Takehiro Tomiyasu: Arsenals attack-building defender could prove useful at centre-back
Mikel Arteta will be making more use of his squad very soon. Arsenal play Champions League football for the first time since March 2017 next Wednesday and will have midweek games at least eight times over the remainder of this year.
Takehiro Tomiyasu could be one of the main beneficiaries, with the 24-year-old one of the Arsenal manager’s versatile defensive options. Having been signed as a right-back, the Japan international has been used across the back line in his two years at the club.
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Tomiyasu’s ability to pass off both feet and open up the pitch stood out in his 2021-22 debut season. In the May of that campaign, Arteta said: “It gives you a lot of solutions, not only because from right-back he can use both feet, but he can play right centre-back, left centre-back and left-back. That gives you enormous variability and it’s the way he has been coached from a really young age, that’s what he says — so for him, left and right is the same.”
When Jurrien Timber suffered his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) knee injury on the opening weekend of this season last month, Tomiyasu was drafted in at left-back but Oleksandr Zinchenko’s subsequent return to fitness has seen him back on the bench after serving a suspension for two yellow cards in the second Premier League fixture away at Crystal Palace.
Even so, Tomiyasu has been quietly building momentum as Arsenal’s Champions League return beckons.
He has filled in at left-back as needed for the better part of a year, but it has often been to provide defensive solidity — a right-footed, 6ft 2in (187cm) defender against tricky left-footed wingers such as Mohamed Salah — with less emphasis on moving up into midfield from there as Zinchenko does.
Yet Tomiyasu gave one of his most convincing in-possession performances in that position after he was brought on for the Ukraine international at left-back after 76 minutes against Manchester United. Within minutes, he was pushing into central areas to create better passing angles for his team-mates.
It started with the move below, where United block Arsenal’s route up their right wing, so Tomiyasu starts to move inside:
As Ben White sets the ball to Declan Rice, Tomiyasu is taking up that central position:
Rice passes back to William Saliba, which attracts the attention of United’s forwards, and the French centre-back punches a ball up to Tomiyasu in space:
It may seem like a simple piece of movement, but it helps Arsenal keep the ball (and opposition) moving as well as open up space for themselves in other areas of the pitch.
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Tomiyasu also popped up in the left half-space to receive passes as Arsenal tried to break Erik ten Hag’s side down.
He has continued to impress on international duty with Japan in the meantime.
The national team routinely play Tomiyasu as a left-sided centre-back and that is where he won player of the match for last Saturday’s 4-1 away win over Germany, as voted by supporters. He was also brought on for the final 10 minutes immediately after Japan went 4-2 up against Turkey three days later, but it was against Germany where his quality stood out.
Tomiyasu is asked to pass short in tight spaces by Japan head coach Hajime Moriyasu (and by Arteta).
In the fourth minute against Germany, he finds Wataru Endo (Japan’s deepest midfielder) but the Liverpool man lays the ball straight back to Keisuke Osako in goal with Germany pressing high:
Tomiyasu’s reaction is positive, back-pedalling to give Osako a better angle to play out, but the goalkeeper’s pass went to where the defender was initially standing and was intercepted by Leroy Sane:
That did not deter Tomiyasu or his team-mates, however, and they became more fluid as the game in Wolfsburg progressed.
By the end of the first half, the passing angles they created allowed them to cut through Germany’s press.
Below, a nice triangle between Kaoru Mitoma, Hiroki Ito and Tomiyasu sees the latter receive the ball in a decent amount of space:
Tomiyasu then shows great presence of mind and technique to shape to hit a pass out wide, but reverse it to instead go up the pitch and find striker Ayase Ueda:
That ball from Tomiyasu to Ueda happened repeatedly throughout the game and gave Japan a platform to build on. They also provided a glimpse into two other aspects of the Arsenal man’s performance: the importance of his longer passes, and his two-footedness.
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Japan’s first two goals came from Tomiyasu switching play.
The first, for Junya Ito’s opener, was the most impressive as the defender sped forward to intercept the ball deep in German territory, then opened his body to play a wedged cross-field ball to Daichi Kamada:
This angle gives a better view of the technique behind the pass:
Kamada, who hardly needed to move, played in overlapping right-back Yukinari Sugawara and his cross was poked home by Ito.
Their second goal, which made it 2-1, was slightly different but similar in its route, starting with another Tomiyasu switch of play. This one, however, came when Japan were in possession and he stepped forward to find Ito with a floated left-footed ball over the top:
Ito, Kamada and Sugawara combined again on the right before the right-back crossed into the box and Ito’s shot was directed past Marc-Andre ter Stegen by Ueda.
Tomiyasu did not play the ‘decisive’ pass in these moves above, but what he did do was start Japan’s attacks.
More attention will, of course, be paid to his defending, which he also did particularly well against Germany.
When used as a full-back at Arsenal, Tomiyasu’s style has been built on patience and timing. He has often been at his best when he gets his body between man and ball because his tall frame is hard for wingers to get around, which allows him to either see the ball out of play or make a pass. When he has needed to be more front-footed in a tackle, he has been.
At centre-back, with Japan playing a high line, he naturally had more opportunity to show his recovery pace.
The first instance came against club team-mate Kai Havertz, when Antonio Rudiger floated a ball in behind the right side of Japan’s defence:
Tomiyasu tracked Havertz’s run until the time came to challenge with a 50-50 shoulder barge before safely knocking the ball out for a throw-in:
He had to make a similar defensive run later in the half against the quicker Sane, whose first touch pushed the ball into open space. Tomiyasu was watching Havertz again but quickly decided to go with Sane:
As the Bayern Munich forward takes his last touch before shooting, Tomiyasu is still a good distance from him but picking up speed as Sane slows down to set himself:
Fully committed to the chase, Tomiyasu’s decision pays off as he makes up the remaining ground and blocks Sane’s shot to send the ball behind for a corner:
While Arsenal fielding last season’s back four (White, Saliba, Gabriel Magalhaes and Zinchenko) against Manchester United was encouraging, Tomiyasu’s recent performances will be too. He was showing signs of being a promising option in possession at left-back during pre-season and appears to have maintained that confidence despite his harsh sending-off at Palace.
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He is a more than capable right-back (more reserved than White but still useful in deep combinations), has no issue playing centre-back and is evolving as a left-back.
A Champions League group of PSV Eindhoven, Sevilla and Lens will be demanding for Arsenal, so the momentum Tomiyasu has found in the past few weeks should bode well for those occasions when he is needed.
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