Sanfrecce Hiroshima will play their 14th consecutive season in the top flight this season, a stretch that has included three league titles, three cup finals and five trips to the AFC Champions League. But can they rise back to those great heights in 2022 after a tough season of mediocrity?

Last season

Sanfrecce spent most of the 2021 MEIJI YASUDA J1 LEAGUE season in the middle of the table. They were ninth in goals scored, 10th in goals conceded, and ninth in goal difference. They probably deserved to be a couple spots higher than their 11th-place finish in the table, but they were a mid-table side through and through.

Key additions

The Viola haven’t made many moves this winter but they do have some exciting recent additions. Tsukasa Shiotani, a three-time league winner in his last spell with Sanfrecce, came in towards the end of last season and having him for a full year should help the defense remain better organized.

Two dynamic JFA/J.League Special License Players are now in the first team between midfielder Taishi Semba and forward Makoto Mitsuta. Both players have arrived from Ryutsu Keizai University and were previously U-18 players for the club.

The biggest addition, however, is arguably new manager Michael Skibbe. The German has extensive experience in his native country, managing several Bundesliga clubs, including Borussia Dortmund, Bayer Leverkusen, Eintracht Frankfurt, and Hertha BSC. Skibbe brings an enormously impressive CV to Hiroshima — and the Viola faithful hope league success will follow.

Key departures

Part of the reason Sanfrecce haven’t had to make many signings is they’ve had so few departures. The team from last season is largely intact, with Rhayner the only major loss, leaving a gap in the center of the midfield (and on corner kicks…)

Goal for 2022

Teams that find themselves in the middle of the pack often struggle with consistency, but that wasn’t the case for Sanfrecce, who were extremely reliable - just reliably mediocre. Only one team had more draws than the Hiroshima side’s 13 and it’s tough to compete among the best when you’re drawing over a third of your matches.

Sanfrecce’s goal for 2022 will surely be to break well into the top half of the table, particularly if Skibbe can turn some of those draws into wins. With more disciplined defensive performances, more inspired playmaking from the young Shunki Higashi and the iconic Toshihiro Aoyama, and more clinical finishing from a vastly experienced attacking core including Júnior Santos, Douglas Vieira, and Yuya Asano, anything is possible.

What to watch for

Sanfrecce are not short on finishers, with Santos and Vieira both proving themselves capable up front after scoring seven and six goals, respectively, last season. Their issue stems more from a lack of midfield dynamism.

Sho Inagaki and Takuya Wada have left the club in the last few years, for example, and now Rhayner has departed this winter back to Brazil. Sanfrecce need to get a little more from their midfield to protect the back line and feed their Brazilian duo up front. Whether that’s from Skibbe better setting up the team to control the center of the pitch or making another big signing, there is clearly a need for a spark in the middle of the park.