yeah. well Exactly what Will still looks to be looking for. That's great.
00:04:47
Speaker
We'll get into all of that as well. And obviously, he eventually signed for us on the 30th of July, 2024. And immediately went on loan to Gestepi, right? And at the time, Russell Martin was talking about how he will be assessed on his return from Gestepi to see how well his loan does.
00:05:03
Speaker
They are happy with him and want to see how he progresses and go from there. And obviously that
Matsuki's Playing Style and Transition
00:05:08
Speaker
has now arrived. We are like three managers later. However, that sort of agreement still seems to be in place. And as you can see, he's been in and around first team. that he's not been loaned back out to Gestepi, whereas some of the players who technically play for us are still at Gestepi.
00:05:23
Speaker
Liss isn't one of them. I can't remember the name of the guy, but there is somebody else who who is at Gestepi now, Greg. yeah i agree Yeah, hasn't been agreed that he's... It hasn't been like posted anywhere that he's a agreed extension. However, he's in training over there, so I guess there's just an assumption there. Yeah.
00:05:40
Speaker
I mean, sister clubs, right? like the Yeah, and this is this is the thing, right? It's getting a bit... it's It's going to be a bit difficult, but it's one of the it's the first time we'd have probably seen the fruits of this multi-club model come into play. And during his time at Gestepi, he appeared 34 times and scored a total of six goals.
00:06:03
Speaker
So he scored more goals in the last season than he did for his entire career at FC Tokyo. Four of those goals came in six appearances in the National Cup. So I don't know if that just says that he was willing to have a go more at teams that were lower. I haven't been able to do that much. I would have been sat here for significantly more hours than i already spent on this.
00:06:23
Speaker
So that's kind of where where we're up to to now, right? Obviously, he finished his loan spell. He's come back. He's been in pre-season training. We've seen him a little bit around the club. There was a whole Daily Echo article about how hopefully the Sigoura effect will help him. Because obviously you having a countryman anywhere you go makes life a little bit easier. And now we've seen him but in action, and it's it's all positive things. But in the next part, we'll go over two separate scouting reports, one that is sort European-based, one that's Japan-based. And then I'll go to you for your thoughts, Greg, on making up his mind. So let's go on to the next part after a word from our partners at Bionique.
Scouting Reports Analysis
00:07:01
Speaker
And we are back.
00:07:03
Speaker
So yeah, before the break, we kind of learned about his career, how he got here. you know, sort of what his sort of statistics were and bits and pieces. But now I thought I'd do something that I don't usually do, Greg, which is talk a little bit more about the tactical side and the sort of player profile side of of it. So I found a, there is a scouting report from targetscouting.com.
00:07:26
Speaker
One of the co-founders of of this website actually has gone on to now be a scout for Hyperion. So like, pretty good at what they do. and they they They kind of go around and do you sort scout various players and then kind of make a decision of so where they think they're all going be done.
00:07:43
Speaker
But it's interesting because both profiles have certain things that match up, which gives some signs of positivity, right? So... yeah He's described as being quite strong in the ball, and he also does very well to draw fouls in some some situations where it's it's useful to draw fouls.
00:08:01
Speaker
But there is a problem where he can be a bit slow carrying the ball. So decent set sets of speed, sort of long distances when needed, but but sometimes court of flight just takes a little bit too long. He has really good timing in Aerial Jewels and is very combative, but has mixed results due to his reach.
00:08:17
Speaker
Which, like, unless you're really, really tall, that that's kind of how Aerial Jewels go, right? like Yeah. Unless you're tall, Paul. In which case you miss the ball entirely and everybody gets underneath you.
00:08:29
Speaker
So he is described as having excellent stamina. And as you can see from the fact that he's sort of, that's been described in multiple places at this point, plays with high intensity and works incredibly hard, which is something we've been talking about that we need in our team completely.
00:08:42
Speaker
Praise be Jesus. Oh man. That can run. Imagine. yeah Well, that's the thing, right? And I think that's maybe what sort of impressed the EC game as well. They've said that his defensive positioning needs some work, as sometimes he allows bit too much space in between the lines and has been observed a couple of times to fail to block the passing lane. However, that doesn't mean that he's like terrible defensively. He tries to disrupt the opponents in transitions, but sometimes to do that, as we've talked about, he needs to give away a foul.
00:09:15
Speaker
He reads the game very well and near the box, which is something also actually need. What I can think of is like if the ball has been given away near the box, how often we're bad at like dealing with that situation. yeah And having a player that we know is like people who've observed is good at dealing with that in sort of that position we're going to need him to be in, right?
00:09:32
Speaker
that That will be hopefully a good thing. like Between him and Downs, I'm hoping stuff will be covered. But we'll see... Defends 1-2s well due to his constant scanning, so he often makes very, very good off-the-ball
Matsuki's Potential in Top Leagues
00:09:45
Speaker
decisions.
00:09:47
Speaker
The problem with that, though, is the timing of him stepping up can be a bit sporadic, and sometimes he can either be a bit too early or a bit too late. But again, we put a lot judgment on this lad who's like, what, 22, 23? Like, he's got plenty of room to it. We'll see what the conclusions will be.
00:10:05
Speaker
He was at the base of most of the attacks for FC Tokyo and has a clean first touch under pressure. He has a clean passing technique, but can be sloppy passing between the gaps.
00:10:19
Speaker
He very, sort of when he's under pressure, he's very good at the sort of like just playing one touch. And it usually somehow works out well for him. And we'll see comparisons with later on, because but the the Japanese analyst sort of had a look at it and said kind of the same thing, where sometimes he'll just take strikes from long range.
00:10:38
Speaker
And sometimes it works out successful for him. Other times, not so much. But the problem with that in itself is it's like, that's an issue because when you've got someone who's got the confidence to just strike from really far out and it doesn't work out, you kind of break up and attack, right?
00:10:51
Speaker
But we don't we haven't really had anyone that's had a goal in long. I don't think any of our players know how to shoot, so I'll take it from long distance, short distance, wherever. Like... Shot on target is an improvement over last season. You've got to remember that. There were multiple games last season where we didn't have a shot on target. This is this is true. But again, like him being the base of the attacks is is is good, right? That's a positive thing to hear because that means that he you can drive the ball forward and we can actually like sort of build something from them. Not necessarily the back, but when gets to it, he knows what to do. He has a clean passing technique, but can be sometimes sloppy passing in between gaps.
00:11:29
Speaker
And as I said, usually plays one touch, but works out quite well for him. His defensive ability, while a good level, they said he's much better as a box-to-box in a 4-2-3-1 as one of the two holding midfielders, which is kind of what we assumed he'd slot in. And also, sort of when FC Tokyo kind of switched to that position and he played a sort of a double pivot, he did a lot better in in that position as well.
00:11:55
Speaker
So again, like there's plenty of room for adaptation and stuff, but it's just this is just factually where he's ended up playing better. Yeah. So the article sort of ended, and bear in mind this was just before we signed him, like couple of months before we signed him, saying that he could be, that they reckon that clubs battling for him could be like the Champions League quality, or he would actually sit suit a team like Borussia Dortmund, depending on his development and player choices, which I thought was very interesting, because that is also a comparison that's laid Mater on, right? So...
00:12:27
Speaker
or specifically Bundesliga for him to end up here. But yeah, so so now what we've learned, Greg, is that he's he's good. we've We've sort of seen that. Lots of sort of him him play. He played very, very well when he was at FC Tokyo. a lot of people took notice.
00:12:41
Speaker
Again, I don't think you get into sort of the the positions of like how there's something like you know captaining youth teams. and And I guess having this much notice, there's very much a, but he after he won the AFC Young Player of the Year,
00:12:55
Speaker
There seems to be anyone that was following before he went to us, there was an inevitability that he would go to a bigger European side, right? Yeah. And chose us, which is great. Obviously, probably because we were going back to the Premier League at the time, but let's not think too much about that.
00:13:08
Speaker
if he If he gets a run in this season, happy days. Yeah. He's here now, and it's potentially within his hands to make it Premier League next season, so...
00:13:20
Speaker
i'll put, make sure that the the links in the show description to the article that I read and it's Jerome Tiglas, which probably is pronounced extremely bad, but he's one of the co-founders and owners of the website.
00:13:31
Speaker
As I said, he, one of his co-founders left to become a professional scout at High Beard FC. They've done quite a few J League players. One of the things that I noted was that they did a profile on Endrick when he was at Palmaris saying that he's probably going to be one of the best players of his generation and he's now at Real Madrid.
00:13:49
Speaker
So, know, pretty good. Some good information. I like it. I really do. So we've got now one more. We've got a domestic view of him and a look from Rio Nakagawara at Shogun Soccer.
00:14:03
Speaker
But we'll we'll get to that after a word from our partners at Zencastr. righty yo so we're back and having a look at shogun soccer's article on matsuki and this was kind of the first sort of researchy proper scouty uh
00:14:18
Speaker
profile that this guy had done. And he but basically watched pretty much all of the 2023 sort of coverage with him in it of the J League season, where he played originally a box-to-box in a three, but he really came into his own when the formation changed to a 4-2-3-1, which I've kind of alluded to previously. And this was when FC Tokyo was under the management of Peter Klamovsky, and I'm hoping that's right. However, he was and also just weird side tangent, but he was an assistant previously to Ange Postacoglu, right? Because obviously we know Postacoglu started in the J League, so i'm guessing, you know, some of his staff stuck around.
00:14:56
Speaker
So despite his young age at the time, he became like a staple there, right? And the bits that people thought he excelled at were tackling, interceptions, and loose balls. So basically where we want him to be. There was some question around his discipline because over sort two seasons, he had like, he picked up four yellows and a red. And the season before he picked up five yellows and a red. But that kind of comes with that territory, right? Like it is an ongoing joke that Flynn Downs gets carded every single game. right So I'm not,
00:15:23
Speaker
really too surprised and i think that's because like he tries to physically out muscle people and sometimes fails so that's when he'll commit a foul and sometimes they don't they don't work out in his favor so he has less fouls than expected realistically
Tactical Role and Abilities
00:15:39
Speaker
because of the amount of work he kind of puts in and he can use both feet which is nice but he does have a stronger left foot and favors his left foot Well, one-to-one isn't his strong suit. He can be good at passing into space. So there's a bit of overlap and contradiction there because sometimes he can be sloppy passing into space. But again, it's I guess it's like what people have watched and what people have seen at the time. Yeah.
00:15:59
Speaker
And it depends, right? It depends how long of a period they're making these observations for from a scouting report. Yeah, exactly. I mean, it's not unheard of to have a couple of games where you're just not quite clicking into place. Yeah.
00:16:12
Speaker
Exactly that. So I think that his biggest criticism was that he doesn't try to turn face forward despite having space, especially in his own defensive search, which can be detrimental to the buildup of the game. Which like, that is a thing that we can be frustrated by, right? Like just messing around at the back is a thing that we constantly complain about. But they they also highlight that he has a great switch in transition and also has a really good one-touch, which is a thing that we've kind of always struggled with, right? We've watched our players get the ball and they sit with it for ages. they over We talked about with Dibbling last season about how sometimes he just takes a touch to too many, right? So having players that don't have that anymore or having anyone that tries to kind of not have that as much, especially in the fast sort of paced world that still wants to live in is a good thing.
00:16:57
Speaker
So a good but not excellent passer is how he's how he's described. And sometimes he can just get the weight wrong, but I feel like that's just everyone who plays football. yeah Occasionally you're going to hit the ball and it's not going to go where you want it to go. yeah so As I said, when he has good gut threat from long range and his ball is like, and he can hit the ball well, but this can be problematic in his decision-making. It's occasionally, as I said, might have a go. And the thing is, Greg, is I know you say, oh, well, you know, not our players even have a shot. That also reminds me a bit sometimes of Sulemana, where Sulemana would go run off and then like,
00:17:30
Speaker
Then he would just hit the ball and you're like, what are you doing? That's nowhere near the goal. And it would go skywards. And I kind of kind of worry about seeing a bit more of that. I guess like it will be at least go down as a shot on the board, which is what we're really backing with a lot of the time. but look if b blood Put it this way, if he scores, if he gets in positions like that and has shots that are considered outrageous and wild 20 times in the season, but scores three of them,
00:17:58
Speaker
That's not too bad, really, is it? I like the fact that he's in 20 positions to do that, mate, to be honest. Exactly. That is an improvement. This is true. So during his time at FC Tokyo, he was also commonly took set pieces, both corners and free kicks, probably because he was a bit versatile with his feet. Obviously, from his goal ratio, you see it's something they expected more of in his game. And since leaving FC Tokyo, he's already managed to get more goals in that one season at Gestepi. So that's only a good thing. Lefty as well, isn't he? So that'll help with...
00:18:27
Speaker
certain corners and and certain angles of free kick, presumably. it it It helps to be left-footed on that side of the pitch. So, good. For sure. so And this is the summary. So, the summary of him as a player is the but the German Bundesliga suits his front-foot, all-action type of play style as he thrives greatly on transition moments. I won't say he's ready for the Premier League despite his good physicality. It may be worth watching him in national team setups outside of the J League context or see him in another European league to gauge his readgie readiness for a larger physical step
Future Potential and Adaptation
00:18:59
Speaker
up.
00:19:00
Speaker
Matsuki is a fantastic prospect with a varied skill set that can be moulded further with the right coaching environment. Which I think is very telling because what the conclusion he comes to is very similar to the conclusion that will be come to sort of maybe six months after this by the other article, which again is just a different, a completely different scout, completely just a different guy. so So they've all seen sort of similar qualities amongst him.
00:19:23
Speaker
And yeah, I think that it's actually, it is a going to be, when I say he's going to be a baller, mate, I think it's a bit of a sleeper. It's one we've kind of fallen asleep on because we didn't really expect much of it. Most people would forgot he'd even arrived.
00:19:35
Speaker
It was a Gostepi most of last season. And now he's come back and, you know, I think it will almost feel a bit like a new transfer. Just hope that you can adapt to sort of the physicality of the championship because that is one of the things that,
00:19:46
Speaker
They've said that he can be quite physical and quite fast, but has been out-muscled a little bit. But either way, I think all of these things are positive. And it it feels like one of those almost football manager wonder kids that you find. And you then all of a sudden you find that other people have found him.
00:20:04
Speaker
And then, yeah, then it goes from there. So I'm very excited for his future, regardless of where it ends up. And hopefully, you know, it doesn't peter out really, really early on.
00:20:15
Speaker
But I think that the fact he's involved in preseason and he wasn't a Spores or a still hire says a lot to how well they think his development's going. don't know what you think. So, Greg, there you go. there's that There is are our new supposedly box-to-box midfielder, central midfielder, Kriyu Matsuki, returning from loan from Gestepi, now in and amongst the first team. What do you think?
00:20:38
Speaker
Great. Look, I'm excited. You've got me excited. It sounds like he could has the potential to be a great player. Obviously, we alluded before that having like a fellow countryman in in and about the squad can only be a good thing, too, for both of those players. It's always you know it's always like we saw it a bit with Tudor Mana and Tallpool last season, where...
00:21:00
Speaker
you know i know that I want to use the word chemistry, but not in a FIFA sense of the word, right? You need human chemistry, right? You've got shared experiences, you've got shared cultural things to do and have fun. yeah and like You've got the probably shared activities that you'll all do.
00:21:16
Speaker
and bits and pieces like that so yeah all that kind of stuff's really helpful and also you know transitioning it's not i feel like going from sort of tokyo to sort of turkey and then suddenly back to southampton of all places must be like really weird culture shock so yeah i think anything to help you is going to be handy right Yeah, and look, I hope that he has a great season. I hope that he is the breakout that it sounds like he has the potential to be. And yeah, I mean, any time that a lone player can come back and be as positive as effectively a new signing is, it's going to be good. For sure.
00:21:55
Speaker
We've seen him get a chance so far in pre-season. I'm sure as pre-season develops, we we'll be able to gauge more if that's going to be the case and how involved he's going to be. And definitely one to keep an eye on, I think. Yeah, sure I think that's where I'm at. It's whether or not he can hack the physicality of the championship is going to be probably key to how well he does. But by the sounds of it, he he has a lot of potential.
Closing Thoughts and Future Episodes
00:22:17
Speaker
It's just having the right coaching. And I guess it will be a real example of how well...
00:22:22
Speaker
our coaching setup is now as to how well he does this season. Obviously, it takes a bit of both from both sides, right? But there's just a lot of potential there in in a player that I think a lot of people didn't even realise we'd had. Yeah, absolutely. That's great. So, yeah. And then, obviously, next week, I might dive into sort of Wellington or Kaya Sander or Korshi. haven't quite decided who yet.
00:22:45
Speaker
I just started with Masuki because we were talking about it, i think, yesterday evening. but some something We were talking about something, I'm sure. And let's face it, I'm like a weed. I also watch the J League on the side, right? Because again, if you don't know, J League will offer the ability to watch it through YouTube. so So every match, like they'll put like a a match up on a Saturday and you can watch it live. And sometimes during sort of the off-season, quite fun to do that. Because that means that I still get to watch football. and Although, i know we've had the Club World Cup, but it's not...
00:23:18
Speaker
That's great. he said That's not real football, mate. Yeah. And it's fun to see how other countries do it. And my favorite thing is the English charts that don't have English words, lyrics to them, but somehow keep to the beat. It's great. Love it.
00:23:29
Speaker
love By the way, so yeah, thank you very much for everyone for joining us. Thank you once again to Mamamaka for the suggestion of looking into this, because it turns out I fell into a little bit of a rabbit hole.
00:23:42
Speaker
Thank you, Zach, for doing the research. because your research episodes are some of my favorite episodes that we do. I really enjoyed it. You're very welcome. I will send all of the the sources and bits and pieces to you, Greg, for this, because I think it's important, because we've seen some articles that people have put some work in that maybe, other don't know if they ever thought they'd get read, but they've been read, and they've been useful, and know they've they've got us a little bit excited.
00:24:05
Speaker
So yeah, please, if you fancy reading articles yourself, check them out. They'll be in the show description. And what what else? oh Oh, social medias. Yeah, that the normal thing. Facebook, Twitter, slash X, Blue Sky, YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, all that fun stuff.
00:24:20
Speaker
We're there. all that always there. There's at least two posts a day. They usually link back to the podcast. That's how we get our name out there. I'm rambling. It's time for me to end this episode. Thank you, everybody, for listening. Thank you so much for Greg, Greg, for being my guest and fantastic co-host as always. And we will see you in the next one.
00:24:40
Speaker
Every club. Every day. The Global Sports Podcast Network.