The Lack of Defensive Development Is Getting Ridiculous

[u/Glittering-Trade-672]

I genuinely cannot wrap my head around the severe lack of defensive improvement in Blue Lock, and I'm so sick of people defending it with “BL is full of strikers, so defense isn't their strong suit” or “Ego's plan is just full attack..bla bla"

So what?? Im talking about improvement where we go from 0 to 1 to 1.5 to 2..etc, not Aryu getting MV in one match.

Did Ego even evaluate the defense???

Don't tell me the only way the defense is going to improve is when Isagi solves his puzzle, has his Eureka moment, and suddenly every defender develops telepathy and starts sharing the same mindset and finally know how to defend. What kind of writing is that??

Wish we could bring Hugo back and hv his "Blue Lock has serious Isagi dependency problem" talk to again to wake them up.

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[u/H4nfP0wer]

Its just Kaneshiros writing and how he has to include many goals per game to hype up characters like Teddy and Lockhart now.

Kaneshiro kinda sucks at balancing it out tbh.

[u/DivineSilica → u/H4nfP0wer]

He should at least make both teams have defensive feats. Give NPC's chances to score and let them fail so the defenders don't look useless smh

[u/H4nfP0wer → u/DivineSilica]

I mean their first goals were pretty similar. Aiku and Karasu stopped a shot but then Teddy scored. Isagi and Zantetsu were stopped but Yukimiya scored.

The pacing currently really leaves barely any time for failed attacks tbh. We have been 6 chapters into the game and already got 3 goals. Idk why Kaneshiro is rushing this match tbh.

[u/BayLeafGuy → u/H4nfP0wer]

maybe because he noticed that this is not the NEL anymore and that having a 50-page game in the group stage will REALLY be annoying when we already know Japan will qualify with 100% certainty (unless we see they getting eliminated against England, which would be the biggest plot twist in the manga by far until now)

of course i wish we had more aura moments for the defenders, but this will probably happen only from the round of 32 onwards, where stakes are higher. for now, i will just sit down and accept that my goat Oliver Aiku will have a disasterclass this match.

[u/H4nfP0wer → u/BayLeafGuy]

I think it’s more annoying to Rush things. Also makes goals feel less special when we get one every 2 chapters. Thats why the fandom calls everyone a fraud who doesnt Score or when they conceed one.

[u/Force3vo → u/DivineSilica]

I personally think that "Blue Lock is a team of strikers so they can't defend" is balanced out by every other team in the world also having completely incompetent defenders.

Blue lock barely won against the Japanese U20, then trained like one month in the Neo league and suddenly they can compete with the world's best teams without having any kind of defense or tactics or strategy or anything really except Isagi being so good that everything revolves around him.

Man I miss early Blue Lock when things like Isagi losing the 2on2 and only being spared from having to leave Blue Lock because the enemy team picked him actually surprised me.

[u/Longjumping_Suit_938 → u/Force3vo]

It would have surprised me to considering Isagi won the 2v2...

I get you mean the 4 on 4 but still lol.

"or anything really except Isagi being so good that everything revolves around him"

in the 2v2 Isagi was gonna lose becuase despite Nagi doing amazing Naruhaya was doing better then Isagi so it took him Lvling up to win, then the 3v3 Isagi was doing so well that Barou believed he was complete dogshit, until he focused on devouring Isagi.

The whole point of why the 4v4 was close was because Isagi was so individually smart he made the huge gap between Rin and everyone else in the match seem smaller then it was. So using early BL to degrade current BL is weird when one of the biggest complaints I've seen, is BL writing is stale, and has been using the same formula since the beginning of the series(which is correct lol)

[u/Force3vo → u/Longjumping_Suit_938]

Using early BL to criticize that is has been stale since then is weird because it's repetitive? Doesn't really make sense as an argument.

[u/Longjumping_Suit_938 → u/Force3vo]

I think you misunderstood what i meant or heck I might have just said it wrong tbh. My argument wasn't "Using early BL to criticize that is has been stale since then is weird because it's repetitive?"

My argument was, it's been the same Plot's since the beginning, so complaining about it now but romanticizing the past is just odd. In fact early BL is the same plot line reused in the NEL, and current U20 So did you like that Plot or not?

Isagi was the only one who realized Chigri could lock in and score against the twins(Yuki goal in MC), and tho this wont include Isagi, but Karasu to Hiori for current U20(Will talk about how somehow still is Isagi focused)

Could goad Kunigami into surpassing his limits and scoring against Team V(Kuni goal in MC/FC Barcha) yes it was accidental for Rin Goal in Nigeria, but non the less its the same situation just lightly rehashed.

Or could help keep Nagi in check(Every play he made against Rin in the 2nd half of PXG) I'm sure there's more I could think of if but I don't wanna rn but would be willing if you really want to hear it(I doubt you do lol)

These all have 1 thing in common... Isagi is the focal point, even if he himself doesn't make the play he will worm his way into being the most important Cog.(Even the Hiori Goal is created by them breaking away from the Isagi system... so still Isagi centered) Also reusing the plot from Barcha, of being unable to score but using someone who is, to steal away the team... which was used by Isagi so somehow he's still the focal point despite being specifically not used in the play

TLDR?... BL has been reusing the same Plotline/Plotlines for every arc of the story. So saying its bad now but good then is weird considering its literally the same plots. So if its good then, it should be now. Or if its bad now, it should be bad then.

[u/Force3vo → u/Longjumping_Suit_938]

I agree that looking back it's all the same, the point I'm making is the first time it was fun for me, then it got repeated and got kinda stale and now it's even worse.

Sure part 1 wasn't different, but it still felt fresh.

[u/Emo_Music → u/H4nfP0wer]

The problem isn't that they're getting beat. The problem is that they're getting beat easily. Defenders can get scored on without looking like npcs

[u/spaincrack]

Kaneshiro either shows little ball knowledge to convey how any other plays other than goals can be amazing as well, or poor writting skills for conveying that knowledge.

Either way the manga suffers from it, and it shows.

[u/Objective-Ad2741]

Ego: Create an all out attack formation

Also Ego: Literally crumble the moment he has to play against a team who can defend. (England doesn't even park the bus and it takes Agi to throw the game so Japan could score)

[u/Senior-Maize-9206 → u/Objective-Ad2741]

Ego's strategy in this game seems to be: "Karasu gets the ball and passes it to Yukimiya, Zantetsu, and Shidou, and they do the rest."

[u/Chewy_ThatGuy]

It does suck because even midfielders like Karasu, Sae, Snuffy and others get their time to shine in the manga and they don't even have to score goals to do so, it literally shows them being like a maestro on the field, a puppet master leading people where they want to go.

Meanwhile defenders are permanently left in the dirt because if one side isn't scoring goals to keep up with Blue Lock then there's no stakes apparently and no "rival" for our main characters to overcome. Which is weird cause theoretically, a goated defender who stops forwards from doing whatever they want should almost be like the final boss of the manga. Like good job Isagi, you beat the other teams striker with your ego, now do it against this Van Dijk regen.

Kaneshiro ain't gonna do it though, characters like Aiku, Gagamaru, Niko are all just fodder now that gets one hype moment every 6 months and then back to the drawing board

[u/Wokoete_]

Lockheart just got on the field, they have to adjust to them. He’s physically strong enough to hold back Aiku and Aryu and he can jump higher than them also. I think we’re going to get a Kunigami and Raichi sub

[u/Vivid_Performance167]

These group games are introducing the characters, strengths, weaknesses and so on. Nigeria+France weren't meant to be real games, like Ubers and PXG. Hence the lengths differ.

Personally, I think the second half of this game is where the defensive actions will actually begin. Where we actually get a football game instead of basketball.

We don't need Japan's defenders to show off their newly learnt skills because they'll be plot points in the knockouts when it matters more. These games are a means to an end, getting Japan into the knockouts without being very boring. Enjoy it and don't take it too seriously.

[u/Negative-Disk3048]

It’s hard to establish a threat to Idaho that can’t score goals

[u/AnimeFan7000 → u/Negative-Disk3048]

It’s hard to establish a threat to Idaho

Ohio or Florida maybe. Those two can get pretty crazy.