GW482 - Myanmar vs Japan Preview - Final (Patreon)

Intro

Japan take on Myanmar this GW in a World Cup qualifier on Thursday.

Will be a hard lineup to predict as Japan have already qualified for the next round and can experiment

Group Situation

Japan have won all 4 games easily so far with 4 clean sheets too. They have two games left which are tomorrows and also vs Syria next Tuesday.

Predicted Lineup

• As they have already qualified, the suggestion is these two games will bring some experimentation with both players and formation used in game.

• There has been talk about trying out 3 at the back and have wingbacks including Soma used. Hint is this wont be from kickoff

• Ogawa and Suzuki also vying for starting spots up top. Ogawa in particular is seen as a viable alternative to Ueda.

• Zion Suzuki has started each of the last 8 Japan games in nets but is with the u23s in USA currently.

• All 3 keepers in the squad (Osako, Tani, Maekawa) have a chance to start. I thought Osako will start mainly as he was meant to play vs N.Korea before it got cancelled earlier this year. Some talk of Maekawa getting his first start in one of the 2 games.

• Nagatomo missed training so I am not including him. Theres also some concern about Itakura fitness levels with Machida seen as best alternative/upcoming CB.

SO5

Japan are huge favourites to win this game with odds of 1/100 or 99% implied probability. Clean sheet has a 78% chance too.

We have a bunch of friendly internationals this GW and some World Cup qualifiers too. Almost all are equally as hard to predict the lineups for.

We only have a All Star and Threshold open too. I have all 3 keepers in the Japan squad and will use them in varying teams. With strikers/midfields like Maeda and Minamino I will also use knowing that even if they are on the bench, they can can come on and do damage.

My general confidence in this predicted lineup (as you can probably tell from the %s used in the prediction) is low! However, this is often the case with dead rubber games like Japans and in these type of GWs we do need even more luck than normal :)

Japan have their final qualifier next GW against Syria at home. This game and lineup used/mins played by players will also give some indication of the next team the manager will use.