It only took 300 chapters of this soccer manga for the Goalkeepers to actually be relevant in some capacity. THAT'S 3 GAMES IN A ROW of Keepers blocking shots! Looks like Kaneshiro stole Gagamaru's "One save per game quota' and gave them to the enemy Goalkeepers.
His name is Goodman, one of England's defenders who comfortably blocked Shidou's shot. This guy is a grown man. WHY ARE YOU PLAYING AGAINST TEENAGERS 😭. All jokes aside, I already love this guy I can't believe Kaneshiro finally made a defender "defend" instead of the strikers and midfielders. This GUY IS GOING TO BE A PROBLEM.
Raichi has recently become one of my most disliked characters. The amount of glaze this guy gets is crazy. Yeah, he has good stamina, but that's it, EVERYONE has good stamina! People say he would lock up Onazi during the Nigeria match, only for him to stop him once with the help of Kurona. People say he would lock up Hugo, but he never even played against him. People say he would lock up Teddy because he did Aiku so dirty, but lo and behold, he didn't. 'Ai-can't defend,' 'One-feat wonder Niko,' and 'Aryu useless?' are all better defenders than he ever was."
This guy Hermes not only defended Rin for long stretches throughout the match he also prevented Barou from interfering in the last play and he did it ALONE! Shidou required Charles AND Leyden to be contained. Hugo trusted him enough to handle Barou on his own. This might be the best NPC defender in the series. 1000% better than Aiku. 😭
Charles not assisting Loki is BY FAR the worst part in this game. During halftime Loki asked Charles himself for passes and Charles agreed. THIS IS NOT CONTRARIAN Charles, there's no indicator that Charles was joking or playing around here. Loki asked and he agreed, but nothing came of it! In fact only THREE French players touched the ball in the second half (Loki, Hugo and Leyden) His entire development in the NEL was for him to become Loki's passer but they haven't had a chemical reaction.
These side characters are actually relevant for the first time in Blue Lock history 😔. I KNOW Kaneshiro is hiding their true power from us for the rematch. Leyden and Camus are definitely a confirmed duo with those Raijin and Fujin auras.
How the mighty have fallen....
Oliver Aiku is statistically and scientifically the worst performing player on the field (excluding Gagamaru). He has done NOTHING GOOD in this entire match, and has only conceded goals with his non-existent defense. If you don't believe me, you can compare his performance against France's Quartet of Bums: Gabin, Chapa, Delon, and Hermes. They all have done at least ONE positive feat for their team.
Delon: Successfully contained Rin in chapter 331, blocking the pass course to him.
Chapa: Locked Reo up in chapter 332.
Hermes: Closed off Hiori's shooting angle in chapter 336 along with Gabin
Gabin: Constant defensive instructions to his team and despite being dribbled past by so many Blue Lockers, at least he's trying to stay in front of them.
Aiku: Focused on Loki too much, which led to Charles scoring the first goal. He then failed to contain Charles again, allowing Hugo to use him as bait so Gagamaru couldn’t block the shot, leading to France's second goal. He was somehow too far away from Loki when Loki scored. He could’ve helped Aryu, Karasu, and Kunigami in the midfield, but he was stuck in no man’s land for some reason. An absolute disasterclass in defending.
These France NPCs can point to at LEAST ONE successful defensive contribution, while Blue Lock's best defender can’t.
In chapter 329 we see 4 confirmed players for the U-20 England Team who previously played for Manshine City and these are:
- Rooke (Goalkeeper)
- Busby
- Arthur
- Young
Although Agi isn't shown he's 100% will be playing in the match.
At least 5 players are recycled by Kaneshiro. Is he too lazy to come up with new characters? How did this team hold France to only 2 goals? Are you telling me Busby is better than Aiku? All of them were Yukimiya victims in the Manshine game. 😭
Rin is ineffective not because of his dependency on Isagi, but because he's been locked up by HERMES!!! The greatest off-screen NPC feat so far in Blue Lock. (Obviously joking here but I love giving these NPCs some feats so they seem more relevant 😭)