Yoshida has given a pre-Stoke press conference on Player. He speaks very good English...talks about the physicality of Stoke and it being a tough game. He puts the improvement in defence down to continuity...a settled back four. Speaks highly of Luke and says he gets better every day. Talks about impact of Cork saying how calm he is and how he helps out in defence. When asked if Southampton is better known in Japan now, he says yes...it's now himself, Chung and the Titanic. He was asked directly about if Tadanari is good enough for the PL...very long pause...and started talking about needing to be tough. He said he hurts after each game, but the medical staff are good. Then mentioned competition for places in Lee's position. Think he was implying that Lee may lack physical strength and finds it hard to get a place ahead of the other strikers. Mentioned lack of Japanese restaurants in Southampton and he and Lee meet up with other Japanese players in London...says there is a decent restaurant in Winchester. Says life is good here but weather is awful...with you there, Maya.
Dont know what Yoshida is on about regarding weather - in the winter in Japan you can get severe weather. I have seen it icy cold and blowing a hoolie in the inland sea, freezing bloody weather ! He played in Holland before coming here i believe, and it isnt a bunch of roses ( or tulips ) there in the winter months either. Still i like the lad as a player so will forgive his forgetfulness if he keeps Stoke at bay on Saturday !
Did you know, Mt Fuji in Japanese is Fujisan Also, it depends where abouts in Japan you're talking about. I'd imagine the climate in Kyushu (which I think is the northern most of the main islands) is very different to Hokkaido (the island Tokyo is on, I believe.... don't quote my on that though).
No, didnt know that Lapras San so thanks for the info - no joking you do learn a lot on this site. Regarding weather in Japan - of course it does depend which part of the country you are in, much as here in the UK the weather in Southampton is not the same as it is in Shetland Is. Japan is roughly similar in size to the UK. You are getting your Japanese isalnds mixed up though - Kyushu is the southernmost island, Tokyo is on Honshu and Hokkaido is the most northern island, and the weather up there can be really cold in winter. It a misconception to think that we are the only country in the world that gets bad weather, far from it !
Yeah, I knew the names, I just couldn't recall which one was which. Also it might not be a small country, but it's a lot, er, longer than the UK. It goes from about 45 degrees to 20 degrees, so that's bound to have quite an effect on the climate while the UK is apparently 61 degrees to 49 degrees (I checked Wikipedia for that) so the difference between North Japan and South Japan is gonna be greater than the difference between northern Scotland and the Isle of Wight. But yeah, I can imagine it must get really cold (hence why I mentioned Mt Fuji, because it's a mountain and mountains are cold in the winter? It made sense to me at least).
I did say roughly similar, as it is when you are steaming up the coast from one port to another. I only know about the weather as i have been to Japan many times on ships and it can be very cold and stormy in winter, even in the more southern ports - thats from dmanpedia !
Thought Maya's press conference was more interesting than most. Seems a nice bloke in to the bargain. We seem to sign good characters.
He and Fonte are forming a decent pairing for me but there are still some people who dont seem to rate him .People need to understand that this is the Premier league and given the pace and quality of the opponents week to week errors will occur but we look pretty solid nowadays and this has coincided with Yoshida settling in and Cork coming in to the midfield.I like him.
Maya says consistency is the key to the improvement in defence and I think he is young enough to only get better playing every week in the PL.
