World Cup 2018: Top 10 Managers of the tournament

#8 Akira Nishino

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Perhaps if the fair-play rule was not in place, Aliou Cisse would have been in this spot instead of Akira Nishino. However, in the end, Japan made the knockout stages and impressed against Belgium, propelling Nishino to this spot.

Japan’s first and last games were arguably Japan’s best performances and Nishino’s tactics in both of those games were superb.

In Japan’s first encounter against Colombia, the Asian nation was considered underdogs against one of the best teams in the competition. Nishino intelligently set up a 4-2-3-1 with two pure defensive midfielders thus reducing the impact of Colombia’s attacking midfielder Juan Quintero.

The attack was also well balanced with an orchestrator in Shinji Kagawa and three extremely quick players in Genki Haraguchi, Takashi Inui and Yuyo Osako.

Such tactics were vindicated when Osako punished Colombia on the counter, earning a penalty and a red card for Carlos Sanchez- a numerical advantage that eventually decided the game.

Nishino played the same formation in the Round of 16 game against Belgium where the Blue Samurai were magnificent on the counter, jumping to a 2-0 lead.

While Japan eventually collapsed, the fact that there were so close to a brilliant upset shows Nishino’s tactical acumen.

What prevents Nishino from being much higher in this list was his complacency in Japan’s last group game against Poland.

Nishino decided to change his lineup, resulting in an embarrassing defeat to Poland which almost knocked Japan out of the tournament (the aforementioned fair-play rule saved them).