A special edition of the Road to the World Cup series — Hajime Moriyasu's Japan national team tactic, a possession-and-counter 3-4-3 built from the JFA's 'Japan's Way' philosophy and Japanese footballing culture.
Welcome to a special part of FM Blog's twelve-part series, 'Football Heritage — FM Blog's Road to the World Cup'. In this article, I will be going through Japan, including their World Cup history, their football culture, and their current tactics. I hope you enjoy!
Japan
This summer, Japan are competing in their eighth consecutive World Cup campaign — coincidentally, it is also their eighth World Cup in the nation's history. Japan have been continually progressing further and further over the past decade in particular, with back-to-back Round of 16 finishes in the previous two World Cups reflecting the nation's greatest performance in the world's best tournament. However, in North America this time around, they will be dreaming of going deeper than ever before!
Japanese football is strongly characterised by core, cultural values, such as teamwork/selflessness, immense discipline, and playing into the hands of the passionate, onlooking fans. These are key components of the recently erected 'Japan's Way' philosophy released and promoted by the Japanese Football Association — this philosophy includes a target to win the World Cup by 2050 through structured youth development, high technical standards, and elite coaching. Japan's football philosophy, as part of 'Japan's Way', is headlined by the following ideas:
- Creativity and hard work
- Offensive and defensive initiative
- Continuous play, transition between attack and defence
- Unafraid of change — always evolving
- Duel — quick transition
- Ability to play under any system
Hajime Moriyasu is the man leading Japan to potentially new heights this summer, and it's his second World Cup in charge of the national team. His system is a nice blend of a short-passing-based, possession game and a classic, counter-attacking approach. From an initial 3-4-3 formation, his Japan side will regularly build up play from deep, dropping many players deep to create numerical advantages in-possession. As they progress up the pitch, the team will use a range of quick, short passes to quickly circulate possession.
This style can often lead to some beautifully smooth moves emerging, with fantastic team-goals becoming a normality. In the opposition's half, Japan will form a flexible 3-2-5/3-1-6 shape, with one of the double pivot often moving higher. Finally, without the ball, Moriyasu's side will tend to drop into a compact, 5-2-3/5-4-1 mid-block, with an emphasis on closing down central players and forcing play wide.
Let's Break Down the Tactic
In Possession
Here, I combined the nation's key, cultural values ('Shots From Distance: Discourage', 'Dribble Less') with core components of the JFA's 'Japan's Way' philosophy ('Mentality: Positive', 'Be More Expressive') and Hajime Moriyasu's tactical ideology.
Out of Possession
Here, again, I combined the nation's key, cultural values with core components of the JFA's 'Japan's Way' philosophy, and Hajime Moriyasu's tactical ideology. The principles behind dropping into a compact block that closes central lanes and forces play wide are unpacked in our FM26 pressing principles guide.
Opposition Instructions
Player Roles
Ball-Playing Goalkeeper | Sweeper Keeper
I chose this role as it aligns with 'Japan's Way', which pledges that attacks must start from the goalkeeper. Additionally, in this system, the 'keeper will hold onto the ball for prolonged periods to draw the opposition higher — hence the 'Dribble More' instruction being applied.
(DCR) Wide Centre-Back | Centre-Back
Both wide centre-backs, in this system, will tend to push higher once the team reach the opposition's half — this allows Japan to consistently keep the ball in the opposition's half and pin the opposition into their own half. Both wide centre-backs will often break the lines, whilst also tending to go long into the channels for attackers or wing-backs to chase. Finally, without the ball, both wide centre-backs will zonally mark the half-spaces on their respective sides; in this case, this centre-back marks the following, specific position: 'AMCL'.
Ball-Playing Centre-Back | Centre-Back
Like both wide centre-backs, the central centre-back will often break the lines with deep, progressive passes. However, unlike those two centre-backs, this player will usually pass shorter and retain possession.
(DCL) Wide Centre-Back | Centre-Back
The only differences between Ito and the right-sided centre-back are that Ito will typically drift even wider, into a traditional left-back position, and Ito will tend to carry the ball forward more often. In Ito's case, I added the 'Mark Specific Position' of: 'AMCR'.
Wing-Back | Full-Back
Both wing-backs, in this system, will hold the width for the team. However, from here, Doan on the right will tend to take on his man and cut inside onto his favoured left foot. Both wing-backs, when the team doesn't have the ball, will tend to close down the opposition's wide players.
Advanced Wing-Back | Full-Back
On the left-side, Nagatomo will do the same as Doan when he has the ball at his feet. However, in build-up, Nagatomo will tend to push much higher than Doan on the opposite side to create space for Ito to move into below him.
Box-to-Box Midfielder | Central Midfielder
Of the two defensive midfielders in Japan's double-pivot, the right-sided midfielder will usually be the midfielder to push up to help form the side's 3-1-5-1 in-possession shape. I added the 'Make More Runs' instruction to add more attacking thrust to the role, whilst adding the 'Roam from Position' role to add more fluidity to the team's midfield. Finally, both midfielders will tend to aggressively close down the opposition's midfielders to force play wide or backwards.
The way this double pivot dovetails — one pushing on, one dropping in — is a neat example of complementary pairings, which our FM26 role synergy guide covers in detail.
Deep-Lying Playmaker | Central Midfielder
The left-sided midfielder, on the other hand, will tend to drop deeper and, sometimes, into the backline to help create deep, numerical advantages in build-up. Additionally, he will tend to drop into the backline to take up Ito's original, left-sided centre-back position if the defender vacates his position to move wider. However, he will also push higher up the pitch after releasing the ball short.
Winger | Winger
The right-winger, in this system, will start wider initially before drifting slightly narrower. However, he is able to roam from his position and, as such, he may situationally rotate with Doan beneath him by moving wide, whilst the right wing-back moves inside. I added the 'Run Wide with Ball' instruction to encourage these situational rotations, whilst adding the 'Dribble More' and 'Take More Risks' instructions to add more attacking and creative thrust to his role.
Attacking Midfielder | Winger
The left-winger/'10', on the other hand, will begin narrower before drifting wide to supplement the side's emphasis on wide overloads. Additionally, this player will often make runs in-behind to exploit the space behind Ueda's situational, dropping movements towards the ball.
Target Forward | Centre Forward
Ueda, in this system, will lead the line and push the opposition's defence deeper before quickly dropping off the frontline to receive the ball. As part of this, he will roam from his position to do so in particularly advantageous positions in alignment with the game's current situation. Upon receiving the ball, Ueda will often play the risky ball in-behind or may even have a pop from distance. Without the ball, Ueda will rarely close down the opposition, opting to close central passing lanes.
Results
FIFA World Cup 2026: Finalists
Conclusion
Thank you very much for reading this special part of this twelve-part series: Football Heritage — FM Blog's Road to the World Cup. I hope you have enjoyed this style of writing and content. If you want a taste of this symbolic tactic, make sure to download the tactic using the link attached to this article and make sure to follow FM Blog (@fmbIog) and myself (@AshtonGgmu) on our respective socials. I hope you have enjoyed this article, and I wish you much success with this tactic on your saves! Thanks for reading!
