As you know, at last Friday’s press conference, Ange Postecoglou may have dismissed the rumours about Ryotaro Ito being Celtic’s next transfer target from the J-League, but what remains the case is that that Ryotaro Ito’s play is still attracting the interest football fans of Celtic supporters.
I have been watching Ryotaro Ito play for several years and in this article for The Celtic Star I’ll focus on his career, characteristics, style of play, stats, and analyse what he will bring to our team if he joins Celtic.
In addition, my article I must make it very clear for newspaper journalists reading and lifting my content that I only refer to factual information, and not anything based on rumours which the source is not clear. And while my previous articles have been mentioned as a source of newspaper reports in Scotland I can confirm that I have played no part in these stories appearing in newspapers in Scotland.
My article does not suggest any transfer of specific players currently playing moving to our team, and I’m not going to describe his characteristics as replacement for specific players already at Celtic. To the last, I will focus on Ryotaro Ito as one of the notable player in order to get good results for Celtic in next Champions League. If you watch his play on video platforms such as YouTube after you read my article, you can understand about him more. Then, let’s see him.
Ryotaro Ito was born on 6th February, 1998 and is 25 years old. He’s 175 cm tall and weighs 69 kg. He is right-footed. In 2016, he joined Urawa Red Diamonds at the age of 17 at the same time as he graduated from high school, and made his debut as CH on 26 April of the same year in J1-League.
Unfortunately, the team had many CH who had a lot of playing experience, so he played only one game in his first season as professional footballer. After that, he experienced playing 5 seasons until 2022 at FC Mito Hollyhock and Oita Trinita in J2-League, and gradually got opportunities to play.
In J2-League, he played in a total of 102 games and scored 22 goals. By the way, he played with Daizen Maeda at FC Mito Hollyhock in 2017 and with Tomoki Iwata at Oita Trinita in 2019. In 2022, he transferred to his current team Albirex Niigata (in J2-League at that time), and last year, the first year when he joined the team, he led the team to win the J2 league title as a key player of the team with 9 goals and 11 assists, and he was selected as the best Ⅺ in the league.
He continues to play at Albirex Niigata this season, scoring 6 goals in 12 games including hat trick, and do outstanding performances in all games as OH.
His positions after 2020 are as follows. The numbers indicate the number of games he played in each position.
・2023: OH(11)
・2022: OH(17), CH(3), LSH(9), RSH(1)
・2021: OH(2), LSH(9), CF(1)
In 2021, he had a experience of playing as CF, but in that game, there were many scenes that he received the ball outside the box, and he gradually got opportunities to play as OH.
In 2022, he played in multiple positions as midfielder, and he contributed to the team’s winning in most games, such as build-up from the defensive area, various passes from the middle range to the long range, chance making in the attacking area, and goals in important games.
And in this season, he has played as OH (role of No.10) in all 12 games so far and has outstanding performances. Albirex Niigata mainly uses the 4231 system (the team has No.10 position as CF), and he plays behind CF.
Please note: CF: centre forward (like Kyogo) CH: centre half( No.6 role like Cal and Iwata, defensive midfielder) OH: offensive half(No.10 role, midfielder who plays right behind centre forward) LSH: left side half(left winger like Daizen and Hakšabanović) RSH: Right side half (right winger like Jota and Abada).
Ryotaro Ito’s stats in 12 games this season are as follows.
・Average number of chance creations for each game: 3.3(1st place in J1-League)
・Goal: 6 (3rd place in J1-League)
・Assist: 2
・Average number of the pass in opposition’s field for each game: 31.5
・His score rate within total scores of the team: 46.7%
・Average number of shots for each game: 2.1
・Scoring rate of shots: 24.0 %
・Average number of the long rage passes for each game: 3.5
・Long pass success rate: 66.7%
・Tackle success rate: 75.0%
As you can see from these stats, his remarkable feature is the high quality of play in the attack area, and he can make many goals and chances as OH.
I didn’t focus much on stats of his defense, but his average mileage per game is 11.5 km, and his dedicated and effective running is impressive. One of his characteristics, which we can’t know just by looking at these stats, is that when he receives the ball from CH or defender, he can play a role in switching on attack immediately.
He is also good at positioning like Reo Hatate, and he’s good at receiving the ball in a position where it’s difficult for opponent’s defenders to deal with.
And he has a broad perspective, so he can quickly judge the situation on the pitch. In addition, he is a clever player who can always play flexibility according to opponent’s movements. He can do several passes from short range to long range and can make creative passes, so there are many cases that opponent’s defender can’t stop his ball.
Also, dribbling after receiving the ball is very skillful. Many players think about transition to the next play after receiving the ball, but he always thinks about transition to the next play before receiving the ball, so his movements after receiving the ball is very fast.
Looking at his play while focusing on his positioning before receiving the ball, his body orientation when receiving the ball, and his ball control in the following video, we can understand his characteristics more. It is same as Reo Hatate’s strong point that Ito tends to receive the ball in the direction and position of his body, which is easy to move to the next movement, rather than standing in a position where it is easy to play immediately after receiving the ball like many players.
This is also really secret, but I’ll introduce only one more 25y/o MF/FW Ryotaro Ito to you🤐 Ange may have already checked him, but I hope other league scouts haven’t discovered tremendous talent yet. This is a video of him playing the game a week ago. Watch it secretly🤫 pic.twitter.com/YfTW9Mf8Ok
— Yatao (@yataoda4) March 6, 2023
Also, we can understand that his kick is very accurate if you watch the highlight of this game that he scored a hat-trick, including a free kick.
HAT-TRICK of Ryotaro Ito in today’s game v Avispa Fukuoka🔥 He scored 2 goals in additional time…superb! https://t.co/WwQp8mthOa pic.twitter.com/HDSBNPe7tA
— Yatao (@yataoda4) April 15, 2023
Celtic mainly uses 433, but it basically does not have No. 10 position that Ryotaro Ito is good at. We have great talents such as Daisen Maeda and Jota etc. as wingers, so there were many cases that we used tactics centered on side attacks especially during the period when Reo Hatate could not play.
However, as a result of the opponent’s team sometimes grasping our tactics and thoroughly containing our side’s forwards, our attack did not work well, and as a result of the opponent’s team pressed on us in the midfield from the our defensive area, we were deprived of the ball to them.
If we continue to work on solving these problems while continuing to use formations and tactics we mainly use this season, I don’t think it’s very likely that Ryotaro Ito will fit our team, but if Ange tries new formations (including role of No.10) and tactics (do not stick to wide attack) for next Champions League, Ito can play an effective role for our team.
For example, Ito is the first to notice the movement of centre forward and can make accurate pass, so the number of times Kyogo receives the ball from midfield may increase, which may have the effect of further increasing his scoring opportunities. This season, it was a problem for our team that there were few opportunities that midfielder reacted to Kyogo’s off-the-ball movements and make effective pass.
Ange tends to spend about three years to bring a team closer to completion, so I guess there is a possibility that Ange will take on new challenges in order for his Celtic team to be more successful next season.
Please understand that this is just my insight.
Finally, the latest interview in the Japanese media released in May was interesting, so I’ll share a part of it on The Celtic Star for the Celtic supporters to read.
Interviewer: You’ve been playing in J1-League since this season, right? Do you have any characteristic guidance from your manager?
Ito: “I play as No.10, but I’m not only asked to score goals, but also a lot from my manager about build up. It is required not only to play near the box, but also to carry the ball to the attacking area while contributing firmly to build up from the rear.”
Interviewer: Do you have a experience of being obsessed with football by watching your favorite player’s play?
Ito: “I used to like Ronaldinho very much. It was my custom to watch his play video once a day. In particular, I watched collection of his play countless times. My current play is definitely inspired by him.”
Interviewer: Have you ever imitated Ronaldinho’s techniques such as Elástico?
Ito: “Yes. I’m imitating his technique and watching their playing videos with a lot of focus on foot skills of other Brazilian players.”
Interviewer: Please tell me about your long-term career plan in the future, such as playing abroad.
Ito: “I’ve been dreaming of playing abroad since childhood. Of course, it’s now too.”
Interviewer: Leaving aside which league you will actually transfer to, which league do you particularly like?
Ito: “It’s La Liga.”
Interviewer: Does that mean that football style that uses a lot of passes, which is a feature of the league, is attractive to you?
Ito: “Yes.”
Interviewer: Man City also has an attractive football style like that, but is La Liga more attractive for you?
Ito: “Man City is certainly a team that is characterised by that one, but I think one of factors of their strength include their high physical ability. I think La Liga’s teams have more tactical style than them, so I admire the league’s football style more.”
As mentioned above, this is only his answer about his favourite football style and style of play, so it does not determine the team he will play in the future. He is currently 25 years old, and I guess he’s in the phase of further maturing his play as OH in his career. Therefore, it cannot be denied that he may choose to play abroad if he has offers from European teams.
In any case, I only wish for happiness of him. If you are interested in his play, I recommend that you watch it once on DAZN or YouTube.
Here is what Ange was asked at his press conference last Friday about Ryotaro Ito and how he responded to the question from a Scottish journalist.
Question: In terms of recruitment you have been linked with Ryotaro Ito, I don’t know how much you can talk about specific players but in general where are you in terms of recruitment and bringing in new players with regards to next season?
Ange Postecoglou: “They have gone early with the stabs in the dark, haven’t they? Look, we are doing our work and people are trying to identify where we are trying to earmark for next season. It’s fair to say that if they are taking punts now they are well, well, well off the mark. Without talking about specific guys, they are well off.”
Yatao
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Ange we need players who have the bottle to go into challenges not jump out of the road and we have a good few players that are scared i noticed that a few times especially on Saturday against the scumhuns we need players that are strong and dont get bullied…