Your thoughts on the match?
They scored when it counted and even though we did create chances, we couldn’t finish them off. I think that was what decided the result.

As in the recent two matches, the goal conceded today once again came from a diagonal pass.
I just had a chance to see the film and I could confirm that our line was out of shape. While it’s important not to let those balls get through, it’s also true that I should have closed down the space once the ball came in. There’s also the reaction of the other players to the second ball and a lot of other elements that overlapped on that goal that we need to think about.

How do you go about breaking down an opponent who plays with single man marking?
We’ve been stressing the importance of the third man making a run into the box. We want to play a ball in deep and then have players facing forward who provide support in the box. We wanted to create chances from there. With that said, we couldn’t create enough clear opportunities from those moves.

The match today was similar to the earlier one against Yamagata.
It was a tough match that could have gone either way. If we could have taken advantage of our opportunities, it could have gone on our way. We have to learn how to make it through those situations. We don’t want to become known as a team who can’t win if they concede a goal and we also need to change the mood hanging over the team right now.

In part due to the sort of players the team has, you didn’t ever seem poised to break them down from the sides. How do you think you can improve that?
Even if we can’t get past their defenders, we still need to at least put in a cross. It’s difficult right now. There are things we have to think about as a team and the wide players need to raise their quality.

You’ve gone from 10 matches undefeated to 3 losses in a row.
During the period where we didn’t lose, we were able to withstand the pressure in each game. Recently, however, we’ve been giving up the early goal and if we can improve our attack enough to overcome those situations, I think it will come together for us again. If we’re not strong enough on offense to come back after getting a goal, things are going to be difficult for us. We won’t be able to reach the next level. In J1, as well, the teams in the upper half of the table are capable of turning around matches from losing situations. I think that is the true sign of strength. There’s a lot we need to think about as a team.

What tasks were you given as you were sent on the pitch?
I was told to get on the end of as many crosses as possible.

In terms of position, you were playing as an inside half.
I had to think about finding the right balance with Carlos. I also noticed, watching the first half, that Uchi (Tatsuya Uchida) seemed to be having a hard time and Kaji (Ryota Kajikawa) seemed to be dropping back to maintain the balance. By contrast, I wanted to play in front of him at a diagonal. It was that effort to get between the lines that pushed me into that position.

You also acted as a target man on the front line several times.
Considering what the team needed in that situation, I thought the best thing would be to play without fear. I figured that on a losing streak, the players who continued to appear in games would unconsciously grow a bit conservative, so I wanted to spread the feeling of not worrying about mistakes through the whole team. The only other thing I needed was to get a goal… It might sound like an excuse, but I haven’t had a lot of playing time lately and that affected the feel of my headers and the timing of my runs onto crosses.

However, you did do well to get on the end of a pass behind from Uchida.
They were marking me fairly closely, but I didn’t think their center backs had much quality and felt that I could beat them. Uchi made a good pass and I regret that I elected to play it back across goal there. I should have had the attitude not to overthink and just blast it.

Considering that the team hasn’t achieved results lately, having fresh players like yourself will likely become more and more important.
I hadn’t made the bench in a while and so I played today on behalf of all the other players who are outside the squad. I think my play today will lead to chances for other players as well. I also think doing that is important in order to give the starters a shot in the arm. No matter what, my objective today was simply to provide inspiration to the team.

You also could be heard talking to the other players from the moment you took the pitch. Was the mood pretty deflated at that time?
Part of it was that we had conceded a very unlucky goal. That had led to everyone being conservative and so I tried to fire them up. After the last game as well, I took the young players like Inoue and Hatanaka out to eat. Even if you give good performances, a single loss can weigh you down emotionally. It’s important to think of each match on its own and shift your mindset to the next one. When I took the pitch, the mood was low and so I wanted to create an atmosphere that said “this is the point where we turn things around.

Do you feel like, overall, the team has lost confidence?
I felt that today and in the last match. Our performances haven’t been bad and yet mentally everyone is down, which seems a waste. We went ten matches without a loss and now we’ve had three straight, but it’s still only three matches, so it’s a shame to lose hope at this point. The manager also stressed, after the match, that it was important for us to play with confidence and I’d like to honor that as we go forward.

Your thoughts on the match?
We just couldn’t break them down.

In the first half, you saw less of the ball than usual.
That was the result of us trying to stretch them out wide. In the second half, I got the ball close to the front line and even though we still couldn’t break through. I was able to combine with the other players and get on the ball more. I wanted to do more of that.

Is your impression that it was a difficult despite the team doing what they set out to do?
Not at all. We’re not going to threaten their goal just by putting in simple crosses and if we don’t build some better moves, its’s going to be difficult for us.

How did you see your role at the close of the match, when the team inserted Yong-Jik Ri and tried to play long balls to him on the front line?
I concentrated the most on trying to pick up the second ball. We had some tall players enter in that same period, so I tried to get the ball out wide and then take advantage of our height in the box.

At the close of the match, the team tried a more simple approach by taking advantage of Lee Yong-Jick’s height.
For me individually, once Yong-Jik entered the match, I wanted to play lots of crosses into the box. I think I could have played even more.

You knew they relied on man marking in defense. How did you imagine that you would break them down from the side?
We didn’t have much time, then. It was less about breaking them down and more about playing direct balls into the box.

Today’s match was very similar to the earlier one against Yamagata.
They knew we would try to build by getting the ball to Doug (Douglas) and once they prevented us from doing that, we couldn’t build any good moves in attack. Once we saw that we couldn’t use Doug, we should have tried to build numerical advantages on the sides or run at them individually in defense.

The team seemed to struggle to win the second ball after it was played in to the front line.
As the match went on, our opponents reacted faster and we seemed to grow tired from the packed schedule.

After starting the season with ten matches undefeated, you’ve now suffered three losses in a row.
Our job remains the same. I believe that we will get the results eventually, so we just have to keep doing our best and play our game.