Sports Mole previews Saturday’s J1 League clash between Albirex Niigata and Sagan Tosu, including predictions, team news and possible lineups.
Albirex Niigata and Sagan Tosu will be looking to move away from the J1 League relegation zone when they square off on Saturday.
These two teams sit in 14th and 17th position in the standings, separated by just the five points.
Match preview
There had been a time when Albirex Niigata looked likely to be involved in a scrap to avoid relegation, a consequence of seven defeats coming during an 11-match period.
However, Rikizo Matsuhashi deserves huge credit for being able to instigate a turnaround at the Denka Big Swan Stadium, moving his side away from the bottom three.
A total of nine points have been accumulated from their most recent five encounters, one of the their two wins coming away at leaders Machida Zelvia.
While Matsuhashi may have hoped for better than three successive draws and a narrow 1-0 victory at bottom-of-the-table Consadole Sapparo which have followed, keeping their points tally ticking over has been the most important thing.
That clean sheet at the latter also ended a run of 11 games without a shutout, and the foundations have been laid to try to ensure that they can focus their attention on finishing in mid-table, rather than having concerns over a battle to retain their top-flight status.
Sagan Tosu are far more concentrated on the latter having lost five of their last seven outings in the Japanese top flight.
Over an extended period, collecting 16 points from 13 games is not necessarily a bad return for a team that has spent the campaign in the bottom half, yet Kenta Kawai will know that he needs extra from his Sagan side.
In their defence, though, their last two successes – including in their most recent contest – have come with clean sheets, with 12th-placed Yokohama F. Marinos being defeated on July 3.
Seven points have been accumulated from a possible 18 on their travels since the end of April, indicating that they are capable of overcoming their most consistent hosts on Saturday.
Albirex Niigata J1 League form:
Sagan Tosu J1 League form:
Team News
Yuto Horigome should retain his spot in the Albirex Niigata side having come through another 65 minutes on his comeback to the squad last time out.
Jin Okumura may also be replaced by Yuji Ono in attack, but Matsuhashi is not expected to overly tinker with his starting lineup.
After Taisei Inoue was withdrawn during the first half against Yokohama F. Marinos, Katsunori Ueebisu could be restored at left-back.
Depending on the recovery from the three-day turnaround, Kawai may be prepared to select the remainder of the side that prevailed on Wednesday.
Albirex Niigata possible starting lineup:
Abe; Fujiwara, Fitzgerald, Inamura, Horigome; Matsuda, Shimada, Akiyama, Komi; Okumura, Taniguchi
Sagan Tosu possible starting lineup:
Park; Harada, Yamazaki, Kimura, Ueebisu; Kawahara, Kikuchi; Togashi, Hino, Yokoyama; Ryan
We say: Albirex Niigata 1-1 Sagan Tosu
Given the desire to move away from the bottom three, both teams will be eager to collect maximum points. However, there is also value in simply avoiding defeat, and a low-scoring draw playing out would not surprise us.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.