Ayase Ueda does a lot with little, and it principally comes down to his strength + movement.
His back-to-goal play when he’s receiving to feet is really good. He gets low (very low), grounds himself and is able to simultaneously swivel and push his man away in order to turn → shoot. If he’s receiving up the pitch in this manner, he’s quite likely to generate a shot for himself, and that’s invaluable.
His arm is also quite strong when shielding, and he’s developed a tendency to get it under his marker, therefore making it harder for them to dodge his contact and get at the ball, which generally gives Ueda more time to look for solutions.
Ueda also likes to look for runners beyond him when he’s holding off contact from the back, and as such is really good at flicking the ball on as well as searching for give-and-gos. This’ll sync well with a 10 or a midfielder who likes crashing the box.
I do think he can improve a bit when receiving as an outlet from goal kicks, for example. He sometimes misjudges when his marker will make contact, and therefore becomes fairly easy to push over. To avoid this, he stays quite stiff, which then comes at the cost of the speed with which he can turn, so he often has to turn the long (wrong) way around to get a pass off.
That said, if he initiates contact, he can sort of act as a battering ram, pushing his marker away to try and get onto the ball after one bounce. I still think he can mitigate the effects of this fairly well if he times his expectation of contact well, given how well he can push off, but on the whole, I’d say his hold-up play from static positions could be slightly better.
The same can be said of his aerial ability. When he’s trying to head the ball from goal kicks, he jumps slightly too early, which gives his marker that bit more time to jump over him and nod the ball away.
In the box, when running onto crosses, though, his headers are fantastic. He makes contact with them frequently, primarily at the back post, and is strong when pushing his man away to create separation before getting onto the header.
This comes down to a general theme of movement. Ueda’s movement and instincts in the box are better than most. When running onto the ball, he splits the CBs well and generally likes to make diagonal runs into and across the box, from where he’s comfortable taking it around the goalkeeper.
He’s generally a nuisance (huge compliment) and quite fidgety/slippery in the box, making him pretty hard to track. He likes splitting the CBs, as previously mentioned, before allowing them to run beyond him, at which point he accelerates well, bends his run and is comfortable attacking the near post.
All of this culminates in him being a magnet for rebounds, and as such, his movement gets him into positions from where he can score a lot of first-time goals. I actually really like how often he’s able to get on the end of them, and this frees up other players to shoot from range more often, given that if the shot doesn’t go in, there’s a fairly decent chance Ueda will get onto the rebound anyhow.
Ueda’s comfortable shooting with either foot, but naturally prefers shooting with his right (39/61 of his footed shots came from his right foot in the Eredivisie last season). I do think he triggers his shots faster on his left, though.
You can attribute this to him being an instinctive finisher, and given he gets less time to think when on his left foot, he sorta just lets rip, and I quite like that.
He slices his shot fairly often, and this falls into him seeming generally heavy. You can attribute this to a lower-body-strength-based game, but I worry that the goals he’ll score from running in behind will reduce in more compact/physical leagues.
Ueda also falls off balance quite frequently when shooting, which isn’t great considering the power he loses in that moment, but perhaps it’s just testament to how good he is at holding people off until the moment he shoots. Anyhow, improving on this would only increase his conversion rate.
Considering that Ueda is a box-dominant striker, he’s fairly limited outside of it. I think that’s just something you have to know when you buy him, but even if he does improve, his movement is just so good that you’d ideally not want him to mess about and channel his inner De Bruyne.
His movement post receive → lay-off is quite good, though, so this should indirectly help his side create by generally being more direct.
To conclude, inside the box, Ueda is really, really good. He’s very touch-efficient, and his movement, as well as his ability to score first time with his foot and head, means he won’t be limiting the creators by way of variety of service. He could benefit from being more assertive from time to time when calling for the ball, though.
have a few qualms regarding scalability, especially considering the defensive intensity of leagues like the Premier League, but he did pretty well for Japan vs Brazil too, and that’s a fairly decent marker. Plus, he’s been used as a pressing trigger and he presses quite intensely, so he ticks that box too.
He’s best used as a poacher and will do especially well with a No. 10 in close proximity. He’ll also benefit from playing in a possession-based, high-press side, though his self-sufficiency gives him a decent floor anyhow. I’m a tad wary of his record vs better teams, but I think you can characterise him as a reliable striker with a good floor whose best work comes in and around the box.
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Chelsea have been fined £10million ($13.4m) and given a suspended transfer ban following an investigation into 74 alleged breaches of the English Football Association’s regulations.
The west London side were also initially hit with a suspended six-point deduction by an independent regulatory commission, which handed out the punishments, before this was overturned on appeal.
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Jordan Henderson: coming soon. 🔜
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