On the 1st of this month, Shimizu S-Pulse lost 0-1 against Ventforet Kofu in the 7th round of the Meiji Yasuda J1 League. While it is reported that Ze Ricardo may be dismissed as the manager of J2 because he has not won 7 games since the opening of J2, there are voices on the Internet who want coach Tadahiro Akiba to take over as commander.
Shimizu finished 17th in the J1 league last season and was relegated to J2. Aiming to return to J1 in a year, after five consecutive games from the opening of J2 ended in draws, they lost 1-3 to Thespakusatsu Gunma on the 29th of last month. And in the match against Kofu, when he struggled to attack in front of the opponent’s solid defense from the first half, he was defeated 0-1 by midfielder Genki Hasegawa due to the loss of the ball in his own half in the 37th minute of the second half.
Due to the failure of this opening dash, the possibility of dismissal of Director Ze Ricardo emerged. Then, on Twitter, “Mr. Akiba should be my successor,” “I would like Akiba to be the manager, not a foreigner,” and “I think Akiba will return to a team that can compete for promotion.” Arguments erupted.
There are also voices saying, “Shimizu envisioned such a situation and let Akiba join the cabinet,” and “It is possible that Ze Ricardo will pass the baton to Akiba.”
Such Akiba coach was in charge of Mito Hollyhock until last season. When he was manager Mito, he made many famous quotes such as “This is Football” and “Nothing. This is the worst game of the season!” ‘, and ‘I want to hear Akihabetsu again this year’.
In addition, general manager Kiyoshi Okuma (GM) has also been criticized for the slump so far this season. Severe voices have been raised, such as “Mr. Okuma should take responsibility”, “Mr. Okuma has been too harsh since he became GM”, and “GM Okuma is the number one factor in Shimizu’s slump.”
Shimizu finished in 19th place with 2 draws and 5 losses. As they are 11 points behind leaders Tokyo Verdy, they are required to rebuild their team as soon as possible.