Neel Shelat looks how how tactics shifted in Japan and South Korea last season, and what it might mean for football in general
There have been some interesting tactical trends and developments in 2024. At the most elite level of men’s club football in Europe, there appears to have been a shift away from the absolutely control-obsessed style of play that the likes of Manchester City used in the late 2010s and early 2020s. Teams with more elements of directness like Liverpool, Inter and Atalanta are enjoying more success now, and even Barcelona have moved in this direction.
This shift has perhaps not been as pronounced anywhere else as in East Asia. The region’s two biggest leagues – Japan’s J1 League and South Korea’s K League 1 – as well as AFC Champions League Elite group, have seen direct teams massively exceed expectations. Surely, then, it is worth taking a closer look at these developments to see whether they reflect a wider trend.
J1 League: Directness Enables Unprecedented Overachievement
It should be noted that the J1 League’s shift towards more direct approaches began in 2023 with Vissel Kobe’s shock title, which ended Kawasaki Frontale and Yokohama F. Marinos’ duopoly at the top. Kobe were outliers last season, but this term their closest challengers also adopted pretty direct approaches.
This is quite a curious shift for a league that has typically been known for having a very technical ground-passing-based style of play while not having the most physical players. Indeed, one theory could build on that by suggesting that the growing degree of international recruitment from the league is affecting the traditional top teams the most, limiting their ability to control matches when their best players are taken away. Japanese football expert Ryo Nakagawara considers this an inadequate explanation, though, pointing out that the direct overachievers can also be (and have been) affected by international recruitment. Instead, he suggests their superior tactical organisation and discipline have been the key to their success.
Even so, one could still credit their direct style of play for being easier to coach, implement and replicate (to a decent level at least) as compared to a more intricate possession-based styles of play. So, the more direct teams might be better equipped to cope with the losses of star players.
Either way, this season’s leaders certainly benefitted from having strong duel-winners in their side, particularly up front. The below scatterplots do not suggest any correlation between Goal Difference Added (GDA) and duel-related metrics, but it is interesting that players from the top three dominate the duel-related metrics and have positive GDA scores.
Of course, besides the players’ own qualities, their teams’ tactics play just as big a part in explaining these numbers.
Machida Zelvia
Machida Zelvia’s players show up the most in those graphs, which should be entirely unsurprisingly to anyone who has caught even a glimpse of them this year. They were by far the most direct team in the leading contingent. Here are a couple of stats to illustrate that: Machida had the third-lowest possession average in the league at 43.4%, completed the second-most long balls per 90 and managed to concede the fewest number of goals (34).
Their supremely solid defence was the foundation for one of the most remarkable overachievements not just in East Asia but all over the world this year. Going into the season, Machida Zelvia were a newly promoted side making their top-flight debut, so a title challenge was hardly on anyone’s mind at the club. As it turned out, they led the way for a good chunk of the season and only dropped off towards the end, finishing six points behind the champions but still earning continental qualification.
Head coach Go Kuroda deserves a great deal of credit for the meteoric rise he has charted in just two years at the club, maintaining a pretty uniform style of play across divisions.
Evidently, Kuroda and Zelvia like their long balls. Lining up in a 4-4-2 formation, most of their ball progression this season involved simply hoofing it long to the strikers, who tended to be strong in duels and in the air (as evidenced by the previous graphs). The midfielders positioned themselves intelligently to pick up second balls, enabling their side to consistently enter the final third with the ball. Once they got there, their creation relied extremely heavily on crossing – or set pieces won from these aerial challenges – with the strikers used as the chief targets once again.
For all this directness, though, it was a more creative ball-to-feet player who was the key to Zelvia’s attacking. Winger Yu Hirakawa’s on-ball brilliance led him to provide six assists and chip in with just a couple of goals in half a season, earning a summer transfer to the English Championship.
Hirakawa’s departure was one of the big reasons behind Machida Zelvia’s drop-off in the second half of the season. They ended the season with just the sixth-highest tally of goals scored, so their unidimensional attacking is what cost them the title.
Interestingly, Zelvia’s direct approach in possession did help their defensive efforts. Their heavily long ball-focused progression meant that they could afford to keep their back four relatively deep, making themselves quite resistant to counterattacks. Of course, they also used a very solid and disciplined 4-4-2 shape out of possession to keep their opponents as quiet as possible.
Ultimately, Machida Zelvia not only finished third in the actual table but they also had the third-highest expected points tally in the league. Suffice it to say, their excellent execution of an efficient approach led them to unforgettable heights.
Vissel Kobe
Despite Zelvia’s best efforts, it was Vissel Kobe who lifted the J1 League title once again. We wrote about them in much more depth when they were chasing their first-ever league title last season, so this section will be quite brief as they hardly changed over the winter. It is worth noting that Kobe also use a pretty direct style of play with elements of control mixed into their approach, though they are more comfortable with keeping the ball for longer spells.
Once again, the makeup of Kobe’s attack was quite interesting. They had physically imposing presences up top such as experienced striker Yoshinori Muto…
… and versatile attacker Daiju Sasaki (pictured in the header photo)…
… while central striker Yuya Osako did a lot of work to link up with and feed his teammates besides grabbing a few goals himself.
Sanfrecce Hiroshima
Under Michael Skibbe, Sanfrecce Hiroshima have quietly been one of the most consistent teams in Japan. They snuck into third place in both 2022 and 2023 before improving to second this year, pushing Vissel Kobe all the way to the final day in the title race.
Sanfrecce have consistently adopted a direct approach under the German head coach, though they differ from the other two teams we have picked out in some respects. Most notably, they are far happier to counterattack or get forward in transitional situations, and they also limit their use of the low block as far as possible.
Fielding a 3-4-2-1 formation on paper, Sanfrecce use a very expansive front five in possession and a pretty player-oriented approach without the ball to try and make their games as open as possible. This served them very well going forward as they finished the season as the league’s top scorers, but the tradeoff was that they conceded over 10 more goals than Machida Zelvia.
Interestingly, none of Sanfrecce’s players scored more than 10 goals in the league, although as many as 17 found the back of the net at least once. While the goals came from all over the side, line-leading striker Pieros Sotiriou (or his replacement in a very similar role) was the key to their approach as he constantly made runs in behind to stretch the opposition back line and also won more than his fair share of aerial duels.
Ultimately, Sanfrecce also heavily relied on crossing to create their chances. They very nearly matched Kobe in this respect, with Zelvia some way behind them in third.
Accurate crosses per match in the 2024 J1 League. (Image credit: FotMob)
K League 1: Ulsan Still On Top
The rise of direct teams was certainly far more pronounced in Japan, both in terms of results and the tactics used. In South Korea, Ulsan HD remained a pretty possession-based side (with the highest average in the league) as they retained the title, but it was a newly-promoted side and a club that survived the relegation playoff that finished behind them. Neither of those teams had an overly long ball-based style of play like the sides we analysed from Japan, but they used a different form of directness by progressing the ball quickly and swiftly dealing damage in the final third.
Ulsan HD
Even though they ended up winning the league, Ulsan were far from their best for most of the season. Indeed, their title triumph was mostly down to the fact that they had inadequate competition with the challengers tripping each other up, allowing the defending champions to finish first despite averaging under 1.9 points per game. Head coach Hong Myung-bo’s mid-season move to the national team job likely did not help their cause, although truthfully their performances remained consistently mediocre on either side of his departure.
New head coach Kim Pan-gon maintained a pretty slow possession-based style of play, though Ulsan have not minded mixing in a few transitions under him. For the most part, though, they try and take the sting out of matches with slow circulation.
Although this approach just about got Ulsan over the line in the league, they faltered in the cup final to miss the chance to win their first domestic double. Worse yet, they lost each of their first five AFC Champions League Elite matches to severely jeopardise their chances of qualifying for the knockouts.
Gangwon FC
Behind Ulsan, Gangwon FC shocked everyone by recording their best-ever league finish all the way up in second place. Founded as recently as 2008, the club had never even broken into the top five of the K League in the past. If not for a late winner in the promotion/relegation playoff at the end of 2023, they might even have been a second-tier team this year!
Yoon Jong-hwan was the man who steered Gangwon to safety last term, and he was one of the few people who remained at the club in 2024. They massively overhauled their squad in the last two transfer windows, making as many as 18 signings!
Yoon implemented quite a unique style of play as evidenced by his Coach ID radar. Out of possession, Gangwon dropped into a low block quite quickly, hardly ever looking to press their opposition. With the ball, they mostly moved into a 3-2-4-1 shape regardless of their starting formation, spending a lot of time circulating around the back before picking their moments to spring forward.
One of the motives behind Gangwon’s deep circulation was to probe for gaps in their opponents’ defensive block, which they opened up with sideways passing before exploiting. For this reason, why many of their attacks and shot assists came through the central areas. Although such moves would not qualify as transitions by the strict definition (which explains the low rating for transitions in Yoon’s Coach ID radar), they may be thought of as artificial transitions.
One of the most important players for Gangwon under Yoon was Brazilian striker Yago Cariello. He was a great presence at the top of their attack as he not only got on the end of a lot of chances but also linked up with his teammates quite well and served as a target striker if needed. The 25-year-old registered 10 goal involvements in 18 matches before leaving midway through the season, as parent club Portimonense sold him to Ulsan HD of all teams.
Not long after Cariello’s departure, Gangwon went on a five-match winless run that arguably cost them the title in the end. Nevertheless, they did manage to end up as the league’s joint top scorers thanks in no small part to teenage talent Yang Min-hyeok, who scored 12 goals and set up five others. The tricky winger showed excellent movement and positional understanding in the half-space besides standout on-ball quality, earning a pre-arranged transfer to Tottenham Hotspur.
While the €4 million Gangwon will earn from his move will be handy, they will have their work cut out in upcoming windows to replace these key players.
Gimcheon Sangmu
Just like in Japan, a newly promoted team finished in the final podium spot in K League 1. Gimcheon Sangmu’s story is arguably even more interesting than that of Machida Zelvia because they are South Korea’s army club.
Followers of South Korean football may know that conscription in the country requires males aged between 18 and 35 years old to perform compulsory military service for two years. Exemptions are quite difficult to get, but footballers have the option of spending their time at Gimcheon Sangmu. As a result, though, the club are in a very unique position where none of their players stick around for more than a couple of seasons, and about half their squad changes every year.
Few coaches will envy Chung Jeong-yong’s job, then. He has led the club to unprecedented heights in just a year and a half in charge, regularly chopping and changing approaches between matches. All things considered, his Coach ID radar suggests deep circulation and crossing are two key tenets of his approach. He also asks his side to set up in a solid 4-4-2 block out of possession, ensuring there is little space left in behind or in central areas between the lines.
Impressively, Sangmu conceded the joint fewest goals in the league and also accumulated the second highest xG tally. They had a lot of variety in their approaches in possession, using all sorts of shapes particularly through the use of defensive midfielders dropping into the back line. They tried to control matches as far as possible on certain occasions, but also mixed in a good few transitions (much like Gangwon) on other days depending on the makeup of their attack and the opposition.
Ultimately, Sangmu perhaps suffered from a lack of quality in attack. Ulsan attacking midfielder Lee Dong-gyeong was a consistent spark as he topped the squad with 12 goals and seven assists, but only one of his teammates broke into double digits in terms of goal involvements. Indeed, at times it seemed that opponents could stop Sangmu by stopping Lee.
Nevertheless, finishing in a continental spot with an ever-changing squad has to be considered a mightily impressive achievement.
AFC Champions League Elite: Directness Powering Surprises
Of course, it is not too wise to read into the AFC Champions League Elite table too much given the low number of matches (and the fact that all teams do not even face off once), but the East Zone table does make for interesting viewing.
While a couple of the more possession-based Japanese teams are doing well, they are surrounded by direct sides. Gwangju FC, who have used a style of play quite similar to their South Korean counterparts Gangwon, are flying high in second place right now. Albanian forward Jasir Asani has been the star of the show for them with a return of seven goals in five matches.
Vissel Kobe are right up there too, while Johor Darul Ta’zim are enjoying their best-ever Champions League campaign. By far the richest and therefore strongest team in Malaysia in recent years, they have completely dominated proceedings on the domestic front but naturally found the continental stage far tougher. This season, though, they have also used a possession-based yet direct style of play to score some big wins and put themselves firmly in contention for a knockout spot. With four goals and an assist, homegrown youngster Arif Aiman has looked particularly bright in this approach.
Only time can tell whether the success of more direct teams in East Asia this year was a mere coincidence or the reflection of a shift in the meta, but it has been quite an interesting pattern to follow either way. These teams’ performances and results will be well worth following in 2025.
Stats courtesy Transfermarkt and FotMob.
Header image copyright IMAGO / AFLOSPORT
