Akutsu’s advice to Ashito is to watch tape of his teammates rather than his opponents is interesting. Since naturally you would want to study your opponents. The reason is clearly because unlike the first years, Ashito isn’t in sync will the other members on Esperion. So understanding their habits when working together is more important than diving deep into film on Aomori Seiran.
The first part of Fukuda’s plan has subbing Asari and Shimura for Baba and Asari. This pushes Togashi and Yamada in the midfield. This is an interesting plan from Fukuda. Well we know that Yamada is an offense-driven fullback, so moving him to the midfield is logical. There is the question of why move Togashi when Akutsu played there when Yoshitsune was injured. Well it all goes back to how much Fukuda prioritizes the development of his youth players. Sure Akutsu has shown to play well in the midfield, but let’s give Togashi a chance to showcase his skills.
Togashi really thrived in this opportunity. One of the key aspects of why it works is that along with his big body is Togashi’s technique. When they were on the first team it was Togashi that added Ashito into getting the fundamentals of soccer down. The aspect more so why Fukuda choosed Togashi is the improvements he made with Ashito. A big defender getting the ball as the lone striker. While his vision isn’t as good as Ashito it has improved enough when you consider two defenders have to come to him he can easily find the open man. Which really showcases that despite how rough it was for Togashi being on the A team he really found himself.
Meanwhile the impact from Shimura is felt quickly. This is the first we’ve seen him play in this manga, but here we can feel his confidence. We see his ability to recover quickly as a defender is an invaluable asset. Thus even if the first years make a mistake he is there to back them up. Which is invaluable to maintain their confidence.
Ashito finding Yuuma was only possible because of Akutsu because he did not play with him as much as the other first years. He can pick up his tendencies and deliver a perfect assist to him to end the value. We are seeing the building blocks of Ashito becoming a great playmaker.
