Mao Hosoya is a 23-year-old Japanese striker who plays for Kashiwa Reysol in the J-League. Hosoya has been a J-League regular since 2021 and has made 6 appearances for the senior Japanese national team.
The main thing that makes Hosoya attractive, in my view, is his physical traits. He’s very quick and is physically robust despite being listed as 5’ 8 (1.78M). Hosoya’s speed makes him a threat for balls in behind and his strength means he can usually shrug defenders off. However, these strengths are severely undercut by the areas Hosoya tends to receive the ball. He’s almost never receiving the ball in the box, and that’s a problem for a striker. Part of this is down to Kashiwa’s inability to break down defences but Hosoya’s movement patterns betray a lack of centre-forward instincts. This would be ok if he were more efficient with the ball at his feet, but he isn’t.
Hosoya is quite good at using his body to shield the ball and draw fouls but this is more or less the extent of his on-the-ball ability. When he receives the ball in wide or deeper areas he doesn’t have the dribbling ability to move the ball into more dangerous scoring areas. His limited ability on the dribble also means that if he receives the ball in the box but with a defender to beat he cannot turn that situation into a shot with enough consistency. It takes him painfully long to get the ball out of his feet. His passing is a little bit inconsistent, often giving his teammates too much work to do. This means that, unless Hosoya is being played in behind the defence his ability to get dangerous chances for himself is extremely limited.
Hosoya’s speed does make him a reasonably effective presser. He can close players down quickly when called to do so (Kashiwa does not press very much) but he is dribbled around or bypassed fairly easily.
I think Hosoya might have a little bit more offensive juice if he were on a stronger team relative to the league. However, I see very little potential to play higher than the J-League.
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