Kaustubh Pandey explains why Bologna’s Takehiro Tomiyasu could be the next defender to move to North London after Cristian Romero’s move to Tottenham, with Spurs and Arsenal interested.
At some point, Takehiro Tomiyasu was always going to head to a bigger club. It might be Tottenham Hotspur or Arsenal, but there has always been a feeling that this player would go to a bigger club once his time at Bologna ended.
The 22-year-old often comes across as a silent professional and he takes no prisoners. His journey in the game has taken him to a fair few places already, as he went from being a teenager at Avispa Fukuoka to being a breakout star many miles away at Sint-Truidense in Belgium. In some ways, the 22-year-old versatile defender has become a hallmark of Bologna’s sound recruitment policy of hunting for talent in the lesser-known areas of the game.
Jerdy Schouten, Skov Olsen and Nicolas Dominguez are other examples of Bologna’s success in recruiting undervalued talent from across the world, but it is Tomiyasu’s rise that has captured the attention of many. After all, playing his trade in the passionate world of Calcio is entirely different from the serene footballing environment in Japan and after taking a while to adjust, the defender has come leaps and bounds under Sinisa Mihajlovic.
Back at Sint-Truidense, a club that almost has a culture of importing and exporting Japanese talent, Tomiyasu was a regular right-sided centre-back in a back three. His main job was to progress the ball into midfield, spark attacks from deep and play as a wide defender or a temporary right-back in an attacking position, but drop into a narrow role when Sint-Truidense were out of possession.
He became a regular for the Belgian club and when the €7m move to Stadio Renato Dall’Ara came about, it raised eyebrows as he was one of the few Japanese players to have stepped foot into Italian shores.
He became a regular for the Emilia-Romagna club right away, slotting at right-back into a backline with a set of technical defensive players. The club had lost able ballplayers like Erick Pulgar and Filip Helander and this took away the team’s general ability to play out from the back, dictate possession and territory and progress the ball up the field while keeping it on the ground.
Pulgar’s loss was the biggest, as the Chilean is widely considered a technical outlet that can set the tone for a possession-based approach.
With the weight of redefining Mihajlovic’s system on his shoulders, Tomiyasu had to come in and make an immediate impact. Instead of worsening, Bologna improved as a ball-playing unit. Tomiyasu played 5.37 progressive passes per 90 minutes in the 2019-20 season – the second-highest in the team. He also played 4.95 passes into the final third, second to only Andrea Poli.
Bologna went from having 45% average possession in the 2018-19 season to 52% in 2019-20, improving as a team that could hold its fort when dominating games.
In the 2019-20 season, he had a pressure success rate of 30% – second only to Mattia Bani on the Bologna side. He also excelled when it came to interceptions and blocks, coming across as a no-nonsense customer too.
He has often played as a traditional right-back too, showing enough technical ability to hold his own in Mihajlovic’s 4-2-3-1 shape. But his strength has always lied in helping progress the ball calmly, in a system that relies on wing-backs bombing forward and wingers operating in half-spaces.
Tomiyasu carried his performances on to the 2020-21 campaign and only the mercurial Roberto Soriano played more progressive passes than him in the Felsinei side. He also completed the third-highest number of carries in the side, emerging as one of the best defenders in Serie A in this regard.
There are times when left-back Mitchell Dijks is required to tuck inside to form a back three and that’s when Tomiyasu is demanded to move forward as more of a natural right-back. While doing that, he had two goals, finding the back of the net against Atalanta and Udinese.
It is a clear reflection of the fact that he’s no stranger to playing multiple roles. He’s also played at left-back in 2020-21 and back at Sint-Truidense, Tomiyasu was deployed as a defensive midfielder.
In many ways, this is a player who thrives on flexible tactical systems. He’s almost tailor-made for them because of his vast skill set, intelligence and strengths as a player. He brings an assuring presence to the plate, regularly showcasing himself as an honest competitor with a very composed head.
A move to North London will never faze Tomiyasu, whether at Tottenham or Arsenal. The Japan international is a player who’s already traversed the world at a young age and he’s adapted everywhere seamlessly.
Spurs under Nuno Santo can be expected to play in a system that relies quite heavily on a back three, but turns into a back four or a very wide back three in possession. The same goes for Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal. Although the Spaniard prefers a four-man defence, it happens to see the Gunners line up with a three-man backline and Tomiyasu would be a perfect fit for both approaches, as he’s played in a similar system already.
Any club that bags the Japanese star should be excited, but they must be quick if they want to sign the versatile defender. Bologna want €20m and, according to Il Corriere dello Sport, the Rossoblu won’t be listening to offers after August 20. It’s almost now or never, but unfortunately for Serie A, the Japanese could be the next promising defender to leave the Belpaese.