As of ch. 345
🇯🇵CB Oliver Aiku. In the beginning of the game Aiku, Aryu and Niko were involved in the worst play of the game, the three of them made an unbelievable mistake of covering Loki 3v1 while being cramped in a one square meter area, all while the player in question (Loki) didn't even have possession. All three also didn't notice Charles coming. And even if Charles wasn't there this would still be a mistake leading to a goal as they left the entire penalty box empty, a simple back pass to anyone from Loki would've resulted in a chance. This was not just a mistake that directly lead to a goal but an unbelievably bad play on multiple levels. All three were concious of this decision and thus can be equally blamed. Talking specifically about Aiku - unlike the other two cb's Aiku did nothing for the rest of the game. The only good thing from him? Ending the argument between Isagi and Karasu, kind of, I'm really trying hard to find something good to say about him.
🇯🇵CB Jyubei Aryu. Same as above, but Aryu did collect Kunigami's cleared ball and started a counter. But he also didn't even try to stop Leyden's shot/pass. Overall an Aiku level performance but a bit better.
🇯🇵CB Ikki Niko. Same as Aiku, but Niko did intercept a pass from Hugo directed at Loki which the former called impressive. Narratively you can make an argument that Niko was the worst of the three since he got subbed off but there could be other reasons for that so we have to give him the benefit of the doubt as what we saw from him was definitively better than what Aryu had going. It should be noted that playing for a single half meant that Niko had less moments to shine but also less moments to make mistakes.
🇫🇷DM Bats. If you skimmed the game you could've made an assumption that there's no way Bats was the worst player for France as we had many large panels with him. Going by feats however Bats is unbelievably bad. First of all we have the abysmal antifeat of him marking Karasu together with Gabin, thus leaving Hiori open. If this wasn't bad enough they also were somehow being overpowered by him. This happened over many panels meaning some time had passed and they still weren't able to overpower Karasu who was in an unstable squatting stance. Later we see the same scenario with Karasu play out again where Bats wasn't able to do anything even though this time he also had prior experience of this. Throughout the game Bats is shown charging at the opposition time and time again. This tactic proved to not work out at all. Almost always when he is on panel he is shown to fail in whatever he is up to. Bats seems to be a player that relies on his work rate and stamina to chase the player with possession but honestly judging from what we've seen from him he'd rather hold his position instead as every unsuccessful pressing attempt leaves the midfield wide open. All of this is not as bad as the Japan center backs whose mistake that lead to a goal was completely amateurish, in the case of Bats his mistakes were less embarassing. I believe Bats as a player is better than anyone in the France backline, at least that seems to be the authors intention, but in this particular game his showings were of a player that shouldn't even be on the team.
🇫🇷CB Gabin. Just like Bats he tried to stop Karasu in the same stupid way and just like Bats failed to achieve anything, he places above Bats since he didn't try to attempt that play twice. Other than that Gabin had no positive highlights whatsoever and he was being shown dribbled past an absurd amount of times.
🇫🇷LB Chapa. In the first Karasu's play with his back towards the goal it was Bats and Gabin, during the second time it was Bats and Chapa, arguably this is just as bad for Chapa as it is for Gabin but in the rest of the game Chapa had way less antifeats than Gabin, who was getting humiliated and was unable to mark or catch up to players way more often.
🇫🇷CB Hermés. Hermés was the player who appeared the least in the highlights. He hasn't got a single good play but his only antifeat is getting dribbled past by Barou. It could be derived that he played a solid game since he isn't shown having other errors but he didn't do anything impressive either.
🇯🇵GK Gin Gagamaru. Gagamaru and Hermés are very similar, all the goals from France were implied to be impressive and you can't expect a gk to routinely save them. Him being unable to read through Leyden's play thinking it was a pass at first, then thinking it was a shot and finally realizing that it's a pass isn't a particularly bad feat as that play was genuinely impossible to read. I have Gagamaru above Hermés since goalkeepers are less involved in the play, are given less opportunities to shine and because Hermes made one mistake.
🇫🇷RB Delon. Delon successfuly covered Rin in the beggining of the game but was successfully dribbled past later. The dribbles were shown to be impressive plays from Japan though. As he was shown giving trouble to Japan on panel he places above the two players who "did nothing".
🇫🇷RW Camus. I initially expected to place him much higher but apparently the only good thing he did was not getting dribbled past by Bachira. Though denying Bachira is very impressive it's not as useful as you might think as you can simply pass to advance the ball instead of dribbling, which Bachira did. And he was dribbled by later by Hiori, Karasu. He couldn't deny Hiori once again and Shidou as well. Apparently he's just good against Bachira since he studied him. And the play with him and Leyden going inside to act as decoys for Hugo was exactly that, him just being there.
🇯🇵AM/RB Reo Mikage. Reo gave a dangerous headed pass in the penalty box and managed to get to a wide open position to get the ball in the penalty box, this had more impact than Camus just marking Bachira. Reo also played for 15 minutes less which doesn't sound much but is 1/6th of a game time less to do something.
🇯🇵AM Meguru Bachira. Bachira did find a wide open Reo during the corner play. He played for 45 minutes versus the 75 Reo had but their contribution wasn't that different, this places Bachira above Reo.
🇯🇵RB Hyoma Chigiri. Chigiri delivered a good cross and managed to slow down Loki during the counter. It is also narratively implied that Chigiri gave Leyden trouble as Leyden had way more freedom in the second half with Reo as a RB and nobody on Japan being fast enough to cover him. I'm not counting this for the ranking as it is headcanon. Chigiri played for one half just like Bachira with a similar performance but unlike Bachira he did contribute defensively in an important situation.
🇯🇵RB Eita Otoya. Just in 15 minutes he dribbled past Gabin, managed to get in a dangerous position and had a shot while also participating in the build up for the ongoing play. Even though he did little, Chigiri and Bachira were on the pitch for triple his time and didn't do that much more during that time.
🇯🇵ST/AM Yoichi Isagi. Isagi's main play was the shot he made that was saved by Renoir. Narratively Isagi made a mistake and should've made a pass to Rin. Realistically taking the shot wasn't a large inaccuracy. The shot was on target but not great. Isagi was being dribbled by and dribbling past other players roughly the same amount of time. Isagi places higher than Otoya since the latter didn't have any truly dangerous moments since Otoya's shot wasn't shown to be on target.
🇯🇵ST Rin Itoshi. Rin had a shot at the start of the game which was blocked by Hugo. It was told that the shot would've been on target if not for Hugo. In the Isagi chance he was open and could've had a shot if Isagi had passed which is a good off the ball feat. Other than that Rin didn't do much. He was getting dribbled by and dribbling through other players roughly the same amount of time. Very similar game to Isagi but slightly better.
🇯🇵RW Ryusei Shidou. Shidou's contribution is dribbling past two, then running past Gabin and dueling Loki which left Barou open. If Barou wasn't there Shidou himself states that the situation was a 50/50, and if he won the said 50/50 it wouldn't have been a goal, just a chance. Shidou has played just for 45 minutes. Extrapolating his performance over two halves this is way more impactful than Rin and Isagi as his play did eventually result in a goal.
🇯🇵DM Rensuke Kunigami. Kunigami cleared an extremely dangerous ball with a header, the ball also landed in Aryu's legs creating a counter attack, though I have little belief it was a precision pass but more of a lucky coincidence. He did nothing else of relevance on panel though but this still is better than Shidou as the ball he cleared posed a bigger threat than Shidou's run. As everyone else except the defenders were making contributions in the attacking third and Kunigami was subbed in to defend against counters it could be derived that he did contribute like when he was covering Hugo. Though the last is headcanon and I'm not counting that.
🇫🇷GK Renoir. The goals Renoir conceded were all implied to be bangers. But he did save a shot. The shot wasn't Isagi's best but the commentators thought it was still going in. So basically Renoir made the score on the table not go up. This is very good as goalkeepers rarely get opportunities to shine in real life and aren't much involved in the play so each impressive save counts. His impact was more tangible than Kunigami's since if Kunigami didn't clear the ball Japan wouldn't neccessarily concede. If Renoir didn't save, the ball was going in.
🇫🇷LW Leyden. Leyden did dribble past Isagi, make a phenomenal shot/pass (it is unclear what the intention was) skipping through another 6 Japanese players and according to Gagamaru it was perfectly aimed for the top corner, he basically almost scored/assisted Loki from outside the box. If the intention was a pass and getting the ball wasn't just an improv idea by Loki then it is even better as this completely threw off Gagamaru. When he did shut down Chigiri the latter was still able to make a pass eventually, Leyden was also involved in the decoy play with Camus. He is shown to have stamina problems, being confused and was shown being dribbled past. Leyden's shot was way more impressive than Isagi's, the denial of which happens to be the sole reason Renoir is rated this high, this places Leyden comfortably above him especially since he has other feats as well.
🇫🇷AM Charles Chevalier. He did score, but wasn't involved in the build up of the goal. He did cover Isagi during Isagi's shot affecting the shot quality. And he technically has an assist, but an unimpressive one with a simple open pass and it resulted in more of a Hugo solo goal anyway. Unlike Leyden, Charles' contribution was tangible.
🇯🇵LB Yo Hiori. Hiori did score and help in the build up for his goal but in the ongoing play Hiori wasted time and potentially ruined Japan's attack. His shot on target was extremely accurate as he managed to aim right at Karasu's head. Unlike Charles Hiori helped to make his chance possible, Charles just did the finish and everything else Charles did wasn't as important to overtake Hiori in the ranking.
🇯🇵LW Shoei Barou. Barou scored while being on the pitch for just a single half. He wasn't marked during his chance which is a good feat for him as this implies great off the ball movements or speed or overpowering a marker. He also had dribbles throughout the game. He's done almost as much as Hiori in half the time.
🇯🇵DM Tabito Karasu. Surprisingly he didn't do much in this game apart from the big higlights and talking. He was invisible on defense. But the chance he created was truly outstanding, the goal he created came out of thin air and was made up from multiple plays each of which were exceptional on their own. Later in the game he managed to pull off a similar feat again. And he made a pass to Shidou that got past 5 players which ended up in a goal a few sequences later that was also eventually assisted by him.
🇫🇷ST Julien Loki. He scored. He made Charles score by acting as a decoy. He was about to receive a potentially very dangerous pass if not for Niko in one case and Kunigami in the other. His speed was shown being a major problem that Japan wasn't able to deal with on defence, denying Hiori's, Shidou's and Otoya's chances. Loki is easily better than Karasu especially considering Loki's defensive contributions, of which Karasu had none.
🇫🇷CM Vivian Hugo. He was everpresent with major contributions for every goal and major contributions for defence. He did awaken Karasu though, who knows how the game would've played out if this wasn't the case. Regardless he's #1. I've tried to think for arguments that would make him worse than Loki in this game but couldn't.