Blue Lock Chapter 153 Discussion

Gardefusilier said:
Ok I legit disappointed with how Ego just absorbed the former U-20 players. Blue lock used to be a zero sum game for high school kids chosen from the entire HS of Japan and sacrificing them outright from the start, now he just accepted them nilly-willy and throw them out to Blue Lock's new advanced stage? Granted they were the former U-20 team but they are not even exposed to the initial harsh Blue Lock environment yet and he just accepted them?

This manga became tame as it goes and I don't like it. Remember at the start of the match with U-20 arc it was clearly said that Blue Lock will 'REPLACE' the U-20 team, not merge.

The U-20 defender at least are worth their salt, but the rest of the players in other position? Nah. Even if they were used to fulfill other roles than Forward the entire goal of Blue Lock is still for looking for that one Forward, and Blue Lock's current setup is still better anyway.

J3_Omega said:
While I agree that the U-20 weren't exposed to the initial Blue Lock environment, you have to consider that these are already world class players who were able to stand toe-to-toe with Blue Lock after their training at Blue Lock. That is to say, while they trained in an environment outside of Blue Lock, they still are at a level equal to that of most Blue Lock players post phase one.

On top of that, you have to also consider that the U-20 is also a part of Japan's youth who weren't given a chance to enter Blue Lock at the time of its conception. Excluding them when they've proven they can contend with the best at Blue Lock and couldn't join because they were already competing at the world level when Blue Lock formed would be wasteful and foolish of Ego, who's already been shown to make these kinds of exceptions for the betterment of Blue Lock by allowing Kunigami to continue in Blue Lock after his loss against Shidou, so it's not unreasonable that he would give world class Japanese players a chance to prove themselves in the environment of Blue Lock at the current phase, since they've proven themselves to be as good as the post phase one players at Blue Lock, as well as being necessary to boost the defense of Blue Lock for the upcoming world stage, and that's ultimately what Ego is doing.

As the number of players decrease while looking for the best striker, he's also looking for the most optimal team in terms of both defense and offense, so excluding U-20 when it's been proven to have an incredible defense would be counterintuitive to creating the most optimal team. As much as I love the defensive line of Aryu, Niko, and Gagamaru, that defense, and the 4-5-1 formation in general, wouldn't be enough against world class players, which was proven by Sae and Shidou crushing them in the second half and Blue Lock needing substitutions and their lead striker playing defense in order to keep up.

All this to say, you're completely in your right to be disappointed that the U-20 was allowed to join Blue Lock, but at the same time, it does make sense in terms of optimizing Blue Lock and would be wasteful to exclude them when they've already proven to be at a level akin to that of post phase one Blue Lock players and with the number of strikers continuing to fall. That, and discarding really interesting and developed characters after one game would be wasteful of the manga's creator in my opinion.

Gardefusilier said:
The thing about former U-20 members is, only the defenders that are worth including since they can stand toe and toe with Blue Lock. If it's not for Isagi Sae and Shidou, they lack any offensive capabilities to actually threaten BL team since their original Midfielders and Forwards are sub par in comparison. It's hardly a match imo, and it kinda gives me the impression the rest of the regular from U-20 team better off to act as support rather than to brought into the team.

However If Blue Lock is invented before Aiku joined the U-20 team, I agree with you, I'm sure as hell he will join it since he did say he used to play as strikers. It doesn't explain why other sub-par players in other positions that are not part of Defender quad can join in tho, Blue Lock used to be tight about these things and how easily they can discard someone. These sub-par players I mentioned barely showed anything, not yet exposed to how Blue Lock's environment worked, yet they are already given the chance to go abroad to the advanced phase of Blue Lock, that's one hell of an easy ticket.

I disagree on your last two paragraphs too, what makes Blue Lock special is their focus on offense while maintaining defense to the minimum as it's not the priority, it's done to such extent that Ego briefed them to win by attrition knowing all his players had striker mindset. It's okay to lose 3 goals as long as you can score 4, and this fits well with the overall premise of the manga since they are also still searching for combos and striving for creating the perfect striker. All out offensive team has better environment to allow this to happen and we did see how Isagi & Rin grows out of it. Adding a mix of people from U-20 that already has their own specialized roles will only diminish that magic.