Nagoya Grampus: Creativity and aggression in attack allow strong start to the 2023 J1 League season – scout report

Once upon a time, Gary Lineker donned the colours of Nagoya Grampus – in fact, the Japanese side was his final club before the former Barcelona striker hung up his boots. In the year followed that followed Lineker’s departure, a Frenchman by the name of Arséne Wenger took over as manager – this was in 1995, almost two years before he moved to the Premier League to join Arsenal.

Nagoya’s fortunes have been mixed in the years since, but they have made a fantastic start to the J1 league, sitting in third after 14 games, inserting themselves as early title contenders. Manager Kenta Hasegawa is getting deserved credit for his side’s impressive early form, and there is the possibility of delivering the club’s first league title since 2010. This scout report will provide a tactical analysis of Nagoya’s tactics this season, with the analysis highlighting some of the key elements that have allowed for such a strong start to the season.

Formations

As the image above tells us, Hasegawa has displayed no interest in playing four at the back, spending most of this season in the shape of a 3-4-3 which looks to utilise the full width of the pitch with the wing-backs and wingers looking to combine in dangerous areas. They’re no strangers to altering the width in their shape, though, as evidenced by their tendency to play a 3-4-2-1, where you would expect to see the wide forwards link up with the centre forward more often. They’ve also utilised the 3-4-1-2 and 3-5-2, both very similar formations with the added central presence in attacking areas.

Varying levels of press

For the most part, Nagoya have avoided settling for one method when out of possession this season, which has resulted in us seeing them defend at different intensities and in different areas. As we will discuss shortly, they are far from a pressing machine, but they do occasionally incorporate a higher presence to try and disturb the opponents’ possession – they also experience some positional issues in certain areas.