Months before the World Cup, Sporting player left out by national team | OneFootball

Hidemasa Morita was left out of Japan's squad for the matches against Scotland and England on March 28 and 31, respectively. The squad list prepared by Hajime Moriyasu includes 28 players. The coach explained his absence.

"When we look at the options for the midfield, we have players like Daichi Kamada (Lazio), Kaishu Sano (Mainz), Ao Tanaka (Leeds), or Joel Fujita (St. Pauli), who compete in the top five European leagues and are in good physical condition", he said.

The coach also gave another reason. "In this stage, we chose to assess the overall balance of the squad and give room for competition. I consider that 28 names is the appropriate number for this stage. My goal is for as many players as possible to understand our concepts", he stated.

However, Hajime Moriyasu revealed that he counts on the 30-year-old player for future commitments and he is expected to be present at the World Cup. "Morita is a player who would not be out of place in the national team. We know he was a key player in the World Cup qualification. However, we need to promote internal competitiveness", he revealed.

The Japanese coach watched Sporting's thrashing of Bodo/Glimt and, consequently, Hidemasa Morita's performance. "Both my technical team and I follow Morita's performance game after game. Currently, he and Hiroki Ito (Bayern Munich) are the only Japanese players still in the Champions League. We saw Morita play about 70 minutes against Bodo/Glimt. We are fully aware of his performance and that he plays in a good team", he expressed.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇵🇹 here.