Saori Takarada 2023/24: How this exciting 23 y/o Japan int’l will elevate WSL Leicester City – scout report

Saori Takarada is an intriguing 23-year-old player who has just signed a pre-contract with Leicester City from Linkoping. She will join the WSL side in January, with the Damallsvenskan season having finished.

Saori has played in both central defence and midfield for the Swedish side this season. She has also made 21 appearances for the Japanese national team, having played predominantly in defence.

This tactical analysis will provide an analysis of why Saori Takarada is such an exciting signing for the Foxes. In this scout report, we will take a look at some important aspects of her role within her previous teams tactics, her strengths and areas for improvement for the new signing.

In possession

In the 2023 Damallsvenskan, Saori played predominantly as a central midfielder, with her playing 26 of her 27 games in the midfield, often as a deeper midfielder. However, she also demonstrated the ability to play as a central defender in four??of her 27 appearances in 2023, playing multiple positions in several games. Interestingly enough, all her appearances for the Japanese national side have come in the backline as a central defender, often on the right side of the defence.

Above is a diagram detailing Saoris role within the Linkoping side. You can see clearly how she is asked to play a significant role in ball progression for the side, with her completing, on average, 49.8 passes per game. Of those 49.8 passes, 18.6 of them are played forwards, which is 37.6% of the time, and only 14.3% of the time is she playing passes backwards. This all goes to show Saoris ability to receive the ball and play positive penetrating passes to break through opposition defences; this can be seen well by the diagram above. The other side to this is that in the midfield, she demonstrates a high level of ability to be in space to receive the ball from her teammates, often between the lines, via off-the-ball movement.

It is also interesting to note that despite Saori having a significant role in progressing the ball from deep, she has a much lesser role in terms of chance creation, often sitting deeper and offering more defensive stability for the side. In 2023, she averaged only 8.35 passes completed into the final third per game and 0.9 passes into the box per game. As such, she averaged only 0.06 xA per game.