Football Season Guide

Oita had a solid, if not impressive, season in 2023. They finished 9th and only 5 points outside the play-off positions. However, Oita were the only team in the top half of the table with negative goal difference (54:56) and the inability to keep clean sheets resulted in many problems when it mattered most and against the top teams in the division. The mediocre last season led to coach Shimotaira being released in January and Oita’s manager for the start of the new season is the vastly experienced at J2 level Tomohiko Katanosaka. Winger Fujimoto and the versatile defender Ueebisu are the two main departures from the squad so far this winter. Yudai Fujiwara was loaned in to replace the latter while after suffering a season-ending injury early last year Taira Shigi should be back now and he is the regular starter on the wing anyway. It is yet to be seen how the new manager will use a squad pretty much built by his predecessor. It seems Katanosaka is happy with the players at his disposal and he’s ready to work with them.