Saori Takarada is an intriguing 23-year-old player who has just signed a pre-contract with Leicester City from Linkoping. She will join the WSL side in January, with the Damallsvenskan season having finished.
Saori has played in both central defence and midfield for the Swedish side this season. She has also made 21 appearances for the Japanese national team, having played predominantly in defence.
This tactical analysis will provide an analysis of why Saori Takarada is such an exciting signing for the Foxes. In this scout report, we will take a look at some important aspects of her role within her previous team’s tactics, her strengths and areas for improvement for the new signing.
In possession
In the 2023 Damallsvenskan, Saori played predominantly as a central midfielder, with her playing 26 of her 27 games in the midfield, often as a deeper midfielder. However, she also demonstrated the ability to play as a central defender in four of her 27 appearances in 2023, playing multiple positions in several games. Interestingly enough, all her appearances for the Japanese national side have come in the backline as a central defender, often on the right side of the defence.
Above is a diagram detailing Saori’s role within the Linkoping side. You can see clearly how she is asked to play a significant role in ball progression for the side, with her completing, on average, 49.8 passes per game. Of those 49.8 passes, 18.6 of them are played forwards, which is 37.6% of the time, and only 14.3% of the time is she playing passes backwards. This all goes to show Saori’s ability to receive the ball and play positive penetrating passes to break through opposition defences; this can be seen well by the diagram above. The other side to this is that in the midfield, she demonstrates a high level of ability to be in space to receive the ball from her teammates, often between the lines, via off-the-ball movement.
It is also interesting to note that despite Saori having a significant role in progressing the ball from deep, she has a much lesser role in terms of chance creation, often sitting deeper and offering more defensive stability for the side. In 2023, she averaged only 8.35 passes completed into the final third per game and 0.9 passes into the box per game. As such, she averaged only 0.06 xA per game.
In the above situation, Saori has her back to goal in space to receive the ball from her defenders. First, you notice that she scans over her left and right shoulders in the one second leading up to her receiving the ball. Then, after her first touch, she takes another look over her left shoulder. This enables her to make an accurate, quick decision and as such, she turns to her right and can face forward with time and space to play a right-footed ball over the top for teammate Cornelia Kapocs, who is able to finish off one-on-one with the goalkeeper.
In this example, Saori is playing as a left-sided central defender instead of a central midfielder. She receives the ball from her goalkeeper, who rolls it out to her during the build-up. Saori opens up her body with her first two touches, gets the ball out of her feet onto her left foot and unleashes a fantastically struck left-footed, with her supposed weak foot, long ball for teammate Nellie Karlsson to run onto and get in behind the opposition defence. This example really demonstrates the quality Saori has to progress the ball with either foot from deep in central defence.
The above examples just go to show how Saori can support attacks when the team has possession. The first thing you will note is how she is positioned deep behind the ball. In this example, she is playing as a left-sided central defender. She is the safety option as Linkoping creates their wide diamonds in the attack. However, what makes Saori so effective in this position is her ability to play positive passes with both feet. As here, what she’s going to do is cut inside onto her left foot and play a ball into centre forward Cathinka Tandberg. This ability to create a different angle with her ability in possession makes her a real asset in this part of the field.
Out of possession
Saori also plays a significant role on the defensive side of the ball with her ability to cover large areas of space and make regular and effective defensive interventions. Her speed off the ball enables her to cover these spaces successfully and match her opponents for speed. In 2023, she averaged 15.1 ball recoveries per game, including 6.46 interceptions per game.
The diagram above shows how Saori can win the ball back across the field. Two things to notice from the diagram are the fact that her defensive territory is slightly lopsided towards the left side; this is due to her playing a significant amount of time as a left-sided central midfielder, in a midfield two or a left-sided centre back in a back three for Linkoping’s side. The other thing to note is that the territory is not high and extends deep towards her own box. This is important as it shows that her primary role is not to get high and tight to opponents in a high-pressing system but instead to sit back and screen the backline for most of the time.
In this above example, Linkoping is sat back into their mid-block shape. You will notice that Saori’s start position is within the back line, actually playing in the most advanced position within that back line. It is interesting to note that the left-back is playing deeper than the rest of the back line as this keeps the winger on side and enables the midfielder to play a huge diagonal switch over the top of the defence. Then, as the ball is played out wide, Saori covers the ground well and can pick up a good position towards the edge of the box, alerting any cutback ball from the opposition. She constantly scanned over both shoulders to see if there were any threats around her.
In this example, Linkoping has just given the ball away with most of the players in advanced positions. They could be left exposed at the back. However, Takarada’s understanding of her responsibilities is very clear here. Her first point of call is to make sure to block the passing lane to the midfielder as best she can and try to force the opponent to play a ball over the top of her, giving her side some time to get back into defensive shape. Then, as that ball is played over her, she diligently follows the midfielder’s run diligently. While this is going on, the wide centre-back for Linkoping is standing off and not diving in looking to slow down the counterattack for the opposition. This allows Saori to get back and put pressure on the ball, and she is able to force a poorly rushed ball from her opponent, and Linkoping wins back possession.
Strengths
Saori’s strengths are her ability to progress the ball, particularly in build-up play and her ability to progress the ball with high-quality distribution. Her ability to be in space regularly in order to carry out this ball progression is the most impressive aspect of her game, with her periodically being in significant amounts of space and providing good angles to receive the ball from teammates.
In the above example, Linkoping wins the ball back in midfield. As soon as the ball is won back, Saori is looking to be in a position to receive the ball in space. She takes one quick look over her left shoulder onto the left side before the ball is played into her and then again as the ball is coming towards her. This allows her to make a quick decision on the ball by taking one touch with her left foot and then playing a dangerous through ball breaking for her teammate to run onto, breaking the defensive line in the meantime.
Another of Saori’s significant strengths is her understanding of the defensive side of the game and her commitment to filling in and covering for teammates defensively. This aspect of her game is particularly noticeable when the side is in transition, with her showing reasonable work rate and speed to get back into position and help prevent danger from occurring.
In this above situation, a long ball is flicked on by the opposition. Saori is tight to the defender, but the ball goes to the defender’s side, so her opponent has leverage on Saori. Saori holds her ground and doesn’t dive in where she could get rolled, and then she leaves her side completely exposed at the back, being the deepest defender at the time. Instead, she tracks the run out into the wide channel, delaying the attack and enabling her teammates to get back and behind the ball. In the wide channel, she is able to force the opponent into playing a poor cross into the box, which is easily dealt with by the Linkoping side.
Areas for Improvement
Although Saori has several great strengths that can make her a real asset to a side in both attack and defence, she does have some areas she could improve. A major one of these is her ability to create goalscoring chances for teammates on a more regular basis. With her only averaging 0.05 xA per game, she has demonstrated, on a number of occasions, the ability to play smart weighted passes to teammates that can unlock a defence and create dangerous goalscoring chances from midfield.
In this above example, you see Saori pick up a really positive attacking position on the edge of the box as the opposition sits back in their low block. From here, the most impressive thing Saori does is she gives herself time by manipulating the defender by faking a left-footed shot. This forces the defender to come out to her and try to block the shot. Saori is then able to transfer the ball to her right foot, play a disguised pass to her teammate, and put the ball into a dangerous position. With this much quality on the ball, she is capable of being more productive at this end of the field, particularly if deployed in midfield.
A further area that Saori could develop is her confidence to drive forward on the ball. This would get her into more dangerous positions where she could create goalscoring chances for her teammates. As this diagram above shows, she has the quality to make penetrating carries, with her making 49 into the penalty area throughout the 2023 campaign; however, this means she is averaging 1.8 per game. Considering how much she gets off the ball for the Linkoping side, this number could be higher and would enable her to create different angles, which in turn creates more passing lanes for her to progress the ball and create.
How will she fit in at Leicester City?
Now we can look at how she might fit in at Leicester City following her January move. Stylistically, Linkoping’s side played a possession-dominant style of football, averaging 56.9% possession per game. Comparatively, Leicester have averaged lower than this, with just 48.1% possession per game.
However, this number has risen from just 44.5% possession per game in 2022/23. This follows an overall trend with the Leicester side and a movement towards a more possession style of football. Unlike Leicester, Linkoping can dominate the ball in Damallsvenskan against lesser sides, with them being one of the leading sides in the division. Leicester will still struggle to dominate the ball against teams with more quality, such as Chelsea and Arsenal, where they averaged 41% and 45%, respectively.
The formations used by both sides are similar, with Linkoping favouring a 3-4-2-1 or 3-4-3 formation throughout the season. Although Leicester have deployed a 4-2-3-1 several times this season, they have favoured a 3-4-3 shape in recent weeks. In terms of how Saori might fit in, having played most of her football in midfield for Linkoping in central midfield, often on the left side, she could well be deployed there and asked to sit in the two-player midfield. However, we would suggest she is more destined to play as a right-sided central defender in the back three.
This is the position we believe she has more high-end potential. Her ability to progress the ball from deep, being her most significant strength, would enable her to execute these qualities to good effect. Then, additionally, on the defensive side, playing as a central defender, she would be asked to cover the wide channels, and with her high levels of mobility, she would be able to do that as well.
Above is an example of the shape Leicester have looked to play to use in the build-up this season. Creating a makeshift back four with the goalkeeper stepping up and the two other central defenders playing wide. The two central midfielders then act as pivots looking to receive the ball with their backs to goal.
This picture is fifteen seconds from the previous image. Here, you can see how the pivot drops to receive the ball with her back to goal from the goalkeeper.
Now, both these examples give us an idea of how Saori could be utilised. As a central defender, she could either play as the left or possibly best suited to playing as the right centre-back, where she can play penetrating forward passes to progress Leicester in possession. Alternatively, as a central midfielder with her ability to scan regularly and make quick decisions, this could enable Leicester to have a strong link between defence and midfield as she is able to turn and play forward balls from there instead.
Conclusion
Saori Takarada is a fascinating signing from the Damallsvenskan league, as she can play midfield or defence. This gives her real versatility, making her a real asset to the Leicester side. A player who already has international experience for Japan at the age of 23, she will provide quality to one of the most improved sides in the WSL in 2023/24 while also having time on her side to grow into an even more formidable player.
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