The Athletic: West Ham coaching style central to Japan success at World Cup
Japan are on the brink of reaching the World Cup knockout stage, and The Athletic explain how they were influenced heavily by West Ham.
Japan caused a huge upset this month after their remarkable 2-1 victory over Germany last week. They suffered a 1-0 defeat to Costa Rica in their second group match, but are still in with a chance of progressing when they face Spain on Thursday evening.
Should they upset the odds again and reach the knockout stages, Japan will be extremely thankful to West Ham for their input in the nation’s coaching tactics in recent years.
That’s because The Athletic have revealed how the Hammers have influenced Japanese coaching methods through former academy coach Terry Westley.
“They [J League organisers] wrote to Westley asking to come and look around West Ham. They knew about the reputation of the club’s academy and wanted to see it up close.
“What stood out to the Japanese technical team, and what they had not seen elsewhere, was West Ham’s commitment to individual development. At West Ham they had a plan for everyone, players and staff, and people were held accountable to those plans.
“The development of Declan Rice was a case in point. The Japanese team sensed that coaching in their country was too uniform, and they needed to do more specific work to develop players.
“The J League team were so impressed that they instituted a staff exchange with the West Ham academy, and then the London club sent an under-14 team over for a tournament.”
Bizarre
West Ham and Japan is certainly a duo that not many fans will have expected. But it seems the two have more in common than most think.
The club’s academy success was clearly something Japan wanted to explore, which is a huge credit to the work that goes on behind the scenes with the youth teams.
However, it also acts as a reminder to West Ham to utilise their fantastic youth facilities more. The academy has produced some fantastic young players in recent years but David Moyes has been unable to integrate them into the first team.
Sonny Perkins is a great example, with Leeds United signing him in the summer after he was starved of first-team football. Harrison Ashby looks set to be the next youngster to leave, with Claret & Hugh reporting that he could depart for Newcastle United in January.
Hopefully Japan’s success in Qatar kicks Moyes into paying more attention to the youth system that is producing fantastic young talents.