Although there was a small degree of
controversy over Oita Trinita’s winning goal, as Lucas appeared to be felled in
the build-up, the real reasons behind Gamba Osaka’s defeat on Saturday were
entirely predictable following Bare’s sudden departure in midweek. Just as in
the game against JEF United Chiba the previous weekend, Gamba blatantly lacked
a focal point to their forward play, and even though two changes at the break
did help them raise their tempo a little, the team still struggled to create
many real clear-cut chances. Unused to the scenes unfolding before them, the
home supporters angrily called on the manager to change things, but with a
bench full of inexperienced youngsters, there was no obvious solution. If this
were Football Manager, it was the kind of match you would want to reboot and
try again until you happened upon a formation and line-up that actually did the
trick.
The combination of Bare and Lucas had
ultimately less than six months to develop and was still far from perfect, but
with promising signs being shown of late, the mid-season timing of Bare’s
decision to leave has not helped Gamba at all. Both players had started each of
the 18 league games up to and including the JEF United match, combining to
score 16 goals between them, and of the six goals contributed to this total by
Lucas, four had come in the eight matches since Yokohama F Marinos were Gamba’s
opponents on matchday 12. Lucas was the newcomer at the start of the season,
but in the absence of his striking partner and fellow countryman, he will now
be forced to play a more pivotal role in the attack.
The close season this year saw an unusually
high number of personnel changes for Gamba, meaning that moulding the side
together would be an issue from the outset, but the need to compensate for the
loss of Bare presents an altogether unexpected and unwanted problem. Masato
Yamazaki may have saved his team at the death in Chiba, but his record of just
five goals in five years as a professional will not suggest to his manager that
he should be the one to lead the line, and indeed he was back on the bench
against Oita. Shoki Hirai, who was brought into the starting line up for this
game, has only 97 minutes of league experience to call upon even if you count the
45 he gained before his withdrawal on Saturday. Injuries, illnesses, and
Olympic duties have meant that Gamba have had to rely on their young players
more than Akira Nishino will probably have hoped to this year, and while the
success of the youth system should be a great source of pride for the club, the
manager’s decisions in the coming days will be extremely important as Gamba
continue to battle for honours in the league and Asian Champions League.
For an attacking team with a generally
quite stable roster, Gamba have seen a surprisingly high turnover of striking
personnel over the last few years, which has given Nishino a degree of
experience in this market. Four of the forwards (Araujo, Masashi Oguro, Kohta
Yoshihara, and Masanobu Matsunami) all left the side after contributing to a
record of 82 goals and a title success in 2005, but the addition of Magno Alves
and Ryuji Bando to the ranks saw Gamba record an almost identical total – 80
goals – the following year. Even when Fernandinho then left for Shimizu S-Pulse,
Bare was brought in from Ventforet Kofu, and came second in the league’s
scoring charts with 20 goals in his first season in 2007. Nishino has proven
himself in the past to be adept at selecting Brazilian strikers with J League
experience, but with an unusual struggle for goals added to the existing
problems of formation and getting the best out of this year’s new additions, it
is vital that he makes the right choice on this occasion as well.
With a transfer to Al-Ahli of the United
Arab Emirates set to be confirmed, Bare will become the second Gamba player
after Magno Alves (now with Al-Ittihad in Saudi Arabia) to be lured by the
finances of the Middle East. It is easier for supporters to accept when players
leave clearly for the sake of their careers, such as when Oguro went to Europe
and Araujo returned to Brazil, but it is rather more nonplussing when their
destinations do not represent an obvious step up from the J League. Japanese
football may not be blessed with riches that can attract world-class players as
was the case 15 years ago, and as the contrasting attitudes of Cristiano
Ronaldo and his English teammates at Manchester United display, it is perhaps
harder for a player to develop deep loyalty to a club outside of his home
country. However, with Gamba receiving offers from two French Ligue 1 clubs
last summer, Bare was certainly not without more competitive options, and this
trend we are beginning to see is somewhat disappointing.