by @OnTheGas1999

Edu has departed for Jeonbuk in South Korea, and fellow striker Kazuma Watanabe, the scorer of 17 league goals in 2013, has also moved on, to Kobe, with the club putting a lot on the shoulders of the major ‘In’, incoming veteran Ryoichi Maeda, who moved from Jubilo Iwata after 15 seasons and 187 goals in over 450 appearances in all competitions.
Twice J1’s top scorer, and a national team fixture as recently as 2013, Maeda certainly has the pedigree, and FC Tokyo supporters will hope he has enough left in the tank to make the most of Yosuke Ota’s crosses and Hiroki Kawano’s incisive passes, and to compliment the exciting Yoshinori Muto as well as Edu did in 2014. Maeda is a big name in J1 circles, but once again Tokyo have failed to snag a real ‘splash signing’ – a player either in
midfield or attack who can win you games off his own boot – and will again put their faith in Japanese talent: the only foreign player in the squad is the Italian, fringe centre-back Michele Canini.
In defence, Takuji Yoshimoto’s emergence made another former Jubilo player, centre-back Kenichi Kaga, expendable, and he moved on to Urawa Reds, while two fan favourites, back-up goalkeeper
Hitoshi Shiota and fullback Kenta Mukuhara, both departed on permanent deals to relegated clubs, Shiota to Omiya Ardija, where it appears he will be stuck as a back-up again, and Mukuhara to Cerezo Osaka, where he played on loan in 2013.
FC Tokyo have spent large stretches of the past three seasons in, or on the fringes of, the top six, but have lacked consistency, and struggled to get results against the better sides in the league.
Strides were made in both areas in 2014 though, as their 14-game unbeaten run, and the fact they lost only twice against last year’s top five (W4 D4 L2), showed. If further improvement comes, the defence remains resilient, and further up the pitch if Muto can cut down on his magazine interviews and continue his development, with help from Kawano, Maeda and hopefully at least one of the speedy tricksters (Shoya Nakajima, Tasuku Hiraoka and
Wataru Sasaki) breaking through, then a top six finish is attainable.
Having said all that, while they have indeed threatened to break into the top six at times in the last three years, it’s clear from their end-of-season positions where Tokyo’s level is. With
no impact signing to freshen things up, yet another mid-table finish looks likely. The Gasmen drew as many games as they won in 2014 (12), and that failure to turn one point into three will probably be their Achilles heel yet again.