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The story
Leeds United announced on September 6 that midfielder Ao Tanaka has been named “Hisense Player of the Match” for the previous day’s Premier League Matchday 3 fixture against Brighton. Tanaka captured 63% of the fan vote, well clear of runner-up Tarik Muharemović (9%), goalkeeper James Trafford (8%), and goalscorer Jaden Bogle (7%). Reaction threads on 5channel were mostly full of praise, but some posters pointed out that local reporters’ match ratings had Tanaka tied for the lowest score on the pitch, splitting opinion and reigniting debate over the offside call that wiped out one of his goals.
Leeds United’s Japan international midfielder Ao Tanaka has received overwhelming support from the club’s fans.
On September 6, Leeds announced the “Hisense Player of the Match” for the previous day’s Premier League Matchday 3 game against Brighton. Tanaka took 63% of the fan vote to claim the award.
Runner-up Tarik Muharemović took 9%, goalkeeper James Trafford took 8%, and goalscorer Jaden Bogle took 7%. Tanaka finished far ahead of the rest of the field, earning high praise from supporters.
Source: sportingnews.com / Original article here
What people said
Stop spreading fake news
He barely ever gets the lowest rating
Don't be jealous just because Tanaka's doing well in the Premier League
Sano's in the Bundesliga, the 'farmers' league' (a dismissive nickname implying it's a weaker league)
Tanaka's in the Premier League, the strongest league in the world — totally different level
Fanboys like you are no different from the haters deep down
This is the correct take Re: #38
Don't come into a Tanaka thread to plug Sano, he's got nothing to do with this
Don't lump them together, the league levels are completely different
Even Doan doesn't get this much buzz just for a Bundesliga assist
Thought it was just about foot position
Anyway I still think Calvert-Lewin should've been MOM
The attack doesn't function without that guy
Calvert-Lewin himself said in an interview that once Tanaka came on, he started running the game, the flow changed, the team could attack, and that's how the goal happened
Calling it offside when he wasn't even playing the ball with his hand makes zero sense
His leg wasn't even out
That's discrimination against Asian players
So frustrating that Tanaka's goal got disallowed
Isn't his shoulder clearly out though?
Scoring against big clubs like Chelsea and Liverpool, running riot against Man United, and now MOM
Ao Tanaka's stock is rising again ✌🐶✨
https://imgur.com/aNY34Af.gif
https://x.com/goaljp_official/status/1996325046533726647
Ao Tanaka, woof-tastic MOM performance, going off 🥰
Overwhelming, isn't he — our squad ✌🐶🐦🔥✨
Woof woof woof woof~ 😍
Endo and Mitoma both ran out of gas, but Tanaka made it to the World Cup — when it comes to managing his condition, he's one of the most capable players on the national team
Seriously, Tanaka is way too underrated
Everyone else is falling apart in the Premier League
Meanwhile Tanaka's winning MOM and scoring multiple goals against top clubs, that deserves way more credit
He's doing things other Japanese players haven't managed
That's more fake news from the haters
Even before the World Cup, Tanaka was playing great, scoring goals, starting consistently with the best win rate on the team, and helping keep Leeds up in the Premier League
Other players give the ball away and make mistakes way more often than he does
The haters are just jealous, spreading fake news to build a bad image and run a smear campaign
Ignoring his defensive and attacking contributions, ignoring everyone else's mistakes, working overtime on the smear campaign — pathetic, jealous haters
Lol, some amateur who doesn't even know they play different positions is hating on Tanaka
Sou Tanaka's a No. 6, so it's Kaishu Sano whose position actually overlaps with him
If anything, an Ao Tanaka + Sou Tanaka double-pivot midfield ('W-Tanaka') is more realistic
He only got blamed because the players around him were bad — this match proves that when the players around him are competent, he links up play just fine
Anyone still calling him a scapegoat is an uninformed amateur just jumping on the bandwagon
The real culprit for the Brazil loss is manager Moriyasu and his bizarre tactics, above everything else
Then there's Sugawara losing his mark, Machino standing around doing nothing, Sano losing almost every duel while being involved in all four conceded goals, and Junnosuke Suzuki not dropping to receive the ball
On top of that, they should've attacked more while the starters were still on but couldn't find a goal
Japan has only ever beaten Brazil in matches where they scored three goals, so winning with just one was never realistic to begin with. Don't underestimate Brazil
It's the opposite
Tanaka's actually really good, the haters are just running him down and underrating him with their smear campaign
How many players are putting up results like Tanaka's in the Premier League?
Honestly it's probably just Mitoma and Tanaka
141 Name Withheld — Non-Discussion OK 2026/09/07(Mon) 16:34:48.15 ID:mZCeM+6h
Brighton completely dominated that match
Official Premier League MVP went to Vuskovic, with the FA's official MVP going to Dunk by a narrow margin over him
Official match ratings had Tanaka tied for 7th-best on the pitch
The local beat reporter's ratings had Tanaka tied for the worst
Reminds me of when Kubo won the fan-voted MOM even though Sociedad lost
Official Premier League MVP went to Vuskovic, with the FA's official MVP going to Dunk by a narrow margin over him
Official match ratings had Tanaka tied for 7th-best on the pitch
The local beat reporter's ratings had Tanaka tied for the worst
Reminds me of when Kubo won the fan-voted MOM even though Sociedad lost
Why do you have to post basically the same thing at this perfect timing, lol
Re: #80
The Tanaka haters clearly didn't watch the match at all and are just spreading fake news, lol
Thanks to Tanaka, the team could actually attack against a tough opponent
Without Tanaka it's a completely different story — even last time, they got beaten during the stretch when Tanaka was off the pitch
Yeah, this is the correct take
No point trying to spin the narrative
You need to be named one of the Premier League's five best players of a season like Kamada was to lock down a regular starting spot
Even Sugawara made a Team of the Week
Tanaka's never made one in the Premier League
Can't trust the CG (the computer-generated offside line graphic)
Doesn't look like they've shown the actual photo
I watched the match live and it was clearly, completely offside
Everyone in the stadium, players included, knew it was offside
No way that's true
Leeds fans themselves keep saying stuff like 'you play the ball with your feet, so why does a hand being out make it offside?'
I was following the live-commentary thread and nobody was saying it was onside
Everyone agreed it was offside
[U-NEXT] Premier League General Thread ★9
https://rio2016.5ch.io/test/read.cgi/livefoot/1788551268
Not even a sliver of a case for onside
Even the players' reaction was basically 'yeah, fair enough, offside'
Background and Points of Debate
The “Hisense Player of the Match” is a fan-voted award the club hands out after each game, which is a separate thing from the ratings assigned by local reporters and data sites using their own criteria (official match ratings, beat-reporter ratings). It’s not unusual for the two to diverge, and this time the split between Tanaka’s overwhelming 63% fan-vote win and a tied-for-worst score from local beat reporters is exactly what fueled the disagreement in the thread. Fan votes tend to be swayed by popularity and overall impression of a player’s game, while ratings tend to weigh the precision of individual plays more heavily, so calling the result either “underrated” or “overrated” based on just one metric alone would be premature. As for the offside call, current rules can in some cases treat the position of the hands or arms as part of the offside criteria, which can clash with the more traditional, intuitive idea that only foot position matters. That gap in how well understood the rule is seems to be part of why the disallowed goal sparked so much debate.
※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5channel (Geinou/Sports News+) thread “[Soccer] Leeds’ Ao Tanaka Wins MOM With a Stunning 63% of the Vote — Drove Both Ends of the Pitch With an Opening Assist and a Crossbar Strike.”
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