Sideways Sammy

With such an eye-catching style of play with his ability to turn defenders inside and out, there has always been the risk with Tatsuhiro Sakamoto that he’d become something a one-trick pony. The Japanese winger has now shown over a period of 18 months that he keep defenders guessing and has an end product to his game. To have remained a such a valuable attacking contributor after recovering from a nasty injury that ended his first season at the club prematurely, is especially impressive for Sakamoto.

While it is true that Tatsuhiro Sakamoto has probably been less effective this season than he was last, that is partially down to the winger having enjoyed the almightiest of hot streaks in front of goal prior to that big injury. At one point, Sakamoto had scored six goals in seven league games, having previously scored only once since in the nearly two years since he’d arrived in Europe. Sakamoto isn’t a natural goal threat, doing his best work in teasing defenders out wide to open up space for crosses, with his scoring rate this season a better reflection of that than the hot streak. Additionally, teams seem wiser to his tendency to repeatedly change direction to open up space out wide but Sakamoto can still thrill with that unexpected extra turn.

Although it looked for a brief period last year like Tatsuhiro Sakamoto could be one of the team’s very best attacking players, he has settled into a role as someone who can chip in with contributions at a reasonable rate. Furthermore, Sakamoto is pretty much the team’s only viable option on the right wing and has perhaps been over-used this season when he has looked off-form or fatigued. Some proper competition in his position may help Sakamoto become more impactful more consistently, but he has shown this season that he is still someone who can contribute in attack even when he’s not at his peak level of form.