Kamatamare Sanuki were again defying all expectations as they sat safely in mid-table halfway through the J2 League 2025 campaign. The massive relegation favourites looked to be avoiding any concerns at the bottom of the table, and even had the playoffs in their sights on the back of an eight-game unbeaten streak.
The second half of the season began with fans’ (and manager’s) favourite Himan “He-Man” Manimoto bagging a hat-trick inside 25 minutes at 4th-place Okayama. Nao Eguchi scored a penalty before He-Man bagged his fourth to wrap up an incredible 5-1 victory.
That took Sanuki nine games unbeaten, but the streak ended with a bang as they got thumped 7-1 at Gunma, despite only giving up 13 shots. Rasamu was worried that humiliation would completely derail their form, which looked even more likely as they lost 3-2 at home to Sendai. But a Harumi Minamino brace rescued a point at bottom side Matsumoto and He-Man earned a point at Yamagata to at least stop the defeats.
Sanuki were now five games without a win, although they had only lost twice in the last 14, and another injury to appropriately-named goalkeeper Issei Ouchi didn’t help. However, 16-year-old youth academy product Dai Nakamura stepped up and performed well at home to Akita as Sanuki racked up 22 shots and 3.60 xG in a solid 3-1 victory led by the strikeforce of Minamino and He-Man. Nakamura celebrated his 17th birthday a few days later and excelled again next time out as Sanuki upset the odds to earn a 1-1 at Chiba, who were relegated from J1 last season.
Tactical Gamble Fuels Playoff Push
Rasamu was keen to flex his tactical nous and had been busy drawing up new tactics with his coaching team (aka the FM Library Discord server tactics channel). And at home to Gifu, he decided it was time to unleash ChaosBall, which attempted to recreate Fernando Diniz’s ‘positionless’ approach, on Japanese football. He wasn’t expecting it to succeed, especially as none of his team could play as a Segundo Volante, Raumdeuter or False Nine. But, against all the odds, they dominated the game, won 2-0 and gave up fewer shots and less xG than any other game this season.
He tried it again at home to Kofu and got exactly the same result, preventing Kofu from even having a shot on target. And that moved Sanuki into playoff contention, trailing 6th-place Gifu by just one point. He stuck with the approach at leaders Mito, who were a little bit lucky to win 3-2 – but Sanuki confirmed the best league position in club history (previously 16th in J2).
Strangely, there was a six-week break before the final four league games. But Rasamu eventually celebrated his 100th game in management with a 2-1 win over relegation-threatened Kumamoto. A 2-1 defeat at Fukuoka probably killed off their playoff hopes and they wrapped up the season with a 4-3 loss at home to Nagasaki and a 3-2 win at Tochigi on the final day.
That saw huge relegation favourites Sanuki finish in an impressive 7th place on 59 points, just four behind 6th-place Gunma and only 10 off automatic promotion. He-Man was outstanding, finishing the campaign as the second-top scorer in J2 League with 19 goals in 32 games, while the impressive Kyoji Kutsuna got the second-most assists with 11.
Analysing Sanuki’s Overachievement
Sanuki’s attacking threat, having led them to an unexpected J3 League success, also proved too much for J2 League sides. They were the top scorers with 76 goals, three more than champions Okayama, and overachieved their xG by a league-high 12.84. They also had the 2nd-most shots per game (12.16), had the most high-intensity sprints (4,100) and won possession back more than any other team (3,426).
However, they also had defensive issues as only four of the bottom six conceded more than their 63 goals alongside a league-low of 5 clean sheets. Sanuki had the worst cross completion (11%), 3rd-worst pass completion (91%), gave up the most shots (443), completed the fewest passes (13,386 compared to Fukuoka’s high of 25,299) and gave up possession more times than any other team (3,841). They also only scored 8 goals from set pieces and conceded the most goals from corners (12).
All of that said, finishing 7th was a ridiculous overachievement given Sanuki had by far the lowest budget in J2 League. Their £1.02m annual salary was half the next lowest budget of Kumamoto (£2.13m) and four-times less than highest spending Nagasaki’s £4.85m.
He-Man topped Sanuki’s goalscoring chart with 19 in 32 followed by Minimino (15), Kutsuna (7) and winger Yoshiki Saito (6). Kutsuna and Saito got 11 assists followed by He-Man, Minamino and left-back Shin Won-Ho (6). While He-Man and Kutsuna were the outstanding performers with 7.23 and 7.20 average ratings respectively.
An Opportunity Too Good To Ignore
The last 12 months had been challenging at Sanuki as the £12m loan the board took out to build a new stadium had left the club “debt-ridden.” That situation worsened as an internal takeover saw the new chairperson unfairly give Rasamu the task of repairing the club’s financial situation. So Rasamu was very much keeping an eye on opportunities elsewhere.
One such opportunity arose at the start of the six-week long break as Niigata, who were relegated from J1 League last season and were J2 League favourites, sacked their manager with the side lingering in 9th place. They invited Rasamu for an interview that went well, swiftly asked him for his staff changes and wasted no time offering him the vacant role. And, with a slightly heavy heart at leaving Sanuki behind, Rasamu signed a £2.5k per week deal to take charge at the end of the 2025 season.
Rasamu leaves Sanuki with a 47% win percentage from 103 games. He won 49, drew 24 and lost 30 with his sides scoring 211 and conceding 158. But the move to Niigata will be a huge opportunity for Rasamu. He goes from a debt-ridden club where he’s spent a total of £3k in transfers and has a transfer budget of £289k going into the next season to one handing him a £15m transfer budget.
How much of a step-up in class will Rasamu inherit at Niigata? And can he lead a promotion charge at the second club on his Pentagon Pursuit? Join us on Friday to find out!
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