Early season focus: Frontale flailing ahead of J1 resumption

J1 returns this weekend after the international break, and there are already plenty of fascinating storylines emerging in one of the most unpredictable leagues in world football.

Debutants Machida Zelvia are sitting pretty at the top of the table with 10 points after four games, picking up exactly where they left off as they stormed to the second division title last season.

Manager Go Kuroda, who coached high school powerhouse Aomori Yamada for almost 30 years before assuming his first role at a professional club with Machida last year, continues to take to new waters like the proverbial duck, setting his team up in a well-regimented, direct, and ruthless 4-4-2 that no-one in J1 has so far had many answers for.

Sanfrecce Hiroshima sitting second is slightly less of a surprise, with Michael Skibbe’s side many people’s favourites for the title heading into the new campaign.

Even so, solid wins against Urawa Reds (2-0) and Sagan Tosu (4-0) and draws against FC Tokyo (1-1) and Vissel Kobe (0-0) are a strong return from a potentially tricky start to the campaign, with Ryotaro Araki’s strike for Tokyo the only goal Keisuke Osako has conceded so far.

It wouldn’t be the J.League without at least one big club struggling though, and while they did pick up a 2-0 win in their last outing against Kashiwa Reysol, Nagoya Grampus’ slow start to the 2024 season was nothing short of catastrophic.

Kenta Hasegawa’s men were swept aside with ease in front of their own fans by Kashima Antlers on the opening day, following that 3-0 humbling with 1-0 defeats to Machida and Albirex Niigata.

A team boasting attacking talent such as Kasper Junker, Tsukasa Morishima, Yuya Yamagishi, Ryuji Izumi, Kensuke Nagai, and Patric should not have taken until its fourth game of the season to find the net, but a reversion to last year’s familiar 3-4-2-1 formation looks like it may have helped the team snap out of its funk.

Highly successful teams become victims of their own success

Kawasaki Frontale, on the other hand, remain very much under a cloud.

Like Nagoya, the 2017, 2018, 2020, and 2021 J1 champions have lost three of their first four matches, but whereas Grampus started poorly and entered the break with a victory Kawasaki began the year with a win and have since slumped to a run of consecutive losses.

Indeed, Frontale have already exceeded the number of defeats they suffered the last time they won the league (two), while matching the total experienced when they lifted the shield the previous year.

After spending so long as the perennial ‘bridesmaid’ of the J.League, Frontale developed into a winning machine after finally claiming their maiden J1 crown seven years ago, not only collecting silverware for fun but doing so with an attractive, proactive, and exhilarating attacking style.

As is so often the case Frontale would become victims of their own success, however, with overseas clubs noticing what was going on at Todoroki Stadium and soon coming sniffing around their standout talents.

One by one Kaoru Mitoma, Hidemasa Morita, Ao Tanaka, Reo Hatate, and Shogo Taniguchi were lured away to pastures new, with the club unsurprisingly struggling to cope with so many departures and unable to replace the outgoings with players of similar quality.

The likes of Yusuke Segawa, Tatsuki Seko, and Takuma Ominami are solid J.League players but have been unable to find the same levels as their predecessors, while the youngsters coming into the side from Frontale’s youth set up or after being scouted from high schools or universities have struggled to adapt as quickly as those that went before them.

Ten Miyagi made his J1 debut for Frontale back in 2021, for instance, but has been unable to live up to the early promise he showed on loan at Kataller Toyama, spending inconsistent and injury-ridden subsequent spells on loan at V-Varen Nagasaki and Montedio Yamagata, Renji Matsui played a bit-part role at Machida in the second half of last season and was recently loaned out again, this time to Vegalta Sendai, while Takatora Einaga has been similarly unable to earn Toru Oniki’s trust and been rented to Thespa Gunma, where he is currently warming the bench.

Centre-back also remains a huge issue for the club, and while Kota Takai looks a promising prospect he doesn’t have the most settled environment in which to find his feet. Jesiel and Shintaro Kurumaya are both hugely injury-prone, and while Yuichi Maruyama is a fine player he will be 35 this June and is therefore not someone Oniki can look to rely on for the long term.

The overriding issue for Frontale seems to be that they have lost the fear factor.

During their purple patch, there was the same inevitability to Frontale games as there is with those of all champion teams: they knew, their opponents knew, and everyone watching knew that somehow, at some point, one of their stars would make a game-changing contribution to ensure they ended up with all three points. These days, the team does’t have that same aura.

That was perhaps most evident in the ridiculous 5-4 defeat at home to Jubilo Iwata on 1 March, but was just as clear as they went down 1-0 to Kyoto Sanga the following week, with Sanga fairly comfortable throughout and, a late VAR call aside, always looking like they had Frontale’s number.

That was also the case in Kawasaki’s last outing against Kashima. Frontale took the lead in that game against the run of play, but Kashima were aware that by shutting down Frontale’s passing triangles quickly and aggressively they could stop them gaining any forward traction, and Ranko Popovic’s side stayed calm to come from behind and ride out 2-1 winners.

Of course not everything is doom and gloom, and in Takai, Shin Yamada,  Sota Miura, Erison, and Ze Ricardo Kawasaki do have quality emerging, alongside the proven ability of Yasuto Wakizaka, Kento Tachibanada, and Akihiro Ienaga. It’s also still very early in the season and the openness of J1 means no team can ever be written off entirely.

Frontale have fallen some way from their recent heights though, and will be desperate to arrest their decline as soon as possible. Taking all three points from Saturday’s Tamagawa Clasico against FC Tokyo would be an excellent way to kickstart a recovery, but another defeat could mean things become increasingly uncomfortable for Oniki.