I will break this down by position and then I will offer my thoughts on a projected starting 11. Please keep in mind that each player is being discussed in the light of his possible role in Higuchi’s preferred 4-2-3-1 lineup selection. Higuchi never wavered once over the course of last season when choosing a formation so there is no reason to believe he will change to say a 3-5-3, or anything else for that matter, for 2020.

Goalkeepers (4)

#1 Dany Carvajal: FC Ryukyu’s first choice at GK in 2019. Dany made some spectacular saves during the 2019 campaign. It was a shame Dany wasn’t able to close out the season since he ultimately required surgery to repair a high ankle sprain he suffered against Yokohama in June. Dany should have a much better set up in front of him this year which should cut down on a lot of the goals that were conceded in 2019. Dany’s health will be the major issue to begin 2020 as he will still be rehabbing from surgery this past December. This team will need his services very soon as they will be relying on several untested goal keepers to start the season.

#17 Keisuke Masuda: A member of the club since 2016, Keisuke has rarely featured for the club. I believe he has 8 appearances overall since 2016 with a majority of those (5) occurring in 2017. Likely to feature only if there are several injuries ahead of him.

#26 Kosuke Inose: Kosuke joined FC Ryukyu last season and should be considered a long-term prospect for the club. He did feature once last season, against Mito Hollyhock when Dany was out injured and back up keeper, Ishii, couldn’t play due to loan regulations from his parent club Mito. Ryukyu lost 3-1 but Inose at least earned some match day experience against a very tough opponent.

#26 Junto Taguchi: The goal keeper with the most match experience behind Dany (21 matches for Fujieda MYFC while on loan from Yokohama F Marinos). Signed from Albirex Niigata, Taguchi will look to push into the starting 11 with Dany out to start the season and secure the role of second choice keeper for FC Ryukyu.

The club’s signings this off-season indicate that they have full faith in Dany as their first-choice keeper for 2020. However, the competition for the #2 choice behind Dany is wide open between the 3 backups and someone will need to assert themselves as the first choice keeper for the first 3-4 weeks of the 2020 season.

Defenders (8)

#2 Yuya Torikai RB: Signed in the 2019 summer transfer window from Renofa Yamaguchi, Torikai stepped right in and provided a veteran presence that the back line was lacking. At the time of his signing, FC Ryukyu were dealing with a bevy of injuries to the back 4 as well as loaning out Masutani to Okayama. Torikai’s play looked solid early on and he can create his fair share of chances in the attack. What is more impressive is ability to track back and defend which is what the side needs more of this year. He suffered a rather nasty ligament injury to end the 2019 season and his rehab will see him miss the start of the 2020 season. He returned to FC Ryukyu after spending the last five and half season with Renofa Yamaguchi.

#3 Ryoji Fukui CB/FB: Fukui proved to be a good signing for the club in 2019 because he is versatile enough to play all 4 defensive positions in Higuchi’s lineup, which is exactly what he did all last year. Fukui has plenty of experience but that never really translated into stopping the bleeding at the back in 2019. He often gets a lot of criticism for his poor play from some pundits out there but he should reprise his role as the first-choice defender off the bench for Higuchi in 2020. Has died his hair blonde and was nearly unrecognizable. Maybe this signals a new way of playing as well.

#4 Ryohei Okazaki CB: Signed from Shonan Bellmare in 2019, Okazaki became Higuchi’s first choice CB for the entire season. Okazaki only missed games due to suspensions from yellow card accumulation which is a credit to his fitness. This was his first season in which he featured as a starter and I hope that experience translates over to better play in 2020. He is likely to be paired with Lee Yong Jick at CB to begin 2020.

#5 Felipe Tavares RB: Tavares joins FC Ryukyu from Brazilian club, Sociedade Esportiva do Gama. Tavares is a relatively unknown commodity as there is not much out there that I can find for this player. I believe he had some loan spells or tryouts with some JFL clubs in the past but nothing that can be verified. He has some decent height on him and hopefully has a bit of a nasty streak as I’d like to see our defenders put in a better performance for 2020. He will most likely start at RB to begin 2020 if he earns the trust of Higuchi during camp.

#9 Lee Yong Jick CB: Signed from Tokyo Verdy this off season, the North Korean national team player will look to sure up a rather shaky back line. Most have said this has been FC Ryukyu’s best signing this season and I pray that it is true. First, outside of Shinji Ono, Lee is the only internationally capped player on the side. Second, Lee’s height makes him a weapon on set pieces indicated by his 4 goals as a defender last year. To provide some context, those 4 goals are close to the total amount of goals scored by all FC Ryukyu defenders last season.

#14 Keigo Numata LB: Signed from Zweigen Kanazawa this winter, Numata will look to fill the void of departed LB, Shuhei Tokumoto. Tokumoto and Numata are similar types of players but Tokumoto has the advantage of youth. Numata’s presence will add much to the FC Ryukyu attack as he can score goals and provide service in the form of crosses to the attacking players. Numata has loads of experience and has played abroad during his career. His signing indicates a strong push by the club to add experience over potential/prospects to the Ryukyu back line.

#15 Tetsuya Chinen FB: Youth signing, will most likely not feature for the club this season barring numerous injuries to the back 4.

#24 Daisei Suzuki CB: On loan from Tokushima Vortis, he may push one of the starting CBs for playing time but will most likely serve as a backup to Okazaki and Yong Jick.

Defense was a major area of concern heading into 2020 and that was before Tokumoto departed for Okayama. I think the club has done well to respond to that criticism and hopefully that translates into far fewer goals conceded in 2020.

Midfielders (12)

#6 Koki Kazama CDM: Koki featured heavily in the FC Ryukyu lineup last season, that was, until he lost his starting role with the additions of Shinji Ono and his brother Koya. Koki continued to make spot starts and substitution appearances the remainder of the way and is probably best known for his free kicks. He hit an absolute cracker last season and narrowly missed a second when it deflected off the crossbar. Higuchi mainly swapped Shinji and Koki for the other every match and it will be interesting to see if that is the case in 2020.

#7 Shinji Ono MF: Signed from Consadole Sapporo in the 2019 summer transfer window, Shinji brings massive name brand recognition to FC Ryukyu. He also brought a calming veteran presence to a side that was in the midst of their worst run of form all season. Though the 40 year old, I believe now 41, didn’t score for the club last year, his contributions cannot be underestimated. It is anyone’s guess how Shinji will be employed this season. He featured in more of CMF role next to Uesato where it seemed he was directing the attacking players while trying to unlock the opposition’s defense with some surgical passing. There is no doubt that Shinji is a quality player but the reality is that he may not be at a fitness level to play a full 90 minutes each week. In fact, he would either start and retire at half time or come on late with about 25-30 minutes remaining in any match so this is what should be expected in 2020.

#8 Koya Kazama LM/CMF: Signed from FC Gifu in the 2020 winter transfer window, Koya came to the club on loan from FC Gifu this past summer. His presence in the starting 11, along with Shinji Ono’s, really helped turn the club around at its lowest point last season. Koya is quality J2 veteran who still has a lot to offer. He played out wide to the right and pushed Keita Tanaka to the bench for the remainder of 2019. When paired with Torikai, the two made a very nice combination down the right side of the FC Ryukyu attack. I am not sure if he is better suited inside, playing directly behind the FWD/Striker, or is better out wide. He will be in direct competition with Keita Tanaka, Shunsuke Motegi and Kazuki Yamaguchi for a place in the starting 11.

#10 Yu Tomidokoro LM: Mr. Ryukyu. A mainstay at the club for well over 7 seasons he is a fan favorite and free kick specialist. He began the 2019 campaign starting at the LM position but picked up an early ankle/foot sprain that saw him miss some time (think it was around 4-5 weeks). He returned to the lineup but could never find that rich vein of form he had in 2018 from the FK spot. In fact, Uesato took many more FKs than Yu which was a bit disappointing. Yu did stroke a FK home in an important home match to give FC Ryukyu the victory mid-season but was ultimately replaced by the ascending Shuto Kawai. Similar to most of our MF players, Yu has serious competition for a starting position as well as a spot in the reserves each week.

#11 Keita Tanaka LM: Tanaka returned to FC Ryukyu in 2019 after spending 2 seasons at Mito Hollyhock. Keita was a lethal finisher for FC Ryukyu prior to his departure where he netted 22 goals in 2 seasons. Things looked very bright for Keita to start 2019 when he opened his scoring account on a beautifully taken shot against Omiya Ardija on the road. However, that would be Tanaka’s only goal of 2019. He eventually lost his starting position and was never able to claw back into the lineup, outside of a rare substitution appearance. There has been quite a lot of chatter this off-season concerning Tanaka and it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him start out very hot this season and possibly regain a role in the starting 11.

#13 Shuto Kawai LM: Outside of Uejo’s meteoric rise, no other player was more exciting to watch develop into a top player than Kawai. He jumped off the screen with his speed in his initial debut but you could see he had a way to go when it came to maintaining body and ball control at that high rate of speed. He disappeared for a while and we were a left wondering about his whereabouts. However, he made a triumphant return to the lineup and asserted himself as a member of the starting 11. Kawai has the ability to round defenders with his speed and stretch the opponents defense therefore opening up shooting lanes for the other attacking players. Kawai can also provide excellent crosses in addition to finishing. His goal to level the match away to Kyoto last season was a well taken shot from about 25 yards out. I would very much like to see Kawai start the season at LM as I think he has a much stronger supporting cast around him this season. I fear that if he is too good, FC Ryukyu may lose him in the transfer window.

#18 Kazuki Yamaguchi MF/FWD: Signed from Shonan Bellmare, Yamaguchi is a bit of an unknown commodity. He is around 5’0” tall so one has to assume he serious amounts of speed. I don’t think he featured that often for Bellmare last season and I am not sure of his role in the club this year. He will need some match day experience to unlock his potential and at 24, he is probably a mid term prospect for the club. I could be wrong in my assessment though.

#20 Kazumasa Uesato CDM: Uesato joined FC Ryukyu last season from Roasso Kumamoto. Uesato brings loads of experience to FC Ryukyu and that is why he was voted team captain in 2019, and again in 2020. Uesato scored some spectacular goals last year with the standout one being against Tokyo Verdy. Deep into extra time he stroked home a deflected shot on the volley to level the match. Uesato also took his fair share of dead ball free kicks last season but I can only recall one of them actually going in. To his credit, Uesato rarely, if possibly ever, missed any time last season. I cannot recall him missing time due to injury so it would have had to come through suspension for yellow cards.

#23 Ren Ikeda MF: A college prospect that was signed this off-season. He is a developmental player with loads of talented players ahead of him the lineup. Looked sharp in the limited practice time I witnessed but I wouldn’t expect much from Ren in 2020.

#25 Lee Ji Song MF: Another college prospect, Lee was signed from a Korean University this off season. A name to follow for the future but very difficult to see him cracking the starting 11 in 2020.

#27 Shunsuke Motegi RM/LM: An extremely talented player that FC Ryukyu were able to lure away from Mito Hollyhock. Known for his crossing prowess, Motegi seems to fit the RM/LM role that Higuchi wants from his attacking players. At 24 years old, it was also quite a steal for the club. I am very excited to see how he is deployed as well as what he brings to the attack this season.

#28 Yoshiho Kazumi MF: Kazumi is a very talented prospect for this club. He featured a few times for FC Ryukyu last season and flashed a lot of the tools that make up a quality footballer. He looked really impressive against Tokyo Verdy in a limited appearance but was never fully able to crack the starting 11. He held his own and featured with so many talented players last season so it will be interesting to see if he can get any meaningful playing time in order to fully develop.

FC Ryukyu are blessed with so many talented players in the midfield that Higuchi will likely face a lineup crisis each week.

Forwards (3)

#16 Takuma Abe FWD: Signed from Vegalta Sendai, Abe is coming to FC Ryukyu in the twilight stages of his career. That is not to say he has nothing to offer, on the contrary, I think that Abe could end up being this team’s leading scorer in 2020 with a tally around 14-16 goals. He has loads of experience playing at high levels of competition here in Japan as well as abroad in Germany and South Korea. Abe hasn’t reached double digit goals since 2012 but he will have ample opportunity here in Okinawa as there are only 2 other players vying for the starting striker position.

#19 Takuya Hitomi FWD: A college prospect and therefore no real threat for playing time barring an injury to Abe or Uehara.

#21 Shinya Uehara FWD: Uehara came to FC Ryukyu via Ehime FC last season. He must have been dealing with some sort of injury all season as he never made an impact until late last season. But those were some massive contributions. Uehara has a knack for burying headers and scoring goals at some of the most crucial moments of games and point sin the season. He was also versatile enough to start at RB when Torikai and Nishioka were out injured. He is one of the local players from Okinawa to feature for FC Ryukyu thus making him a huge fan favorite. Both Abe and Uehara are around the same age with each offering a different element to the FC Ryukyu attack. If he doesn’t start, I could envision him coming on later in matches to give a distinct height advantage to FC Ryukyu on set pieces and corner kicks when he lines up with Lee Yong Jick, Okazaki and Tavares.

It seems strange that FC Ryukyu are only rostering 3 strikers, 2 with any real J League experience, considering they rostered 6 last season.

Projected Starting 11

Reserves: GK Inose DF Fukui MF Tanaka Koki Kazama Yu Tomidokoro Yamaguchi FWD Uehara

Final Thoughts

Well there you have it. FC Ryukyu’s squad for 2020 (27) is smaller compared to last year where they rostered 35. Maybe this is due to a larger wage bill for some newly acquired players or they are leaving open the possibility of players joining on loan/signing near the close of the winter window.

It seems odd that FC Ryukyu really only have 2 proven strikers/forwards to start the 2020 season but that is probably because some of the MFs maybe able to take over that role in times of crisis/contingency. Where FC Ryukyu isn’t lacking any depth is in the MF. They are loaded to the hilt and it will likely cost some of are younger players a chance at developing. But it sure will be exciting to watch these veterans ply their trade craft each week. We all know that competition brings out the best in players so each of them will need to prove themselves every practice and every match day.

The next installment to start the 2020 season will be to take a quick glance at the FC Ryukyu 2020 schedule. Until then, I’ll see you later.