Kodai Tanaka – Massive Upgrade?

So it’s been confirmed. After weeks of rumours, the club announced that Christmas did bring us the marquee signing we had been hoping for – Kodai Tanaka, Albirex top-scorer, and reigning SPL Player of the Year.

I don’t think you need stats to tell you how good a signing this could be for the Sailors, but for those who didn’t watch him much this season, I hope this article will help you find out what you can expect from him next season.

Positions played

If you just looked at the number of goals he scored, you would be convinced that Kodai was a pure striker. 33 goals in the league, and a further 6 in the Singapore Cup, from 33 games – that is some tally. But he’s not just a pure striker. For those who watched Albirex games, he was quite often deployed on the left wing, so that either Ilhan Fandi or Tadanari Lee could play as the central striker.

You will see that he spent about 41% of the time starting on the left wing. This versatility may be good for us moving forward. Imagine him and Song interchanging positions between central striker and left wing, or between central striker and false 9 – a truly tantalising prospect.

Shooting

Now we take a look at his shooting statistics – perhaps the most important for strikers.

39 goals from 33 games (in all competitions) takes him to a very impressive average of 1.18 goals per game. This is more than league top-scorer Boris Kopitovic, who had 41 goals in 36 games (in all competitions), and thus clocks in an average of 1.14 goals per game. Encouragingly for the Sailors, it is almost double the 0.63 goals per game contributed by Kim Shin-Wook.

When we take a deeper look at the statistics, you will also see that only 3 of his goals are penalties, whereas Boris scored 8 from the spot (including 1 miss). It gets better when you see that he has got 39 goals from an xG of 26. He has comfortably outperformed his xG, and we Sailors fans will be hoping this is not a one-off.

If you look at Shin-Wook’s xG of 28, and his total goal tally of 22, it somewhat confirms the eye-test that our top-scorer this season should perhaps have scored more goals. He did miss some sitters this season, none more memorable than the one against the Young Lions.

Given that LCS created the most chances this season in the league, the hope is that the addition of Kodai Tanaka will lead to more goals. Take a look at his shot map below, and Sailors fans, I implore you to imagine what a “fox-in-the-box” like Kodai will do with the service from Maxime, Diego, Hami and Shawal.

Assists and Chance Creation

If you look at the chart below, you will see that Kodai is going to be much more involved in team play than Shin-Wook was. Perhaps the statistics may be slightly skewed by the fact that Kodai played left-wing quite a bit, but his total of 10 assists is pretty tasty considering he already has 39 goals. This shows that he is not just a one-dimensional striker.

He also compares favourably to Shin-Wook and Boris when it comes to his passing figures – in fact he makes quite a lot more key passes compared to both of them.

Without the use of stats, I think Sailors fans will also feel that the addition of someone more mobile to our frontline may suit us more. Throughout the season, there have always been complaints about Shin-Wook’s lack of mobility. Many Sailors fans have also wondered what it would be like if Song was used up top more than Shin-Wook – given that Song was the spearhead of our attack when we famously beat Daegu FC in our maiden AFC Champions League campaign. Perhaps now we will get to see what this looks like for us.

Teamwork/Pressing

In the modern game, pressing/defending usually starts from the front, and looking at these stats, it is pretty encouraging to see that Kodai pretty much outstrips both Boris and Shin-Wook when it comes to ball recoveries – especially the “ball recoveries in opponent’s half” stat. There is no better place to win the ball than in your opponent’s half.

He also puts in the tackles and goes into many aerial challenges, and that is exactly what fans want to see. Hopefully this increased mobility and pressing from the front will lead to even more chances for the Sailors next season.

Conclusion

I don’t think I need to elaborate much after showing you all the statistics – Kodai looks like he will be a brilliant signing. There’s something also to be said about his resilience, because he played every league game. If he stays fit, this will be a top, top signing.

The other side of the coin of course, is that Albirex also lose their top-scorer. Given that they also lose Ilhan Fandi for next year, Albirex must hope that they manage to find someone just as dynamic as Kodai for next season (sadly I wouldn’t bet against them unearthing another gem from Japan). They surely cannot pin all their hopes on the ageing Tadanari Lee. Not only have we strengthened our ranks – we have weakened our title rivals.

To end off, I will just comment on this IG Stories post by Zia-Ul Raushan, who likens Kodai’s arrival to that of Robin van Persie leaving Arsenal for Manchester United, and propelling them to the title all those years ago. This echos Kodai’s comments in his first interview for us, where he said that he wants to be league champion with LCS, and also win the Golden Boot. I think I speak for all Sailors fans when I say, I hope Raushan and Kodai are both right!

WELCOME KODAI! はじめまして!

(Written by Eddy, with stats taken from football.instatscout.com)

Photo taken from lioncitysailorsfc.sg