Arsenal: Takuma Asano World Cup cut certainly not the end

Arsenal’s perhaps-forgotten attacker Takuma Asano did not make the final cut of the Japanese World Cup team. End of the world? Not quite.

I was all set to raucously cheer on Japan in the World Cup, solely because I have believe in Takuma Asano, and Arsenal‘s minimal investment in him. I want Arsene Wenger’s Japanese connection to amount to something more than Ryo Miyaichi.

Asano boasts a ton of speed, technical ability, and has proven the ability to finish in leagues far from the major footballing spectrum, but as a young 22-year-old attacker, there is time for those skills to develop. One good World Cup campaign would do the trick.

Only he didn’t make the cut. The Japanese World Cup squad made the USMNT-esque decision of opting for veterans rather than the influx of youth that Asano would have been a part of.

Not going to lie, this was really disappointing. One good World Cup campaign can work wonders for anyone, even if it’s a group stage and done (which it likely would have been/still will be). If Asano chips in three goals in three games, all of a sudden we can seriously consider him a potential solution.

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We don’t have that luxury now, and it’s a bummer. But it’s not the end of the world. This doesn’t mean that he wasn’t good enough to make the Japanese team. They made a concerted effort to put veterans in, which excluded most young talents.

Asano will now have a full summer, his loans are over, he can get himself into the best shape he can possible be in and make a serious go of impressing new boss Unai Emery. It’s not that unreasonable to think that someone with the abilities of Asano can use a open summer to work into the first team spectrum.

After all, we need wingers – badly. And Asano has the speed and technical ability to be an option out wide, where he has been primarily spending his time.

I’m not saying we expect him to be a starter, but why can’t he earn a spot on the League Cup team, just to get into the peripherals of the first team? It’s absolutely possible even with this perceived ‘setback.’

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I’m still really excited about Asano. Even if you’re not. Speed like that makes up for a lot of deficiencies. Until we see what he can do, I’m not going to say he can’t do it.

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