Meiji Yasuda J1 League Round 11 match against Kawasaki Frontale: Post-match comments

"I would like to say to Kawasaki Frontale, 'Congratulations on the three points.'
We started well, creating chances early on, but then we conceded a very easy goal from a throw-in. After that, we created chances and a ball from (Nakajima) Shoya to (Tomoaki Okubo) resulted in a great goal.

At halftime, I told the players that we had a good chance of winning. However, we conceded a goal early in the second half and were forced to play catch-up again, which I think put a lot of stress on the players.
It's disappointing that we couldn't do better in this match. If we can create chances like we did today and remain calm in the final third, I think we can get results."

[Question-and-answer session]
(In the second half, the opponents started to eliminate Samuel Gustafson. How did you plan to overcome that?)
"If Samuel (Gustafsson) was eliminated, it would create more space for (Ito) Atsuki and (Yasui) Kaito. But I thought we could have done better in the build-up at the full-backs. I think it would have been good if we had more plays where we beat opponents one-on-one when we had the ball."

(The players are currently playing consecutive games, and for example, the two fullbacks don't seem to have the power to beat them one-on-one. There is another game in two days. Are you thinking about changing players or anything like that?)
"I think that's an extremely astute analysis. With the 90-minute game continuing, I think the players were playing a little tired today. However, with (Ohata) Ayumu on the Japan U-23 national team and (Sakai) Hiroki injured, we're playing without many options, but Ayumu will be back on Saturday, and I hope (Sakai) Hiroki can join us for practice next week."

[Urawa Reds Official Media (URD:OM)]